PRESS DIGEST – UKRAINE

Fourth month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of June 2, 2022

#ArmUkraineNow

JUNE 1 – INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY. RUSSIA KILLED 261 UKRAINIAN CHILDREN AND 460 WOUNDED IN 98 DAYS OF WAR

5.2 million children need humanitarian assistance due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine

These are just some of the many stories of children whose childhood was taken away by the Russian Federation

“My eyes darkened sharply. And this ear closed in. Then I opened my eyes. My legs are very burning. I didn’t know what was wrong with them. I wanted to get up. I cried, I was scared. And then I lift my legs – and not I don’t see where they are. They are gone.”

On April 8, 2022, Russian troops hit with Tochka-U the railway station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. Then 11-year-old Yana and her mother lost their legs.

“We were constantly in the basement. We could not go out, only approached the door, breathed air. Everything exploded. We could have been overwhelmed there,” says 8-year-old Vika.

She and her family lived in Avdiyivka, a few kilometers from the line of contact. She was born under shelling in eastern Ukraine. After the start of a full-scale war, she lost her home and favorite school.

12-year-old Ilya lived in a cold parking lot with his family for a long time before being evacuated from Mariupol.

His father says: “He was worried when he saw that there was water left for a day or two and we had nothing to drink,” Mykola recalls. – I noticed that he stopped drinking altogether. I asked, “Why don’t you drink?” And he replied: “We do not have enough water. Let it be for others.”

On April 23, 2022, a missile strike from Russian strategic aircraft hit a residential building in Odessa and killed a 3-month-old baby, her mother and grandmother. This happened on the eve of the celebration of Orthodox Easter.

On April 5, 2022, it became known about the murder of a 4-year-old boy Sasha, who together with his grandmother on a boat tried to evacuate across the Dnipro in Kyiv region. The whole of Ukraine has been looking for him since March 10.

19-month-old Alice and her mother spent 32 days in the Kharkiv metro as their house was destroyed by shelling. Due to unfavorable conditions, Alice fell ill and could not walk. The girl is currently undergoing rehabilitation at a hospital in Lviv.

5-year-old Arthur was on the verge of death from exhaustion. Prior to the evacuation from Mariupol, his diet consisted of a glass of water during the day and a piece of cookies in the evening, as the city was hungry.

After all he had been through, Arthur stopped talking and smiling. “About two o’clock in the morning he gets up, tries to run away and hides. Because at that time a plane was usually shooting at Mariupol,” says his mother.

18-month-old Kirill was wounded during the shelling of the Russian Federation in Mariupol on March 4. His parents managed to take him to the hospital, however, his life could not be saved.

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 Every second the Russians fire on Ukraine. The fighting in the east reached its maximum intensity. The fiercest battles are taking place in the Severodonetsk, Bakhmut and Kurakhiv directions. The fire is conducted along the entire line of contact.

📌 As of May 31, more than 20 settlements in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts were shelled, 45 civilian objects were destroyed and damaged. In addition:

• 80% of Severodonetsk is controlled by the Russians. The city’s critical infrastructure has been destroyed by almost 100%, 90% of the housing stock has been damaged, 60% of which is critical, i.e. it cannot be restored, – said the head of Luhansk region Serhiy Haidai. Due to the shelling, it is impossible to bring humanitarian goods to Severodonetsk, as well as to evacuate people. More than 10 people were injured.

• On May 30, the Russian military fired on a car carrying 10 people from the Luhansk region. The shelling killed French journalist Frederic Leclerc, who was working on the evacuation.
• In the Bakhmut district of Donetsk region, as a result of hostilities, the tightness of the branch of the ammonia pipeline “Togliatti – Odesa” was damaged. Ammonia flows out of it, and a cloud of ammonia moves over the ground from the village of May towards Bakhmut.
• In recent days, 11 civilians in Donetsk have been killed. Another 20 people were injured.
• In Lysychansk, two people have died and three others have been injured in recent days.
  📌The shelling of Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Kharkiv and border areas of Sumy and Chernihiv regions, as well as Lviv region continues:
• For last days in the Mykolayiv area 15 people were wounded, among victims one child.

