Kyiv accuses Russia of leaving Ukrainians stranded at Georgian border
FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha attends a press conference, with the Ukrainian and Lithuanian flags displayed, in Lublin, Poland, July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki/File Photo
KYIV - Ukraine's foreign minister accused Russia on Saturday of deporting Ukrainians into Georgia and leaving them stranded there without proper documents hundreds of miles from their home.
Andrii Sybiha said Russia was stepping up the expulsions of Ukrainians - many of them former prisoners - over the southern frontier, rather than sending them directly over its border with Ukraine.
That amounted to Russia "weaponizing the deportation of Ukrainian citizens," he added on X.
There was no immediate response from Moscow, which has denied accusations of mistreating or targeting civilians since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"Since June, Russia has significantly increased the number of deported Ukrainian nationals, mostly former convicts, to the border with Georgia," Sybiha wrote.
"As a result, dozens of people, many of whom lack proper documentation, have been stuck in the transit zone."
Sybiha said 43 citizens, including former political prisoner Andrii Kolomiyets, have been transported from Georgia to Ukraine via Moldova, but more people remain in "difficult conditions" at the border.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore Mindef, SAF units among those dealing with attack on S'pore's critical information infrastructure
Asia How China's growing cyber-hacking capabilities have raised alarm around the world
Singapore Vessels from Navy, SCDF and MPA to debut at Marina Bay in NDP maritime display
Asia Autogate glitch at Malaysia's major checkpoints causes chaos for S'porean and foreign travellers
Singapore A deadly cocktail: Easy access, lax attitudes driving Kpod scourge in S'pore
Singapore 'I thought it was an April Fool's joke': Teen addicted to Kpods on news that friend died
Singapore Who decides when you can't? A guide on planning for end-of-life care
Singapore Why hiring more teachers makes sense, even with falling student numbers
Sybiha called on Russia to transport them to the Ukrainian border instead.
Earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had discussed the matter with Sybiha.
"These are Ukrainians released by Russians from prisons and penal colonies in Russia-controlled territory," Zelenskiy said.
"Ukrainian diplomats are arranging the transit of these citizens of our state back to Ukraine." REUTERS
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
5 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Second US appeals court open to blocking Trump's birthright citizenship order
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: People protest on the day the Supreme Court justices hear oral arguments over U.S. President Donald Trump's bid to broadly enforce his executive order to restrict automatic birthright citizenship, outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 15, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo U.S. President Donald Trump's order restricting birthright citizenship appeared on Friday to be headed toward being declared unconstitutional by a second federal appeals court, as judges expressed deep skepticism about a key piece of his hardline immigration agenda. A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sharply questioned a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice as to why they should overturn two lower-court judges who blocked the order from taking effect. Those lower-court judges include one in Boston who last week reaffirmed his prior decision to block the order's enforcement nationally, even after the U.S. Supreme Court in June curbed the power of judges to broadly enjoin that and other policies. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week became the first federal appeals court to hold Trump's order is unconstitutional. Its ultimate fate will likely be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Department attorney Eric McArthur said on Friday that the citizenship clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 after the U.S. Civil War, rightly extended citizenship to the children of newly-freed enslaved Black people. "It did not extend birthright citizenship as a matter of constitutional right to the children of aliens who are present in the country temporarily or unlawfully," he said. But the judges questioned how that argument was consistent with the Supreme Court's 1898 ruling interpreting the clause in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, long understood as guaranteeing American citizenship to children born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents. "We have an opinion by the Supreme Court that we aren't free to disregard," said Chief U.S. Circuit Judge David Barron, who like his two colleagues was appointed by a Democratic president. Trump's executive order, issued on his first day back in office on January 20, directs agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of U.S.-born children who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident, also known as a "green card" holder. Every court to consider the order's merits has declared it unconstitutional, including the three judges who halted the order's enforcement nationally. Those judges included U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston, who ruled in favor of 18 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, who had swiftly challenged Trump's policy in court. "The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized children born to individuals who are here unlawfully or who are here on a temporary basis are nonetheless birthright citizens," Shankar Duraiswamy, a lawyer for New Jersey, argued on Friday. The 6-3 conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 sided with the administration in the litigation by restricting the ability of judges to issue so-called universal injunctions and directing lower courts that had blocked Trump's policy nationally to reconsider the scope of their orders. But the ruling contained exceptions, allowing federal judges in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and the 9th Circuit to issue new decisions stopping Trump's order from taking effect nationally. The rulings on appeal to the 1st Circuit were issued by Sorokin and the New Hampshire judge, who originally issued a narrow injunction but more recently issued a new decision in a recently-filed class action blocking Trump's order nationwide. REUTERS
