National Resistance Centre says close to 20,000 children in total have been taken to Russia from the occupied territory of Ukraine
Ukraine says 150 children have been illegally taken from the occupied Luhansk region to Russia.
The National Resistance Centre of Ukraine said the children were taken from the Luhansk’s Starobilsk district on 8 June to two centres in the Prikuban district of Russia’s Karachay-Cherkess republic.
Ukraine has regained control of more than 100 sq km (38 sq miles) of territory in its counteroffensive, senior Ukrainian military commander Brig Gen Oleksii Hromov has claimed. The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said there was a “gradual but steady advance” but that Russian forces were putting up “powerful resistance” on the southern front.
The UN nuclear watchdog chief has said the situation is “serious” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant but a number of measures have been taken to stabilise it. Rafael Grossi said after visiting Europe’s largest atomic power plant that inspectors would stay at the Russian-occupied facility but that signing a document on security on the site was “unrealistic” while the two sides were still fighting. Ensuring water for cooling the plant was a priority, he said, adding that the station could operate safely for “some time”.
Gunfire briefly halted Grossi’s convoy as it headed back to Ukrainian-held territory following the visit to the Zaporizhzhia plant, but the delegation was in no immediate danger, a spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
