Seventh month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of September 9, 2022

#RussiaIsATerroristState #ArmUkraineNow

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 More than 1,126 children were affected by the Russian armed aggression in Ukraine. 383 children were killed, and another 743 were wounded.

📌As of September 6,236 children in Ukraine were reported missing due to the war. 7,343 children were forcefully deported, 5,391 were found, and 55 were returned to Ukraine.

📌At least 3,500 missiles have been fired at Ukraine by the Russian Federation since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

📌 Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine: Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russian shelling in Ukraine has killed more than 7,000 civilians, and 5,500 were wounded. 

📌CHERNIHIV REGION:

• On September 3, more than 50 explosions: the Russians shelled the Chernihiv region. The Russians have carried out massive shelling of the Novhorod-Siverskyi community, and residential and farm buildings were damaged. There were no casualties among the civilian population, and residential and farm buildings were damaged.

📌SUMY REGION:

• On September 4, there were about 100 missile arrivals from multiple rocket launchers, self-propelled guns, and mortars on the territory of the region overnight.

📌KYIV REGION:

• The remains of people killed and burned by the Russians were found in one of the garages in Bucha. Bones were found in the garage, and the premise itself was completely burnt out. According to the residents, during the occupation, the Russian military killed several civilians there. The law enforcement officers found chains, a cross, a six-angled star, a hairpin and keys at the site.

📌DONETSK REGION:

• Another school in the Donetsk region was destroyed by the Russians. On September 5, the Russians launched a missile attack on the gymnasium – they destroyed one wing of the 4-story building and damaged nearby high-rise buildings.

• The Russian military destroyed the building of a psychiatric hospital in Kramatorsk. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but the medical facility was seriously damaged.

On September 8, the Russians hit the Bakhmut Palace of Culture – 2 people were wounded. A sports complex was damaged in the town of Soledar. The Russians launched a rocket attack on the town of Kurákhove – they hit a private house and the road.

📌 KHARKIV REGION:

• One of the Russian missiles hit a restaurant in the Kyivskyi District of Kharkiv on the night of September 4. Almost the entire area of the complex was engulfed by fire, rescuers prevented it from spreading to the woods nearby.On September 7, the Russians shelled the village of Mala Tokmachka. 5 people were seriously wounded, and 3 were killed. They were receiving humanitarian aid in one of the courtyards.
  • On September 8, the Russians launched 5 missile strikes on the city’s infrastructure. The object of critical infrastructure, premises on the production territory were damaged. 2 people were killed and 5 were wounded due to the shelling of the Industrialnyi District of the city.

  📌 ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION:

  • Russian troops do not allow humanitarian cargo to enter the occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region according to the mayor of Enerhodar. 
  • On September 4, Russians settle in schools near Zaporizhzhia, hiding behind children as a “human shield”: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 
  • The Russians banned the import of any essential goods into the temporarily occupied Melitopol. 
  • Filtration measures and repressions against the local population are intensifying in the temporarily seized city of Enerhodar. The occupation authorities have failed to achieve a minimum level of loyalty and are widely using oppression, abduction and blackmail.

📌 Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant:

• On September 2, workers of ZNPP connected the fifth unit to the grid, power build-up is ongoing, reports Energoatom. 
• Russian military equipment was removed from ZNPP before IAEA mission arrived – General Staff. «In connection with the arrival of the IAEA mission, the occupiers removed all the military equipment from the territory of Zaporizhzhia NPP. About 100 equipment units were redeployed to Atomenergomash Plant, and the rest was spread across the closest settlements,” the report states.
• On September 4, Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant once again lost connection to the last remaining main external power line. At the same time, the plant continues to supply electricity to the Zaporizhzhia thermal power plant through a reserve line. 
• On September 5, due to a fire caused by shelling, the last line connecting the ZNPP with the Ukrainian energy system was disconnected. On the same day, Ukraine lost control over the level of radiation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. 

📌 MYKOLAIV REGION:

• Russian invaders again shelled Mykolaiv on September 3 and the region’s communities: an 8-year-old child was killed, and a woman was wounded by shrapnel.

On September 4, the Russians hit a grain elevator in the Mykolaiv region, destroying several thousand tons of grain. Also, Mykolaiv was subjected to a massive missile attack with S-300 systems. 3 medical and 2 educational institutions, a hotel, a museum, and residential buildings were “substantially damaged”.

