Evening Standard Comment: Ukrainian children are dying — Putin cares nothing for human life

Christian Adams
WEST END FINAL

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Last week, five-year-old Semyon was killed by a Russian bullet. His sister, Polina, 10, perished too. Yesterday, six-year-old Tanya died from dehydration in Mariupol, a city with no water, trapped beneath the rubble of her home.

Children are the first victims of war and they are suffering unimaginable violence, trauma and loss in the face of Vladimir Putin’s war.

In his historic address to the Commons yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelensky told MPs that 50 children have been killed in Russia’s invasion of his country. People with their entire lives ahead of them, filled with dreams and bursting with potential who would be alive today but for this war of aggression.

From the breaking of humanitarian corridors to the alleged use of cluster bombs, Putin’s disregard for human life is plain for all to see.

Charging ahead

Writing in these pages yesterday, Sadiq Khan made his case for expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone to cover the entirety of Greater London. His argument was simple: thousands of people in our city are dying prematurely because of the toxic air they are forced to breathe, while the move would also help tackle the climate emergency.

To make the Ulez expansion work for Londoners, there need to be genuine alternatives and help to ditch older, more polluting vehicles. The mass roll-out of electric vehicle (EV) charging points is therefore mission-critical.

So we welcome the news that more than 700 charging points are set to be installed in three outer London boroughs — Newham, Brent and Redbridge — in a £5 million investment funded by Uber.

Placing EV plugs in plush driveways is one thing, but delivering them to the millions of drivers who live in blocks of flats or homes that do not have easy access to chargers is a trickier endeavour. Targeted investment in under-served boroughs is also critical.

Of course, there is further to go. We need an EV charging revolution in all of London. That will require joined-up action between investors, local authorities, City Hall and central Government. Funds for a scrappage scheme would also incentivise more to switch. Get this right and London will be a safer, healthier and fairer place to live.

Spirit of Endurance

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, was aptly named. After becoming trapped in the Antarctic ice in 1915 during Shackleton’s ill-fated bid to cross Antarctica via the South Pole, she could not be freed by the crew and was slowly crushed before they could make it onshore.

Shackleton brought his crew home, first by camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated, then launching the lifeboats to drift, row and sail to Elephant Island, then South Georgia, an expedition of 830 miles. It was testimony to the crew’s extraordinary courage and grit, which the Endurance symbolises.

Still resting at the bottom of the Weddell Sea, the vessel is in a remarkable state of preservation, her gold name plate clearly visible, her ship’s brasses still shining. Shackleton was from Ireland but Sydenham, where his family moved when he was a small boy, can share in the glory.

During difficult times, our own spirits can be raised by the Endurance, still there, the mute survivor of an astonishing feat of human tenacity.

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