Russia, which boasts of taking in 700,000 children, stands accused of trying to erase their Ukrainian identity

During the 14 months for which Veronika Vlasenko attended school in Russia, she was regularly told by teachers and fellow students that she would never be able to go home to Ukraine. “Every day they said to me that I would be staying here for ever and would never leave Russia,” she said. “They told me that Ukraine doesn’t exist, that it never existed, that we’re all Russians … At times the other kids would beat me for being pro-Ukrainian.”

Veronika was one of nearly 20,000 children documented by Ukrainian authorities as having been taken from Ukraine to Russia over the past two years. The authorities believe the real number is probably 10 times that, while Russian officials have even boasted of moving 700,000 Ukrainian children to Russia.

GUR agency says it is working to confirm whether Oleg Sergeevich Stegachyov, ‘directly involved in missile strikes on Ukraine’, survived attack

• What we know on day 711

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been visiting Ukrainian troops on the southeastern front and handing out medals, his office said on Sunday.

Reuters reports that the move comes amid intense speculation that his popular army chief could soon be sacked.

Russian claims that western weapons used in attack on town in Moscow-controlled Luhansk region

Russia’s emergencies ministry said workers had retrieved the bodies of 20 people from the rubble following a Ukrainian attack on a building housing a bakery in the city of Lysychansk in the occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

On Saturday, the ministry shared video of emergency workers lifting two bloodied people on to stretchers and carrying them out of the ruins of a building. It said previously that its workers rescued 10 people and handed them to doctors.

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Poland’s president Duda sought to defuse the row over his statement on Ukraine, saying in a post on X that his “actions and position on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine have been and are clear from day one”.

He added:

Russia’s attack on Ukraine and occupation of internationally recognised territories of Ukraine, including Crimea, is a crime... We all stand shoulder to shoulder for a free, sovereign and independent Ukraine against aggression and brutal imperialism!

Election commission finding could disqualify anti-war Boris Nadezhdin from running

Russia’s elections commission has said it found “dead souls” among the more than 100,000 signatures of support submitted by Boris Nadezhdin, the sole anti-war candidate in next month’s presidential election, in a sign that he could be disqualified from a carefully managed ballot meant to deliver victory for Vladimir Putin.

Nadezhdin, a veteran politician who has associated with Kremlin insiders and the opposition to Putin, has been waging a last-minute campaign to get on the ballot for the election, with thousands of Russians standing for hours in the freezing cold to add their signature in his support.

Both sides confirm exchange of about 200 prisoners each a week after Russian transport aircraft shot down near border

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest news updates

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a major prisoner-of-war exchange a week after a previous swap was prevented when a Russian Il-76 transport plane was shot down and exploded near the border between the two countries.

Both sides said about 200 prisoners each had been exchanged on Wednesday, although they disagreed about the exact figures.

Deal to swap around 200 PoWs from each side comes after contested claim that Kyiv downed plane carrying Ukrainian soldiers

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has told military manufacturers to “stop fooling around” and further increase the production of self-propelled artillery systems.

Shoigu visited arms-producing factories in the Urals industrial city of Yekaterinburg on Tuesday and said Russia was increasing production of air defence missiles after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks that have targeted cities and energy infrastructure.

Listen, stop fooling around here, guys. We got busy with this in 2022. We should have had these machines operating at full capacity in 2023.

I’d like to receive within a week a specific proposal on how we’ll reach the indicators set by the president (Vladimir Putin) ... this must be done, because all these orders are connected with the performance of very specific work on the battlefield.

Two ministry of defence officials among those arrested over contract for mortar shells that never arrived

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Ukraine’s SBU security service has arrested five people who allegedly tried to steal nearly $40m (£31m) that was supposed to be used to buy shells for the country’s military in its war against Russia.

The SBU said on Saturday it had arrested two senior officials from the ministry of defence. They had allegedly conspired with the chief executive of a little-known arms firm, Lviv Arsenal, over a contract for 100,000 mortar shells. Another employee and an alleged accomplice were also detained.