Russians are kidnapping Ukrainian children and adopting them into Russian families where they are brainwashed. Last May, Putin simplified Russian adoption laws to enable these illegal adoptions. A majority of the children have living parents or relatives: they were illegally and forcefully separated from them when their parents were taken into 'filtration camps'. NGOs are trying to return these children to their families, and the international community calls this a war crime. The number of children who have been proven by name is 16,121, according to Orphan’s Promise. The Russian commissioner for children's rights said over 300,000 children have been taken to Russia, given Russian citizenship and adopted into Russian families - illegally. A Ukrainian human rights lawyer has said, ‘A mother and her four-year-old daughter were separated at a filtration camp. She had to give her daughter to some woman she didn't know, and we don't know what happened to her.’

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, independent Russian media have received restrictions or threats. News channels TV Rain and Meduza have had to move abroad; Novaya Gazeta remains in Moscow but has stopped publishing newspapers. The authorities have closed talk radio station Echo and others. Countless commentators are in exile, including veteran journalist Nevzorov, branded a ‘foreign agent’ and given a jail sentence in absentia for spreading ‘fake news’ against Russia’s army. People do not need an audience of millions to be targeted. Mathematics student Dmitry Ivanov ran an anti-war Telegram channel and received an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence. An anti-war picture sketched by a 13-year-old at school warranted Alexei, her father, being jailed for two years. Putin rules Russia virtually unchallenged. Critics who once spoke out have been forced into exile, jailed or killed. By the time he invaded Ukraine, two decades of stamping out dissent had all but annihilated Russian opposition.

Sudan’s healthcare system is paralysed. 39 out of 59 hospitals are closed. Those still working are running out of blood, medical equipment, and supplies. Doctor Abaro said closed hospitals must remain closed because medical supplies have run out and oxygen stations have been destroyed. It’s not safe to go into the streets, so medical staff and medical supplies can’t reach hospitals. Electricity, water and food are running low, and there are restrictions on ambulance movements. The situation is difficult. ‘The worst thing was seeing injured men and chronic patients struggling to survive,’ said Doctor Mustafa. ‘They were already vulnerable, and we felt paralysed trying to help them.’ A former foreign minister sheltering in Khartoum said, ‘We’ve had no electricity for 24 hours. We’ve had no water for six days, medical teams are targeted, and there are rotting bodies of youths in the streets’.

Libyan warlord Haftar controls eastern parts of Libya and, fuelled by outside interests, could worsen Sudan’s conflict. Analysts describe a ‘nightmare scenario’ of multiple regional powers fighting a proxy war in Sudan, endangering over 45 million people. Recently, Haftar passed on crucial intelligence to Sudanese general Hemedti, detained his enemies, increased deliveries of fuel, and trained hundreds of RSF fighters in the urban warfare tactics needed in Khartoum and other cities. Hemedti and Haftar have also collaborated on smuggling operations of valuable illicit cargo between the two countries. Currently, neither Haftar nor his sponsors, UAE and Russia, will commit entirely to one side in a conflict whose outcome remains unclear. Also, he does not want to alienate Egyptian supporters who back Sudan’s General Burhan. One NLA militia commander said his force was ‘ready to support Hemedti but is still monitoring the unfolding situation in Sudan’.