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A Ukrainian servicewoman captured by Russia has described the ordeal of being separated from her child for almost a year-and-a-half.

Ekaterina Skopina’s daughter Anna-Maria was taken in by relatives while she and her husband were held captive by Russia, having served during operations in Mariupol.

After spending nine months in captivity, a period in which she claims she and her husband suffered torture, she was released.

However, she said the relatives, who were sympathetic to Russia, refused to give her daughter back and that she was kept in Russian-occupied territory

“She was in captivity for almost one and a half years,” Ms Skopina told The World with Yalda Hakim.

“They [the relative] refused to bring the child. They blocked me on social media and blocked my phone number, so I couldn’t call.

“Then they forcibly changed the child’s citizenship, through which they took money, as they took guardianship over her.”

Ukraine-Russia war latest: At least four dead in daytime missile strike on port city

Ekaterina Skopina's daughter Anna-Maria was taken in by relatives while she and her husband were held captive by Russia, having served during operations in Mariupol.
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Ekaterina Skopina

Anna-Maria, seven, finally returned to Ms Skopina and her husband in May last year, following a mediation process involving Qatari officials.

Ms Skopina was speaking from Doha, where 20 Ukrainian and Russian families, including 37 children, were hosted earlier this month after being reunited.

Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ukrainian and Russia families were hosted in Doha as part of an initiative, carried out in partnership with officials from Ukraine and Russia, to provide them with medical and psycho-social support. Pic: Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Twenty Ukrainian and Russian families, including 37 children, were hosted in Doha earlier this month after being reunited. Pic: Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs

“We are very grateful to Qatar for helping and participating in negotiations,” Ms Skopina said.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the families were being hosted in Doha as part of an initiative, carried out in partnership with officials from Ukraine and Russia, to provide them with medical and psycho-social support.

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“[The initiative] is to provide comprehensive support that not only addresses immediate needs but also lays the groundwork for long-term healing and integration,” the ministry said in a statement.

Another of those to visit Doha was Sergei Sinitsky, whose niece and nephew were recently repatriated from a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine following the death of their parents.

Sergei Sinitsky, whose niece and nephew were recently repatriated from a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine following the death of their parents.
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Sergei Sinitsky

“When this situation occurred and the children were left alone, I began to deal with the issue of how to bring them back, how to bring them to me,” he said.

“When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, the children were in the occupied part of Ukraine, they were in Mariupol.

“When all this started, they moved to the Moscow region and stayed there. There they attended a regular Russian school and life was more or less normal.

“The only thing is, when my sister passed away, the children were with a distant relative. Their life there was not very good.

“For the last six months, the children haven’t even attended school, there was no decent food. In my opinion, if they had stayed there, they would have had no future.”

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He said the children wanted to return to him, because he was their closest relative.

“The process of returning the children took several months, and they constantly asked when it would finally happen. It was quite difficult,” he added.

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

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Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
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The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

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US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

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He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

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General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

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Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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