• On September 5, the Russian military shelled Mykolaiv with S-300 missiles at night. An industrial enterprise on the outskirts of the city was struck, and the industrial premises and the roof of buildings were damaged. Preliminarily, there were no casualties.

📌DNIPROPETROVSK REGION:

• On September 3, the Russian military launched 5 missiles at the city of Dnipro at night. Ukrainian air defence shot down all of the missiles. Falling debris caused several fires, but they were quickly extinguished. No one was wounded.
• On September 3, Russians shelled the Dnipropetrovsk region. As a result of shelling in the town of Zelenodolsk, 9 people were injured, including a 10-year-old boy. All of them are in the hospital. The invaders bombarded the town with Uragan multiple rocket launchers using cluster shells. Residential and administrative buildings, as well as industrial infrastructure facilities, were damaged in the town.

📌KHERSON REGION:

• Russians detain and abduct people in the Kherson region. The occupation authorities are intensifying filtration measures to lower patriotic sentiments among the population. In particular, the Russians, including the Kadyrovtsy (a paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia), detain and kidnap people, said the speaker of the Odesa Regional Military Administration Serhii Bratchuk. He added that partisans in the region continue to work, so punishment is inevitable.
• The Russian invaders forbid residents of the Kherson region to cross the Dnipro River and restrict their movement amid counterattacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine — report from the General Staff.
• The invaders turned off the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. Part of the territory of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions was left without electricity.

📌 Pensioners in the Kherson region got out of the occupation zone by themselves. People walked for several kilometres and waded through the Ingulets River before reaching the nearest settlement controlled by Ukraine. Now, the evacuated people have already reached a safe place and received temporary shelter.

📌15 civilians who died at the hands of the Russian invaders yet were buried in Bucha. Among the buried, only two people have been identified.

📌On September 5, the representatives of the IAEA mission completed their work at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and left the plant. Enerhoatom reported this. 2 experts are expected to continue their work at the ZNPP permanently.

📌On September 6, the IAEA released a report on the results of the mission to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant:

• The report says that there is an urgent need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident, which may occur due to military actions.
• Besides, there is a need for all parties to agree on the creation of a protective zone around the Zaporizhzhia NPP to avoid damage – the IAEA is ready to immediately start consultations leading to the urgent creation of such a nuclear safety zone.
• The Agency also stated that the shelling of the plant and its surroundings must be stopped to maintain the physical integrity of the NPP. The recorded consequences of the shelling at the plant were made public.
• Rafael Rossi said that while past strikes have not yet caused a nuclear emergency, they pose a constant threat to nuclear safety.
• The Agency says that the personnel ensures the safety at the ZNPP, but the presence of the military, equipment and representatives of Rosatom puts pressure on them and they are in “difficult circumstances”. Therefore, the IAEA recommends that all people and equipment that could affect the safety of the plant be removed from ZNPP.

RUSSIAN AND BELORUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️Recently, Vladimir Putin signed a decree to increase the number of Russian armed forces to more than 1.15 million people, which means that the number of military personnel should potentially increase by 137 thousand. But the increase is unlikely to enhance Russia’s combat power – partly because of current losses – said the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom.

⚠️️Russia wants to give “veterans” of the war against Ukraine land in the occupied Crimea and the Moscow suburbs. According to the relevant draft decree, the authorities of the Moscow region, as well as the occupation administrations of Sevastopol and Crimea, are recommended “to adopt legislative acts, establishing the right of citizens to acquire land plots in ownership for free”.

⚠️️ Due to the lack of high-precision weapons, the Russians more often use outdated S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles. More than 500 such missiles have been fired at the territory of Ukraine, some of which have failed to reach their targets. The Russian invaders have several thousand such missiles in their arsenal, but most of them are unserviceable. 

⚠️️President Vladimir Putin approved a new foreign policy doctrine based on the concept of the “Russian world” to justify foreign intervention in support of the Russian-speaking population – Reuters.

• “The Russian Federation provides support to its compatriots living abroad in exercising their rights, ensuring the protection of their interests and preserving Russian cultural identity,” the text says.
• According to the doctrine, Russia’s ties with compatriots abroad allowed it to “strengthen its image in the international arena as a democratic country striving to create a multipolar world.”
• The new policy states that the Russian Federation should expand cooperation with the Slavic peoples, China and India and further strengthen ties with the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.

⚠️️Bloomberg: Russia will lose $6.6 billion annually if gas supplies to the EU stop. The publication reported this, citing a secret report of the government of the Russian Federation.

