WAR IN UKRAINE: February 19, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 361
The US government formally declared that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in its war on Ukraine. Vice President Kamala Harris made the announcement at the Munich Security Conference Saturday - CNN
The head of the U.N. food agency warned on February 18 that failure to renew a U.N.-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia would be catastrophic as millions in Africa are on the cusp of famine - RFE/RL
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has categorically ruled out any territorial losses for his country, following the announcement of a Chinese peace plan. It is in Ukraine's interest that China plays a role in the search for peace, but its territorial integrity is not negotiable, Kuleba told journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 18. "No concessions, no compromise is possible with regard to the territorial integrity of Ukraine or any other nation in the world," Kuleba said - RFE/RL
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken meets with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi; warns about the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia or assistance with systemic sanctions evasion.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged world leaders to send the most advanced weapons to Ukraine now in order to secure its long-term future. Mr Sunak told the Munich Security Conference that allies must give the country "advanced, Nato-standard capabilities". Mr Sunak had said he wanted to "make sure other countries follow our lead" in providing battle tanks, and training soldiers and aviators on Nato-standard aircrafts. In his speech in Germany, he said: "Ukraine needs more artillery, armoured vehicles and air defences, so now is the time to double down on our military support - BBC
The verified number of Ukrainian children deported to Russia is 16,207, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets told Ukrinform.“These are children that I, as the ombudsman, know about. I know what Ukrainian city these children are from and where they roughly stay in the territory of the Russian Federation,” Lubinets said. According to Lubinets, the exact number of deported children could be much higher. “We assume that this number reaches about 150,000 children. Russia says that they keep 733,000 Ukrainian children in their territory. However, in our opinion, this figure is exaggerated,” Lubinets said. Most children were taken to Russia from the temporarily occupied regions, namely the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and Crimea.
Required reading…
Opinion: 'The arc of history will not go Putin's way.' 7 voices on one year of war
It's the evening of February 23, 2022. In Kyiv, the boss of a news site relaxes with a bath and candles. In Zaporizhzhia, a young woman goes to bed planning to celebrate her husband's birthday in the morning. In Moscow, a journalist happens to postpone his travel plans to Kyiv.
Within hours, their lives are dramatically and radically transformed. The next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin launches his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In the space of a year, the war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions more. It has unleashed unfathomable atrocities, decimated cities, driven a global food and energy crisis and tested the resolve of western alliances.
We asked seven people close to the conflict -- from "fixers" in Ukraine, to commentators in Moscow -- to reflect on the first anniversary of the invasion. The views expressed in this commentary are their own.
Read the full CNN Opinion article here