U.S. ambassador to U.N. says Russia has deported up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to 'filtration camps'

New US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks after meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the United Nations on February 25, 2021 in New York City.

Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Russian authorities have forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens from their homes to Russia.

"We have evidence that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens including children have been interrogated, detained, and forcibly deported, and some of them sent to very remote areas," Thomas-Greenfield told reporters ahead of the U.N. Security Council meeting.

"I want to be clear, the United States has information that officials from Russia's presidential administration are overseeing and coordinating these filtration operations," Thomas-Greenfield said, without naming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Thomas-Greenfield outlined the "filtration" process for members of the U.N. National Security Council.

"You're stripped of your clothes, you are interrogated, you're beaten. You hear gunfire and screams from rooms next door. Others deemed more threatening are being tortured and killed. Because you are fighting age, you're asked to fight for Russia," she said.

"When you refuse, you're given a Russian passport and set deep into Russia against your will far away from your family and with no means to communicate with anyone you know or love. You've been filtered," she added.

The Kremlin has denied that it has forcibly detained Ukrainian civilians.

Amanda Macias

U.N. inspectors vowed to continue their visit to a Russian-held nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine despite an early shelling attack on the town next to the facility.

Genya Savilov | Afp | Getty Images

Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya said that Russia tried to exert pressure on IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi during his visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Kyslytsya addressed members of the U.N. Security Council.

Grossi, who led a team of investigators to the site earlier this month, published a report yesterday on the nuclear watchdog agency's findings.

Grossi recommended an immediate establishment of a demilitarized zone at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Amanda Macias

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky looks on at a press conference for selected media at his official residence the Maryinsky Palace on March 3, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Laurent Van Der Stockt | Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is considering the possibility of participating in the G-20 summit.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during a national telethon that Zelenskyy may participate but has not yet made his decision. It is not clear if Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the G-20.

The meeting will be held in Bali, Indonesia next month.

Amanda Macias

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference after meeting with top Japanese Ministers at the U.S. State Department on July 29, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Polish counterpart Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau on ways to continue coordinating support for Ukraine.

"The Secretary thanked Poland for its sustained security assistance and humanitarian support to Ukraine and its generosity in hosting millions of refugees from Ukraine," according to a readout of the call from State Department spokesman Ned Price.

"The Secretary also discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation on civil nuclear power generation in Poland to advance shared energy security, climate change, and national security objectives," Price added.

Amanda Macias

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he spoke with the new British foreign secretary James Cleverly.

"We see eye to eye on the main goal: Ukraine must win," Kuleba wrote in a tweet.

"We will work actively together to persuade others across the globe to support it, especially those who may still have doubts. The fact that our call was Foreign Secretary's first speaks for itself," he added.

Cleverly became the U.K.'s foreign minister after Liz Truss ascended from that role to prime minister.

Amanda Macias

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends the NATO summit via video link, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 29, 2022.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | via Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the "military, humanitarian and economic situation in Ukraine," according to a German readout of the call.

The two leaders also discussed efforts to support Ukraine during its reconstruction from the war.

"The Chancellor stressed that Germany would not stop supporting Ukraine militarily, but also politically, financially and on a humanitarian level," German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit wrote.

Scholz also received an update from Zelenskyy about the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The two leaders agreed to remain in close contact.

Amanda Macias

A combine harvester of Continental Farmers Group agricultural company harvests wheat on August 4, 2022 in the Ternopil region of Ukraine.

Alexey Furman | Getty Images

More than 50 agricultural vessels have departed Ukraine for Asia in the first month since exports restarted, Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

Under the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal to reopen three Ukrainian ports, 54 vessels carrying more than 1 million metric tons of agricultural products have been exported to Asia. He added that so far 16 vessels have departed Ukraine for Africa carrying nearly half a million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs.

Another 32 vessels carrying nearly 1 million metric tons of agricultural goods have departed for European ports.

Amanda Macias

Doctors Without Borders (MSF), in cooperation with the Ukrainian railways and the Ministry of Health, has just completed a new medical train referral of 48 patients, coming from hospitals close to the frontline in the war-affected east of the country.

Genya Savilov | AFP | Getty Images

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, there have been at least 516 attacks on vital health services in the country, the World Health Organization'sSurveillance System for Attacks on Health Careestimates.

The organization reports that health care facilities were damaged 438 times, ambulances were targeted in 73 cases and at least 144 attacks affected crucial medical supplies. The group also estimated that attacks on health services led to at least 100 deaths and 129 injuries.

The Kremlin has previously denied that it targets civilian infrastructure like hospitals, schools and apartment buildings.

Amanda Macias

A serviceman with a Russian flag on his uniform stands guard near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine August 4, 2022.

Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters

Ukraine's deputy prime minister called on residents near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to evacuate the area amid reports of Russian troops holding Ukrainians in the area hostage.

"The Russians are holding hostage not only the staff of the station. Residents of the temporarily occupied territories adjacent to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are also held hostage. Tens of thousands of people," Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram, according to an NBC News translation.

