Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that Russia is making it difficult to return the children and has even simplified its adoption laws. So far, only 51 children have been returned, he shared. “This is also a violation of international law and a vivid example of the fact that the Russian Federation is committing the genocide of the Ukrainian nation,” Lubinets said in an interview with the Voice of America.
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Saturday, January 3
Russia launched 95 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Air Force said.
(Updated: )
The bodies of a 3-year-old boy and a woman, likely his mother, were found in the rubble of an apartment building following Russian strikes. Search and rescue operations are still active at 3 a.m. local time, according to governor Syniehubov.
The number includes 750 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day, the General Staff said.
Friday, January 2
(Updated: )
The news comes a few hours after Zelensky announced he would appoint Kyrylo Budanov, head of the military intelligence, to take charge of the President’s Office.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko will soon give the president a list of possible candidates to replace Serhii Deineko as head of Ukraine's State Border Guard Service.
HUR has published video footage of Kapustin's staged "death," which the agency used to collect a $500,000 bounty. The video shows a drone strike on a minibus shortly after Kapustin is seen entering the vehicle.
Along the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, the front line has remained largely static, but fighting continues every day. The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko embedded with Ukraine’s forces in Kherson Oblast, following FPV drone and night bomber teams tasked with defending river islands.
The poll also revealed that 69% of Ukrainians support a peace plan that would freeze the war with security guarantees, as long as Ukraine is not forced to officially recognize Russian-occupied territories as part of Russia, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said.
Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service warned on Jan. 2 that Russia may be preparing a provocation as part of its efforts to disrupt the U.S.-mediated peace talks.
Earlier on Jan. 1, Volodymyr Saldo, a Ukrainian politician turned top Russian proxy head of Russian-occupied parts of Kherson Oblast, accused Kyiv of launching three drones at a hotel and a cafe on the Black Sea coast. Saldo claimed that the alleged New Year drone strike on the village of Khorly killed 24 people, including a child, and wounded more than 50.
The number includes 910 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day, the General Staff said.
Friday, January 2
Russian forces occupied 4,336 square kilometers (1,674 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in 2025, accounting for less than 1% of the country, the Ukrainian open-source mapping project DeepState reported in an year-end assessment published on Jan. 1.
