Ukraine is seeking international help to repatriate thousands of children who Kiev says have been kidnapped to Russia. There are at least 11,000 children whose names are known, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in his evening video address on Monday. “But those are just the ones we know about. In truth, more have been abducted.”
The head of the presidential office in Kyiv, Andriy Yermak, discussed the problem in a large online conference on Monday. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the ambassadors of the Group of Twenty large industrialized and emerging countries (G20) also took part. The annual G20 summit is currently taking place in Indonesia.
“Our goal is to stop the violent kidnapping or deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” Yermak said, according to official statements. Everything must be done to bring these children back and reunite them with their families.
The Russian military and Russian authorities do confirm that children are being brought to Russia from Ukraine. They would be taken to safety from the combat zones or come to Russia for treatment or recovery. There are also reports of Ukrainian children being put up for adoption in Russia. The Ukrainian child rights officer Dariya Gerassymtschuk spoke of 10,764 abducted children.
Selenskyj thanked Guterres for his willingness to take on the issue of the children. “It takes the power of the whole world to bring back all the deportees,” he said.
European Council President Charles Michel wants to increase pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine. “We should try to use the G20 meeting to convince all partners to put more pressure on Russia,” Michel said at a press conference in Bali. The best way to deal with the food crisis is for Russia to end the senseless war in Ukraine. He has no plans to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
After the recapture of the city of Cherson by Ukraine, the US Department of Defense expects Russian troops to entrench themselves on the opposite east bank of the Dnipro River. Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers are on the east side of the river, a senior Pentagon official stressed on Monday. “Our current assessment is that they intend to keep this territory under their control.” There is currently no evidence that Ukrainian units have crossed the river.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian troops destroyed the entire infrastructure in the city before withdrawing from the city of Kherson. “In Kherson there is no electricity, no communication, no Internet and no television,” Zelenskyy said in a video message after his visit to the city on Monday evening. “All important facilities in the city and in the region are mined.” During his visit to the city, Zelenskyy described the recapture of Cherson as “the beginning of the end of the war”.
Most of the liberated Kherson region has been without power since November 6, according to state-owned electricity utility Ukrenergo. According to Ukrenergo boss Volodymyr Kudryzkyj, the Russian troops had destroyed an important power plant. The plant supplied “the entire right bank of the Kherson region and a significant part of the Mykolayiv region with electricity”.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterates his support for Ukraine at the G20 summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime will hear a “chorus of global opposition against his actions,” Sunak said. “Russia’s actions endanger us all.” Russia’s role in the international system can never be normalized as long as the war in Ukraine continues. Sunak is expected to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the summit on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has welcomed the condemnation of US and China threats to use nuclear weapons. “It is important that the United States and China have made it clear together that threats to use nuclear weapons are unacceptable. Everyone understands who these words are addressed to,” Zelenskyy said of the two countries’ separate statements following a meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jingping ahead of the G20 summit in Bali. According to the US, both men had spoken out against Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. According to the Chinese account, Xi supports new peace talks between the governments in Moscow and Kyiv.
Against the background of the recapture of the Ukrainian city of Cherson, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned against underestimating Moscow. “The Russian armed forces continue to have significant capabilities and a large number of soldiers, and Russia has demonstrated its willingness to incur significant casualties,” he said in The Hague.
The US think tank Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine had won “an important victory” in Kherson and other areas west of the Dnipro, but had by no means conquered the minimum territory necessary for future security and economic survival to back up.