• In the Kharkiv region, one elderly woman was killed and a 16-year-old boy and three others were injured in the shelling.
• During the shelling of the border area in the Sumy region, artillery shells filled with flashes were used.

• Due to the shelling of the Russian army in Chernihiv, 3 out of 5 large water pumping stations were completely destroyed.
• In the Kherson region, Russians continue to block travel to other regions. In addition, mobile communications and home Internet have disappeared in the region. Also on May 1, the Russian military blew up a bridge over the Ingulets River near Davydov Brod and Velyka Oleksandrivka, Kherson Region.
• 4 cruise missiles were launched into the territory of Lviv region. Significantly damaged railway infrastructure. 5 people were injured.

📌The Zaporizhzhya NPP has about 500 Russian troops, as well as a large number of equipment and explosives, so Ukraine cannot guarantee the security of the state and the world, although it controls the work of the ZNPP.

📌Russians began to deploy missile and cannon systems, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and electronic warfare stations on the island of Zmiiiny in the Odesa region.

📌Russian troops are building engineering positions 3 kilometers from the state border of Ukraine in the Bryansk region. – spokesman for the Ministry of Defense Alexander Motuzyanyk.

📌 The Russian military organizes provocations with the disguise of the Armed Forces in the temporarily occupied settlements of southern Ukraine, seizes and deports residents who agree to help them, believing them to be Ukrainian soldiers. – Vladislav Nazarov, spokesman for Pivden.

MARIUPOL NEWS

⚠️ The Russian military continues to keep thousands of Ukrainians as a human shield, including Mariupol residents, in the area of the Vasylivka checkpoint in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, – Mariupol Mayor’s Adviser Petro Andryushchenko.

⚠️ Russians are trying to hide their crimes. Approximately 16,000 Mariupol residents have been buried in mass graves since mid-April near the villages of Stary Krym, Mangush and Vynohradne. Another 5,000 people were buried by public utilities by mid-March. Thousands of bodies still remain under the rubble, in natural cemeteries and in temporary mortuaries.

⚠️ The Russian military snatched seven trolleybuses surviving in Mariupol and took them to the temporarily occupied Donetsk. Then they plan to repaint them in the colors of “United Russia” and launch in early June.

⚠️️ In Mariupol, the loading of rolled steel on a ship to Russia has been completed.

⚠️ The Russian military has started the procedure of accepting documents to obtain a Russian passport in Mariupol. To do this, Mariupol residents must first obtain a certificate of registration in Donetsk, and then submit documents for a passport in Novoazovsk to the DNP Migration Service.

⚠️ Mariupol residents are forced to work for water. Containers with drinking water have been installed in several parts of the city. But access to it is provided by military service. Most people are involved in clearing the city of rubbish, debris and corpses.

⚠️ As of May 31, 355 people, including 32 children, had been taken to the Bezimenne filtration camp. 324 Mariupol residents were deported to Russia, – adviser to the mayor Petro Andryushchenko.

RUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️ The Russian command holds hostage the families of those who are fighting in Ukraine. In the western military district of Russia, the families of officers were forbidden to leave the country. If the military refuses to perform combat missions, their wives and children are threatened with relocation to the depressed regions of the Far East.

⚠️ Russia sent troops and missiles to the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine.

⚠️️In the Gomel region of Belarus, bordering the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Zhytomyr regions of Ukraine, “scheduled exercises with military commissariats” will be held from June 22 to July 1, BelTA reports.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 The SSU has completed its investigation into the first rape case during the war. Ukrainian special services investigators have gathered enough evidence and eyewitness accounts to bring to justice a Russian serviceman suspected of killing and raping Kyiv residents. We are talking about Romanov Mikhail Sergeevich, a serviceman of unit 8954, stationed in Chebarkul, Chelyabinsk region. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has established that during the occupation of one of the settlements of Brovary district, this serviceman committed a number of crimes.

