About 700,000 children have been brought into Russian territory from war zones in Ukraine, a lawmaker in Russia’s upper house of parliament said. Grigory Karasin, chairman of the international committee in the Russian Federation Council, wrote on Telegram that hundreds of thousands of children had “found refuge” in Russia in recent years. Earlier this year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the forcible transfer of children from occupied territories.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
As war nears Crimea, Russian occupiers are trying to lure tourists: Tourism-dependent Crimea is looking ahead to a grim summer holiday season as the war grinds on, Francesca Ebel and Natalia Abbakumova report. Many visitors, concerned by recent attacks, are canceling their summer bookings to the Black Sea peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Crimea accounted for only 1 percent of Russian hotel bookings this year, according to the online portal Ostrovok.Ru, down from 3 percent last year and 19 percent from the year before.
“There are indeed fewer people in Crimea than usual,” said Nikita Krimskiy, a tour guide in Yalta. “Many people were intimidated by military news and various ‘fakes.’ They have changed their plans and decided to not go to Crimea this season.” Some all-inclusive hotels have lowered their prices by as much as 60 percent. Others have simply decided not to open this summer. Sixty percent of Crimean tourism businesses lost money last year, official data shows, with combined losses of $10 million as tourist revenue dropped by about a third.
Read More:Russia-Ukraine war news: Moscow says it has taken 700,000 children out of Ukraine
2023-07-03 08:02:36