Russia lost elections to three United Nations bodies this week, a sign that opposition to its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago remains strong.

In the ECOSOC votes, Russia was overwhelmingly defeated by Romania for a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women. It lost to Estonia to be a member of the executive board of the UN children’s agency UNICEF. And it was defeated by Armenia and the Czech Republic in secret ballot votes for membership in the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the votes: “This is a clear signal from ECOSOC members that no country should hold positions on critical U.N. bodies when they are in flagrant violation of the UN Charter.”

A Ukrainian official has said 20,000 kids have been forcibly removed from Ukrainian territories by Russian forces.

In an online conveesation with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, Ukraine’s head of office of the President, Andriy Yermak, discussed protecting Ukrainian children and holding Russia accountable for its alleged crimes, a statement released by the president’s office on Saturday said.

Yeleman said in a Telegram post: “According to official data alone, at least 20,000 children have been forcibly removed by the Russian military from the temporarily occupied territories (of Ukraine), separated from their parents and forcibly transferred to Russian families,” adding that “their own parents have no idea where their children are or what happened to them.”

Yermak stated the “importance of getting all the deported Ukrainian children back to their homeland and punishing the Russian criminals,” and emphasised Kyiv would develop new methods of protecting children and preventing future harm.

Ukrainian forces have been working to bolster defence lines along the border with Belarus, the defence ministry has said.

In a Facebook post, the ministry cited Lt General Serhiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of Ukraine’s armed forces, who said:

“The expansion of the system of engineering barriers in the areas bordering Belarus and Russia is ongoing. Anti-tank minefields are being created in tank accessible areas and probable paths of pushing the enemy deep into our territory which are roads, forest lanes, bridges, power lines, etc.”

The news comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his close ally and Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday. Lukashenko had previously given permission for Russia to use Belarus as a launch pad for the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Putin last month announced that Russia would deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Two people have been injured by explosives in Kharkiv, The Kyiv Independent has reported.

In a tweet, the online newspaper wrote: “Explosives injure two people in Kharkiv Oblast.

“In the city of Izium, a 53-year-old woman stepped on an anti-personnel mine in a graveyard, while in the village of Slobozhanske, a man was seriously injured while trying to take apart an unidentified object.”

Deep underground in southeastern Ukraine, miners work around the clock extracting coal to power the country’s war effort and to provide civilians with light and heat. 

Coal is central to meeting Ukraine’s energy needs following the Russia’s military’s 6-month campaign to destroy power stations and other infrastructure, the chief engineer of a mining company in Dnipropetrovsk province said.

Elevators carry the company’s workers underground to the depths of the mine. From there, they operate heavy machinery that digs out the coal and moves the precious resource above ground. It is hard work, the miners said, but essential to keep the country going. 

“Today, the country’s energy independence is more than a priority,” said Oleksandr, the chief engineer, who, like all the coal miners interviewed, spoke on the condition of giving only his first name for security reasons. 

Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear, thermal and other power stations continue to disrupt electricity service as the war grinds on for a second year. 

Negotiations to demilitarize the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which the Kremlin’s forces captured last year at the start of the full-scale invasion, are at an impasse. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opposes any proposal that would legitimize Russian control of the plant, which is Europe’s largest nuclear energy facility. 

At full capacity, the plant can produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity. The Ukrainian operators of the plant shut down the last reactor in September, saying it was too risky to run while Russia bombarded nearby areas. 

A missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea, the Russian head of Crimea’s administration said on Saturday.

“A missile launched from Ukraine was shot down over Feodosia,” Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram.

Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv has demanded that Moscow hand it back.

Russia’s TASS news agency quoted an adviser to Aksyonov, Oleg Kryuchkov, as saying that debris had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties had been reported.

Russian forces used ground- and air-fired missiles, rocket launchers and weaponized drones to bombard the provinces of Ukraine it has illegally annexed but doesn’t fully control, causing casualties, building damage and power outages Friday.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces launched 18 airstrikes, five missile strikes and 53 attacks from multiple rocket launchers between Thursday and Friday mornings.

According to the General Staff statement, Russia was concentrating the bulk of its offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing on the cities and towns of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka in Donetsk province.

The US claims Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak of classified military documents on social media.

The secret Pentagon documents that were discovered on 4chan, Twitter, Telegram and other websites were related to Ukraine, the Middle East and China. They also appeared to detail US and NATO aid to Ukraine, but may have been altered or used as part of a misinformation campaign.

Three US officials told Reuters that they believed Russia was behind the leak.

The Justice Department said it was investigating the leak that was first reported by the New York Times on Friday.

Peony Hirwani reports.

Russia’s campaign to break Ukraine’s unified energy system (UES) during winter has ‘likely failed’, the Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update has said.

Large -scale attacks have become rare since early March 2023, the update said.

The report adds: “Ukraine’s energy situation will likely improve with the arrival of warmer weather. Planning and preparations for next winter have likely already begun.”