📌 The strike aircraft of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired on the occupying forces in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions. Up to ten air raids on enemy positions were carried out. Fire damage was inflicted on ammunition depots, accumulation of armored vehicles, and racist manpower.

📌 In Kharkiv, the establishment of a new unit of the Special Operations Forces of AZOV was officially announced. Fighters of the unit are already performing combat missions in Kharkiv region, approaching the liberation of the region from racists.

📌 In the Kherson region, more than 20 settlements have been liberated from the side of the Dnipropetrovsk region, – the head of the Kherson Regional State Administration Gennady Laguta.

📌 On May 30, a thousand people were evacuated from the temporarily occupied communities of Kharkiv region. This was announced by Pecheneg village head Alexander Gusarov.

📌 The number of Russian cruise missiles on board in the Black Sea has decreased to one. Several others went to the area of the temporarily occupied Crimea – a spokesman for the Odessa military administration Sergei Bratchuk.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 Erdogan had a telephone conversation with Putin – the President of Turkey invited him to hold a meeting of the delegations of Russia, Ukraine and the UN in Istanbul.

📌 Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia have joined the Joint Investigation Group to Investigate Serious International Crimes in Ukraine – Office of the Prosecutor General.

📌 Biden said that the United States will not send to Ukraine missile systems that can reach the territory of Russia – Reuters.

📌 French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna visited Bucha.

📌 The spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly took place on May 27-30 in the capital of the Republic of Lithuania, Vilnius. As a result, a declaration was adopted by which the NATO PA called on the governments of Allies to take concrete next steps to advance Ukraine’s membership in NATO and strengthen Russia’s opposition, the Verkhovna Rada said.

📌 For the first time, the Ukrainian delegation took part in a meeting of the Steering Committee of the Joint NATO Center for Advanced Technology in Cyber Defense (CCDCOE) in Tallinn. A technical agreement on accession is currently being prepared.

📌 EU countries agreed on embargo on Russian oil. The ban applies to maritime supplies, with the exception of pipelines. “This decision will actually reduce about 90% of Russia’s oil imports to the EU by the end of the year,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

📌 Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairman of the Bundestag’s defense committee, called on the federal government to deliver 50 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine as soon as possible.

📌 Hungary delays the approval of the sixth package of sanctions against Russia: demands the removal of Patriarch Kirill – Bloomberg.

📌 The Swiss government has blocked the supply of Swiss-made armored vehicles to Ukraine. The Danish government wants to hand over about 20 units of its Piranha III combat vehicle fleet to Ukraine as military aid. Without Bern’s permission, aid to Ukraine is impossible: when buying cars, Denmark undertook to transfer military equipment to a third party only with the permission of Switzerland.

📌 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the launch of a new operation in northern Syria to create a 30-kilometer security zone.

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌 The Minister of Defense of Slovakia confirmed the transfer to Ukraine of 8,155 mm of Zuzana 2 ACS.

📌 The leading Danish company Orsted has announced that it will stop supplying gas, as the deadline for payment is May 31.

📌 Russia has cut off gas supplies to the Netherlands. Trader GasTerra refused to buy Russian “blue” fuel for rubles.

📌 The European Union is ready to provide 9 billion euros in macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. This was written on Twitter by the President of the European Council Charles Michel.

📌 Ukraine will receive new batches of high-precision missiles with a longer range than Ukrainians now have, but not missiles capable of striking deep into Russia – former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

📌 The administration of US President Joe Biden has decided to hand over missile systems to Ukraine that will be able to hit targets at a distance of more than 64 kilometers, – reports WSJ.

📌 French President Emmanuel Macron has said that by the end of 2022 the European Union will reduce imports of Russian oil by 92%, – reports Ouest-France.

📌 Olaf Scholz stated that Germany will supply Ukraine with the most modern air defense system – “IRIS-T”.

📌 The European Union and the United Kingdom have agreed on a total ban on insuring ships carrying Russian oil.

📌 The United States has officially approved a new $ 700 million security package for Ukraine. This was stated by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

📌 Britain will send M270 multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine. – British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace.