A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak on Thursday said that Ukraine will do everything possible to bring back every person who was “forcibly deported” to Russia. According to the reports Russia has so far deported 500,000 people from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the war.
Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights, Liudmyla Denisova, said last week that Russia had taken 134,000 people from the besieged city of Mariupol and that 33,000 of those were forcibly deported.
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched the war on Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Volodymyr Zelensky has said the situation in Mariupol is deteriorating with roughly 1,000 civilians remaining trapped in the Azovstal steel plant with the remaining fighters who are heavily outnumbered. However, Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Vladimir Putin, said he believed Russian forces would be in complete control of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol “before lunchtime, or after lunch” on Thursday. Also, Ukraine is working to convince western allies to shift Russia’s shipments of natural gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Ukraine’s pipeline, increasing Kyiv’s leverage, energy officials told Reuters. And US President Joe Biden is set to announce plans on Thursday to send additional military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, according to a US official.