While the United States denounced the Russian atrocities before the UN Security Council, Kremlin boss Putin donated a one-off donation of 10,000 rubles to Ukrainian residents of the war zones. That’s almost 170 euros. The decree from Moscow comes right on Independence Day.
Six months after the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered cash payments for people in occupied territories. In the occupied parts of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv as well as in Zaporizhia and Cherson in the south, parents of children between the ages of 6 and 18 are to receive a one-time payment of 10,000 rubles – the equivalent of almost 170 euros – according to a Kremlin statement. Moscow has repeatedly been criticized for tying Ukrainians to itself with money, for example, but also by issuing Russian passports. Putin’s decree coincides with the Independence Day that Ukraine is currently celebrating.
Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24. Moscow’s official war goal is the supposed “liberation” of Donetsk and Luhansk from Ukrainian nationalists. International observers see this as a mere pretext – especially since Russia has also occupied large parts of other Ukrainian territories. In the occupied parts of the Cherson and Zaporizhia regions, which Moscow says it only conquered as a kind of buffer zone to protect Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian passports have already been distributed and the Russian ruble has been introduced as a currency. In addition, Moscow has installed military administrations there that are loyal to the Kremlin.
The United States, meanwhile, underlined its support for Ukraine’s fight against aggressor Russia before the UN Security Council. “To put it bluntly, the international community will never recognize Russia’s attempt to forcibly alter Ukraine’s borders,” said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield at a Security Council meeting on the six-month war.
The past six months have seen horrific atrocities including rape, murder and torture by Russian forces in cities like Bucha and Irpin, Thomas-Greenfield said. Evidence continued to mount that Russian forces had arrested, interrogated and forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, including children. “Their reasons are clear: They want to destroy Ukraine – its culture, its people, its existence.”