Blog entry by Teodoro Battarbee
Russia has already accused the West of using its civilian space infrastructure to support the operations of the Ukrainian troops, including for science reading program combat strikes, and detecting the locations of Vladimir Putin's army and its movements.
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Merlion is owned by three Russian oligarchs who appear in Forbes' list of 200 wealthiest Russians with a combined net worth of £1.6 billion. Two of them have been sanctioned by Ukraine for ‘material or financial support' for the war.
Vladimir Putin gave a a tub-thumping address yesterday to tens of thousands of Russians gathered at Moscow's world cup stadium, celebrating his invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and drumming up support for his new war
Speaking in front of banners that read 'For a world without Nazism' and 'For Russia' - with the letter 'Z' in each picked out in bold - he said: 'Sevastopol [capital of Crimea] did the right thing when they put up a barrier to neo-Nazis and radicals, which is already happening on other territories.
Financial records appear to show shipments of laptops, mobile phones and microchips have been repeatedly sent from a business registered at the unassuming property in Enfield, North London, since Vladimir Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine began last year.
They show that a large volume of high-end microchips, telecoms equipment and servers, which have the potential to support Russian infrastructure, have been shipped through other countries, largely China, avoiding sanctions.
ICRC spokesman Jason Straziuso said the organization was in contact with Lvova-Belova "in line with its mandate to restore contact between separated families and facilitate reunification where feasible."
Mykola Kuleba said at a news conference in Kyiv that the children were expected to arrive in the capital later in the day.
Kuleba is the executive director of the Save Ukraine organization and is the presidential commissioner for children's rights.
Putin, top online tutoring companies who called the rally to mark the anniversary of the last time he attacked Ukraine to annex the Crimea region, spoke of sharing a 'common destiny' with Crimeans, of 'de-Nazifying' the region in 2014, and of the 'bravery' of soldiers currently fighting in Ukraine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week it had been in contact with Lvova-Belova, the first confirmation of high-level international intervention to reunite families with children who were forcibly deported.
Meanwhile, whoever set up a live stream of the event on YouTube did not turn the comment section off, meaning thousands of negative comments towards the event - written in Russian - flooded the page, as did blue and yellow heart emojis - the colours of Ukraine's flag.
And a bizarre moment in the speech came when Putin suddenly disappeared from news feeds in mid-sentence - replaced by a band that was mid-way through singing, perhaps suggesting his address was not broadcast live.
In the wake of the invasion, the Kremlin has cracked down harder on dissent and the flow of information, arresting thousands of antiwar protesters, banning sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and handing out tough prison sentences for what it says is false reporting on the war, which Moscow refers to as a 'special military operation.'
Vladimir Putin's tub-thumping speech yesterday was likened to 'Billy Graham meets North Korea' by a Russian commentator, a reference to both the American Christian evangelist and Kim Jong-un's propagandising rallies, while the YouTube live stream of the rally was flooded with critical comments.
They were surrounded and shelled by guns, the Ukrainians sent airstrikes against them. This is called genocide,' he said, repeating his widely-debunked justification for attacking. 'It is to save people from this suffering and genocide that we launched our military operation.'
Several Telegram channels critical of the Kremlin reported that students and employees of state institutions in a number of regions were ordered by their superiors to attend rallies and concerts marking the Crimea anniversary.
Putin's rally was quickly likened to similar massive marches held by North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-Un, which are said to be attended by citizens who are given no other choice, as well as the massive evangelical rallies hosted by American minister Billy Graham in America.
In his speech, Putin quoted the Bible's book of John, praising his troops in Ukraine. 'The words from the sacred scripture come to my mind: "There is no greater love than if someone laid down his life for his friends,"' he said.
'The best confirmation of this is how our guys are fighting during this operation, shoulder to shoulder, helping each other. When it is necessary, they cover each-other as if it was their own brother from bullets.