Ukrainian troops maintain control of the northern part of Pokrovsk, Ukraine\u2019s army chief says. Putin says Russia will take Donbas by force or Ukraine\u2019s troops will withdraw. The UN General Assembly passes a resolution demanding that Russia return abducted Ukrainian children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian troops maintain control of the northern part of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram Thursday. They also proactively impede Russian forces to amass assault groups near Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad and advance further, bypassing the cities, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syrskyi said an \u201cextremely difficult stage of defense of the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad agglomeration\u201d was underway. He said he once again held operational meetings with commanders of the groups of forces, corps, brigades, regiments and separate battalions. Ukrainian troops continue to maintain control of certain areas inside the cities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile [Russia\u2019s] occupying forces disregard their personnel losses, Ukrainian commanders have a clear understanding of how important it is to save the lives and health of their troops,\u201d Syrskyi said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syrskyi said he had discussed with the commanders coordinated deployment and advance of the units, timely rotation of the units conducting search and assault operations that aim to locate and destroy the enemy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also made several decisions on combat control, joint action and supplies to support defensive efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syrskyi also noted the importance of additional supply lines, timely medical evacuations, counterbattery warfare and air defenses against Russian drones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian troops stopped 52 Russian assault operations near the towns and villages of Volodymyrivka, Mayak, Rodynske, Chervonyi Lyman, Novoekonomichne, Pokrovsk, Kotlyne, Udachne, Molodetske, Dachne and toward Novopavlivka, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia has advanced in Pokrovsk, Ukrainian open-source mapping project DeepState said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian forces became stuck in street fighting in Pokrovsk, 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Air Assault Forces said on social media Wednesday, adding that reports of the city\u2019s capture are not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian leader Vladimir Putin said in an interview with India Today published on Thursday that Russia would take full control of Ukraine\u2019s Donbas region by force unless Ukrainian forces withdraw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEither we liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories,\u201d he said in an interview simultaneously translated into English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur special military operation isn\u2019t the start of a war, but rather an attempt to end one that the West ignited sing Ukraine\u2019s nationalists,\u201d he said. \u201cWe attempted to negotiate with them [Ukraine] back in 2022,\u201d he later added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a complex task and a challenging mission that President Trump took upon himself,\u201d Putin said when asked about the specifics of the peace talks, refraining from providing details. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a written news piece, Russian state media TASS restated what Putin said in the interview, saying that \u201cRussia would liberate Donbas and Novorossiya in any case \u2013 by military or other means.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putin has consistently demanded that Ukraine concede all of Donbas and \u201cNovorossiya,\u201d referring to occupied and non-occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner sat down for the high-level talks with Putin in the Kremlin Tuesday. The talks in the Russian capital were \u201cvery useful, constructive, and highly substantive,\u201d but a \u201ccompromise option was not found,\u201d Russian foreign policy adviser and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the meeting. \u201cProductive,\u201d Putin\u2019s envoy Kirill Dmitriev wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A planned meeting in Brussels between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and a visiting U.S. delegation that included Trump\u2019s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been canceled, Kyiv Post\u2019s Chief Correspondent in Washington DC Alex Raufoglu, citing his sources, wrote on X Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secretary of Ukraine\u2019s Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov was supposed to arrive in the U.S. on Thursday to meet with President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff. There were no updates on whether this meeting had happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Wednesday that called for a return of Ukrainian children deported by Russia. The resolution passed by a vote of 91 to 12 with 57 abstentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia and 11 other countries, including Belarus, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Mali, Niger, Nicaragua and Sudan voted against the resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It \u201cdemands that the Russian Federation ensure the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported,\u201d and urges Moscow to cease any further practices of deportation, separation from families, changes of citizenship, adoption or placement in foster families, and indoctrination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UN General Assembly expressed \u201cdeep concern\u201d over \u201cthe fate of all Ukrainian children who have been separated from their families since 2014, including those forcibly transferred within the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and those deported to the Russian Federation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These actions violate the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I of 1977 \u201cwhich prohibit individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying Power, regardless of their motive,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The assembly also said it deplores \u201cthe legislative and administrative measures taken by the Russian Federation since 2022 that simplify the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for Ukrainian children, particularly orphans, children deprived of parental care and unaccompanied children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The document also highlights \u201cthe need to investigate and ensure accountability for those responsible for forcible transfers and deportations of children, in accordance with international law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UN General Assembly reaffirmed support for \u201cthe efforts by various Member States and international organizations\u201d to ensure \u201cthe prompt, safe and unconditional return of forcibly transferred and deported Ukrainian children to Ukraine,\u201d and \u201ctheir subsequent rehabilitation and reintegration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also hailed the efforts of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The text also calls on the UN Secretary-General to step up his good offices, including through his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, to coordinate UN action, engage with Russia on tracking down those taken, and to ensure access for international monitoring and humanitarian organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"