Pro-Russian lawmaker Shufrych officially charged with treason
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Sept. 15 that it had charged pro-Russian lawmaker Nestor Shufrych with treason for subversive activities against Ukraine.
The SBU reported that Shufrych, elected for the now-banned party Opposition Platform — For Life, worked closely with a former Ukrainian official and an agent of Russian intelligence Volodymyr Sivkovych.
Sivkovych, who served as the deputy chairman of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council from 2010 to 2013 under pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, was charged with treason in July last year. He is currently hiding in Russia.
According to the SBU, one of Shufrych's main tasks was spreading pro-Kremlin narratives in Ukraine, such as that Ukraine is an artificial entity or that Russians and Ukrainians are a single nation. The lawmaker faces up to 15 years in prison.
The SBU added that the searches of Shufrych's premises are ongoing. Several Ukrainian outlets reported on Shufrych's charges and on the SBU searches shortly before the official announcement.
Russia tried to destroy Ukrainian bombers in overnight strike
Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said that a Russian overnight drone strike on Sept. 15 targeted Ukrainian bombers in response to an attack against a Russian shipyard in Sevastopol earlier this week.
On Sept. 13, Sevastopol's Sevmorzavod Shipyard in occupied Crimea suffered a strike that reportedly destroyed a Russian landing craft and seriously damaged a submarine.
Sky News reported that the Sevastopol attack was carried out using U.K.-supplied Storm Shadow missiles. The Air Force said earlier on Sept. 15 that all 17 Shahed "kamikaze" drones launched against Khmelnytskyi Oblast have been destroyed by air defense. The central-western Khmelnytskyi Oblast hosts the Starokostiantyniv Air Base, where the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade, operating Su-24 aircraft, is stationed.
In July, Russian forces tried to target the air base in a missile strike. Ihnat commented at the time that the attack was ineffective because the Air Force had protocols to protect the aircraft.
Over 500 children were killed in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
As a result of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, 504 children have been killed and 1,123 injured, the Prosecutor General's Office reported on Sept. 15, citing juvenile prosecutors.
The report stressed that these figures are not final as work to collect data in the areas of hostilities and in both occupied and liberated territories continues.
The majority of casualties among children, both in terms of killed and wounded, have been recorded in Donetsk Oblast (487), followed by Kharkiv Oblast (300), Kyiv Oblast (129), Kherson Oblast (124), Zaporizhzhia Oblast (99), Mykolaiv Oblast (97), Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (96), Chernihiv Oblast (71), and Luhansk Oblast (67), the prosecutors said.
Thousands of Ukrainian children have become victims of the Russian invasion, suffering deportations, separation from families, injuries, and death.
According to the Children of War database run by the Ukrainian state, 1,236 children have gone missing, 13 have been subjected to sexual abuse, and the Russian authorities have deported at least 19,546. Some 386 children have been rescued from the Russian captivity.