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Colombia ex-president Uribe sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, will appeal
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox BOGOTA - Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was sentenced by a judge on Friday to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official, in a long-running case over connections to former right-wing paramilitaries. Uribe was convicted of the two charges on Monday by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia in a witness-tampering case that has run for about 13 years. He has always maintained his innocence. Heredia read the sentence to the court in an afternoon hearing on Friday. Uribe will be fined $578,000, Heredia's ruling said, and barred from public office for more than eight years. Uribe, whose legal team has said he will appeal the ruling, is to report to authorities in Rionegro, in Antioquia province, where he resides, and then "proceed immediately to his residence where he will comply with house arrest," the ruling said. Uribe and his lawyers appeared virtually at the afternoon hearing. There is an appeal hearing scheduled for August 4. The conviction made Uribe the country's first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial and came less than a year before Colombia's 2026 presidential election, in which several of Uribe's allies and proteges are competing for top office. It could also have implications for Colombia's relationship with the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that Uribe's conviction was a "weaponization of Colombia's judicial branch by radical judges" and analysts have said there could be cuts to U.S. aid in response. Uribe, 73, and his supporters have always said the process is a persecution, while his detractors have celebrated it as deserved comeuppance for a man who has been accused for decades of close ties with violent right-wing paramilitaries but never convicted of any crime until now. TESTIMONIES FROM FORMER PARAMILITARIES Uribe, who was president from 2002 to 2010 and oversaw a military offensive against leftist guerrillas, was charged over allegations he ordered a lawyer to bribe jailed paramilitaries to discredit claims he had ties to their organizations. Those claims stemmed from leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda, who collected testimonies from former paramilitaries who said Uribe had supported their organizations in Antioquia, where he once served as governor. Uribe alleged in 2012 that Cepeda orchestrated the testimonies in a plot to tie him to the paramilitaries, but the Supreme Court ruled six years later that Cepeda had not paid or pressured the ex-paramilitaries. Instead, the court said it was Uribe and his allies who pressured the witnesses. Cepeda has been classed as a victim in the case and attended both Monday and Friday's hearings in person. Two jailed former paramilitaries testified that Diego Cadena, the lawyer formerly representing Uribe, offered them money to testify in Uribe's favor. Cadena, who is also facing charges, has denied the accusations and testified, along with several other ex-paramilitaries, on Uribe's behalf. Each charge carried a potential sentence of six to 12 years. Uribe, who was placed under house arrest for two months in 2020, is head of the powerful Democratic Center party and was a senator for years both before and after his presidency. He has repeatedly emphasized that he extradited paramilitary leaders to the United States. Colombia's truth commission says paramilitary groups, which demobilized under deals with Uribe's government, killed more than 205,000 people, nearly half of the 450,000 deaths recorded during the ongoing civil conflict. Paramilitaries, along with guerrilla groups and members of the armed forces, also committed forced disappearances, sexual violence, displacement and other crimes. Uribe joins a list of Latin American leaders who have been convicted and sometimes jailed, including Peru's Alberto Fujimori, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Argentina's Cristina Fernandez and Panama's Ricardo Martinelli. REUTERS
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Tesla ordered by Florida jury to pay over $400m in Autopilot crash
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A Tesla car passing the US Courthouse in Miami, Florida, where the case is being heard. MIAMI - A Florida jury on Aug 1 found Tesla liable in the 2019 fatal crash of an Autopilot-equipped Model S, and ordered Elon Musk's automaker to pay US$329 million (S$424 million) to the family of a deceased woman and an injured survivor. The payout includes US$129 million of compensatory damages and US$200 million of punitive damages. Tesla was sued by the estate of Naibel Benavides Leon, and by her former boyfriend Dillon Angulo. The lawsuit concerned an April 25, 2019 incident where George McGee drove his 2019 Model S at about 100kmh through an intersection into the victims' parked Chevrolet Tahoe as they were standing beside it on a shoulder. 'Tesla designed Autopilot only for controlled access highways yet deliberately chose not to restrict drivers from using it elsewhere,' Mr Brett Schreiber, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. 'Today's verdict represents justice for Naibel's tragic death and Dillon's lifelong injuries.' Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment. REUTERS