Vereshchuk added thatUkraine's Ministry of Reintegration requested a humanitarian corridor in order to evacuate the civilian population from areas adjacent to the nuclear power plant.

"The answer is cynical silence," she said.

Amanda Macias

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to meet next week in Uzbekistan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization forum, a Russian official said on Wednesday.

Photo by Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to meet next week in Uzbekistan, a Russian official said Wednesday, announcing a summit that could signal another step in warming ties between two powers that are increasingly facing off against the West.

Putin and Xi last met in Beijing in February, weeks before the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.

The two presidents oversaw the signing of an agreement pledging that relations between the sides would have no limits.

It remains unclear whether Xi knew at the time of Russias plans to invade Ukraine.

Associated Press

People arrive at the central train station from Pokrovsk, in the eastern part of Ukraine on April 11, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

More than 7 million Ukrainianshave become refugees and moved to neighboring countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the U.N. Refugee Agency estimates.

Nearly 4 million of those people have applied for temporary resident status in neighboring Western countries, according to data collected by the agency.

"The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance," the U.N. Refugee Agency wrote.

Amanda Macias

ISTANBUL, TURKIYE - AUGUST 09: An aerial view of "Glory" named empty grain ship as Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkiye and the United Nations (UN) of the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) conduct inspection on vessel in Istanbul, Turkiye on August 09, 2022. The UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal on July 22 to reopen three Ukrainian ports -- Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny -- for grain that has been stuck for months because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which is now in its sixth month. (Photo by Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The organization overseeing the export of agricultural products from Ukraine said that so far 96 vessels have left the besieged country since ports reopened.

The Joint Coordination Center, an initiative of Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said the ships transported a total of 2,212,972 metric tons of grain and other food products.

Amanda Macias

A Russian serviceman stands guard the territory outside the second reactor of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Energodar on May 1, 2022.

Andrey Borodulin | AFP | Getty Images

Ukraine's top nuclear inspector says the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant could be shut down if hostilities continue around the plant. Europe's largest nuclear plant continues to be at the center of accusations between Russia and Ukraine with both repeatedly accusing each other of shelling the Russian-occupied facility.

The head of Ukraine's nuclear regulatory body,Oleh Korikov, said shutting down the plant was under consideration.

"Further deterioration of the situation will lead to the fact that we will be forced to operate backup diesel power generators in order to sustain our security systems, and diesel fuel reserves are very difficult to replenish in conditions of war," Korikov said Wednesday in an interview broadcast on YouTube.

"In fact, we will need four tanks of diesel per day. It is very problematic to bring such a volume of fuel across the contact line now. That is, we can potentially get into a situation where we run out of diesel, which can lead to an accident with damage to the active zone of the reactors and the release of radioactive products into the environment. Then it will have consequences not only for Ukraine but also for other countries," he said.

"The option of turning off the station is indeed considered if appropriate conditions arise that would require such a stop. If this happens, the 6th power unit will be turned off."

The 6th reactor is currently the only one functioning in the plant, which was inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency last week.

In the52-page report, IAEA investigators warned that while ongoing shelling "has not yet triggered a nuclear emergency, it continues to represent a constant threat to nuclear safety and security."

"The IAEA recommends that shelling on site and in its vicinity should be stopped immediately to avoid any further damages to the plant and associated facilities, for the safety of the operating staff and to maintain the physical integrity to support safe and secure operation," wrote IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.

Holly Ellyatt

Britain's Ministry of Defense has confirmed earlier reports from officials in Ukraine that the armed forces there have been counterattacking Russian positions in the northeastern and eastern parts of the country, as well the south, where a counteroffensive was launched last week.

"Over the last 24 hours, heavy fighting has taken place on three fronts: in the north, near Kharkiv; in the east in the Donbas; and in the south in Kherson Oblast," the ministry said in its latest intelligence update Wednesday.

"Russia's planned main effort is probably an advance on Bakhmut in the Donbas, but commanders face a dilemma of whether to deploy operational reserves to support this offensive, or to defend against continued Ukrainian advances in the south," the ministry added.

Firefighters at the rubble of a building destroyed by Russia's missile strike in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Sept. 06, 2022.

Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

"Multiple concurrent threats spread across 500km will test Russia's ability to coordinate operational design and reallocate resources across multiple groupings of forces. Earlier in the war, Russia's failure to do this was one of the underlying reasons for the military's poor performance," it said.

Holly Ellyatt

Russia has indicated that plans are being made for President Vladimir Putin to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from Sept.15-16.

Russian envoy to Beijing, Andrey Denisov, told reporters on Wednesday that "in less than ten days we will have a regular meeting of our SCO leaders in Samarkand, we are getting ready for it. In general, this summit promises to be interesting, because it will be the first full-fledged summit since the pandemic," he said in comments reported by Russian state news agency Tass.

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Putin says sanctions are a 'danger' to the world; Ukraine counterattacks in Kharkiv while Russian troops are occupied in the south - CNBC