LIVE. “Already 700,000 Ukrainian children brought to Russia” – Russian troops advance: “Fierce fighting everywhere” | War Ukraine and Russia

Russia has some 700,000 children from the conflict areas in Ukraine brought to Russian territory. Grigory Karasin, the head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, said on Sunday.

“In recent years, 700,000 children have sought refuge with us, fleeing bombing and shelling from the conflict zones of Ukraine,” Karasin wrote on his Telegram messaging channel.

Moscow says the program to bring children from Ukraine to Russian territory, is intended to protect orphans and children left behind in the conflict zone. However, Ukraine says so those children have been illegally deported. Thousands of children have been forcibly removed from their homes, according to the United States.

Most of the human traffic took place just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, and before Ukraine launched its major counter-offensive in late August to retake occupied territories to the east and south.

In July 2022 the United States estimates that Russia had “forcibly deported” 260,000 childrenwhile the Ukrainian Ministry of Integration of Occupied Territories says 19,492 Ukrainian children are known to have been brought to Russia illegally.

There will be no new mobilization to replace the mercenaries of the Wagner paramilitary group who are no longer fighting in Ukraine. The head of the Defense Committee of the Russian parliament told the state news agency TASS.

“The President of the Russian Federation (Vladimir Putin, ed.) has said clearly and in an understandable and specific way that there would be no new mobilization,” said Andrei Kartapalov, chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

According to the former military commander, there is “no threat of a reduction in combat potential” in the medium and long term and Moscow has the manpower to replace the Wagnerians within the Russian army, he explained to TASS.

Gennady Gatilov, dThe Russian envoy to the United Nations in Geneva says there is no reason to maintain the “status quo” of the Black Sea grain agreement, which expires on July 18. This is reported by the Reuters news agency based on an interview with Gatilov the Russian news center ‘Izvestia’.

“Russia has repeatedly extended the deal in the hope of positive changes,” Gatilov told Izvestia. “However, what we are seeing now gives us no reason to agree to maintain the status quo.”

According to Gatilov, the implementation of the Russian conditions for the extension of the agreement – including the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT bank payment system – is being carried out. postponed.

The Black Sea Agreement, negotiated in July 2022 between Russia and Ukraine and brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, aimed to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain trapped in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion , can be safely exported from Black Sea ports.

Last week, the UN expressed concern as no new ships have been registered under the Black Sea Agreement since June 26, despite applications from 29 ships.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense shares a special video on the official social media channels. On the tones of Madonna’s hit ‘Holiday’ you can see fragments from films with happy, dancing and surfing people. But the carelessness turns into a nightmare.

Russian troops advance in four frontline areas in eastern Ukraine. That says Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar. The Russians would make progress in Avdijivka, Marijinka, Lyman and Svatove regions. “Fighting is fierce everywhere,” Maljar writes on social media. “The situation is quite complicated.”

At the same time, according to Maljar, Ukrainian troops are advancing elsewhere in the east with “partial success”. This applies, among other things, to the southern flank of Bachmoet. In the south of the country, near Berdiansk and Melitopol, Ukrainian troops are said to be advancing “gradually”. This despite “fierce enemy resistance”, according to the deputy minister.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky visited the port city of Odesa on Sunday. He encouraged wounded soldiers in a hospital there and emphasized in a video message that the “Ukrainian coasts will never tolerate these occupiers”.

Poland is to deploy additional police officers on its border with Belarus to increase security in response to plans by Russia’s mercenary army Wagner to set up a base there. This was reported by Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski on Sunday.

The 500 additional police officers, including members of the anti-terror unit, will support 500 border guards and 2,000 soldiers stationed at the border with Poland’s eastern neighbours.

Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is responsible for security issues, recently announced that more troops would be deployed and that the border would be reinforced.

According to Kaczynski, Poland has learned that up to 8,000 Wagner fighters could be housed in Belarus. Poland shares a 418 kilometer border with Russia’s ally.

After last weekend’s failed mutiny, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin announced he would set up camp in Belarus after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko offered him and his mercenary army a safe haven.