By KYIV. Sept 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak held an online meeting with representatives of socio-political communities in a number of Latin American countries, the presidential press service said.
It is indicated that the meeting was also attended by President’s Office Deputy Heads Roman Mashovets, Oleksiy Kuleba, Adviser to the President’s Office head Deputy Head Daria Zarivna, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets and Minister of Energy Herman Haluschenko.
During the meeting, Mashovets informed the meeting participants about the current situation at the front, and also said Russia continues to massively shell civilian and military targets in Ukraine with its various weapons, in particular missiles, which the aggressor country continues to produce.
In turn, Kuleba said since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than 200,000 facilities have been damaged on the territory of Ukraine, of which about 25,000 were completely destroyed, almost 170,000 residential buildings were also damaged, about 11,000 energy facilities were destroyed, some 4,300 educational and sports institutions, almost 2,000 medical institutions.
Since the beginning of Russian aggression, the death of more than 9,600 civilians has been officially confirmed, of which more than 500 children, about 17,530 people were injured.
“Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Daria Zarivna noted that one of the most tragic pages of the full-scale Russian aggression was Russia’s illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. Russian officials publicly boast that they have forcibly taken hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia. So far, Ukraine has managed to return only 386 children,” according to the statement.
Zarivna said every country can join the implementation of the Bring Kids Back UA strategic action plan, which corresponds to the fourth point of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula – “Release of all captives and deportees.”
According to the Minister of Environmental Protection, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of, more than 2,500 cases of crimes against the environment have been recorded, and the total amount of damage exceeds $57 billion. In addition, the bombing of Kakhovka HPP by the occupiers became “the largest act of ecocide on the planet in decades.”
“Ukraine is one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world today. One third of Ukraine’s territory is mined today. Demining is one of the key areas of point 8 of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula, and we must speed up the pace of demining,” the minister said.
The Energy Minister also said in the period from October 10, 2022 to March 9, 2023, more than 300 hits were recorded at energy facilities in Ukraine.
During the meeting, Yermak called on representatives of Latin America to help support Ukraine.
“Today, Ukrainian warriors are also fighting for the freedom of all peoples of the world. And I urge you to help us convince the people of Latin America not to believe Russian propaganda and to help Ukraine. It is very important for us to involve the countries of the region in the implementation of President Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula. So that dictators cannot dominate the planet,” Yermak said.
Yermak also said Ukraine is extremely interested in developing fruitful friendly relations with Latin American countries and creating effective formats for interaction.
“Andriy Yermak emphasized that the Peace Formula proposed by the President of Ukraine is based on international law and the UN Charter, and speaks of values that everyone shares – the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of every nation. It also envisages fair punishment of the aggressor,” the press service said.
The President’s Office head separately thanked the Cuban community for its constant support of Ukraine.
