Ukraine war: prime minister asks Francis for help repatriating children

Ukraine’s prime minister said on Thursday he had invited Pope Francis to visit Ukraine and asked for help in repatriating thousands of children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied land since Moscow’s invasion.

Denys Shmyhal told a news conference in Rome that he had held talks at the Vatican and discussed Kyiv’s peace formula to end Russia’s 14-month-old war in Ukraine.

“I asked his holiness for help in returning home Ukrainian children who are being held, arrested, deported to Russia in a criminal way,” the prime minister said.

Pope Francis (86), has said previously that he wants to visit Kyiv but also Moscow on a peace mission.

Putin issues apparent threat to West over supply of weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia

---

EU ministers clash with Hungary over blocked aid for Ukraine

---

Ukraine signs security deal with Spain and awaits tanks and air defence missiles

---

‘Significant number’ of centres housing Ukrainians will close under 90-day policy

---

Kyiv estimates nearly 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea since Moscow invaded in February last year, in what it condemns as illegal deportations.

Moscow, which controls large parts of Ukraine’s east and south, denies abducting children and says they have been transported away for their own safety.

“We discussed the (Ukrainian) peace formula, and a potential path and assistance from his holiness and the Vatican to achieve all the steps of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s peace formula,” Mr Shmyhal said.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, millions uprooted and whole cities have been flattened during the war in Ukraine. Russia has been conducting a major offensive in the east of Ukraine for months, but has failed to make major territorial advances. Ukraine plans to launch a counteroffensive in the coming weeks or months. Kyiv wants all its territory back.

Chinese president Xi Jinping, who has close relations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, spoke by phone with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday. Mr Shmyhal told reporters the phone call had been very productive and could prove a very positive beginning for future relations.

On Thursday, Russian forces pounded the city of Bakhmut, the months-old focal point of their attempts to capture the eastern Ukrainian industrial region of Donbas.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, in a report on Facebook, said fighting gripped Bakhmut and nearby areas. It said Russian forces had failed to advance on two villages to the northwest. At least a dozen localities came under Russian fire.

Separately, a spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern group of forces, told national television on Wednesday that in the past 24 hours, Russian forces had attacked 324 times using artillery and multiple rocket launchers.

“The Russians are destroying buildings in Bakhmut to prevent our soldiers from using them as fortifications,” he said.

The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force said Ukrainian troops were pouring in ahead of an “inevitable” counter-offensive.

In Brussels, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Nato allies and partners have delivered almost all their promised combat vehicles to Ukraine,

“More than 98 per cent of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have already been delivered. That means over 1,550 armoured vehicles, 230 tanks, and other equipment, including vast amounts of ammunition,” he told reporters at Nato headquarters

“In total, we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armoured brigades. This will put Ukraine in the strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,” he said. - Reuters/Guardian