⚠️️Belarusian troops started training near the Ukrainian and Polish borders — the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus. The Ministry of Defense said that the military exercises would continue until September 14. The purpose of the command-and-staff exercises was to practice the cohesion of troops units and their command and control. Troops will practice “liberation of captured territories” actions, taking control of borders, and air support of troops, as well as combating illegal formations and sabotage groups.

⚠️️Residents of Transnistria refuse to sign contracts with the Russian army, and there is mass desertion in the “operational group of troops” — Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 In total, more than 1,000 square kilometres of our territory have been liberated since September 1 — Volodymyr Zelensky.

📌The Ukrainian flag has already flown over the town of Balakliia. The flag appeared on the roof of the district state administration. At the same time, it is noted that, even though Balakliia has returned under the control of the Ukrainian military, there is still an ongoing clean-up of Russian invaders, who may still be hiding in the town.

Video: Ukrainian flags returning to Russian-occupied territories.

📌 Thousands of fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already been trained abroad. According to the official representative of the General Staff Oleksiy Gromov, this is more than 4,000 servicemen who have received skills and knowledge in 14 countries of the world. Of them:

• more than 2 thousand trained gunners;

• 1000 specialists in MLRS and air defense;

• 200 specialists in the repair of anti-tank weapons;

• 100 soldiers for maintenance of radar systems.

📌Enemy private military companies suffer significant losses – General Staff. It is already known that the bodies of many dead invaders are not identified and are considered missing. Separate divisions of the Russian invaders account for more than 40% of the seriously wounded and killed.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 Almost 600 people have been returned from Russian captivity to Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the full-scale invasion – about 100 civilians, including 53 children, and the rest are military personnel.

📌Over the three-day period from September 1st to September 3rd, Bayraktar drones have destroyed and damaged Russian equipment worth more than $28 million — Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

📌The Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down a rare Russian drone “Kartograf”. This rare and expensive unmanned aerial vehicle has 80-megapixel cameras with 12 lenses.

📌The Russian banks have lost 25 billion USD in the last half a year. 40% of the largest, backbone Russian banks have sustained losses, according to Dmitry Tulin, the First Deputy Head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. 

📌On September, 4, the largest caravan with Ukrainian grain – 13 ships – left the ports of Odesa, the Ministry of Infrastructure reported. A total of 282.5 thousand tons of Ukrainian agricultural products are on board these 13 ships, which are now sent to eight countries of the world.

📌Russian invaders in Mariupol are removing the Z-swastika from their vehicles, according to Ukrainian resistance representatives in the city. 

“Russian officers who live with us, from Yalta to Babakh-Tarma, massively removed the Z-swastika from their cars and stuck our AN and AR numbers instead of Russian license plates,” the report says.

📌The UN mission, in the coming days, will arrive in Olenivka, where Ukrainian Azov prisoners of war were killed. Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, stated this at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

📌“Invitations will be sent out soon” for the summit, scheduled to take place on 6-7 October in Prague, with leaders of the six Western Balkan countries, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Türkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan expected to receive them, the EU official told reporters.

📌 On September 8, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit. The Associated Press reports that Blinken is expected to announce a new aid package worth more than two billion dollars for Ukraine and other European countries, “potentially threatened by Russia in the future”.

📌Resistance movement in Kherson: Passport of the Russian Federation is about slavery, poverty, and isolation. The Yellow Ribbon movement activists continue to work in Kherson at the cost of their safety and freedom.

PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌The Swedish manufacturer of household appliances Electrolux decided to leave Russia. The subsidiary will be sold, the business will be transferred to local management.

📌 Finland announced the provision of a new humanitarian aid package to Ukraine in the amount of 35 million euros.

📌Denmark is going to supply military uniforms and winter clothing for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

📌 Germany will give money allocated for Ukrainian culture support to Russian mass media. It is about 20 million euros of aid to Ukrainian culture previously announced by Germany.

📌 Germany to allocate $200 million to help displaced people in Ukraine.

📌 The World Bank has approved 70 loans, totalling more than $14.4 billion and €2.1 billion over 30 years of cooperation with Ukraine, of which $11.8 billion and €1.2 billion have been received so far.

📌Russia was deprived of the right to host the 2023 World Shooting Championship. The tournament was moved to Azerbaijan.

📌Great Britain is significantly expanding the training program for the Ukrainian military — Sky News. The duration of the course has been extended from three to five weeks and is based on basic infantry training. Extending the course will provide more advanced training, such as trench and urban warfare, vehicle operations and battlefield training.

📌Ukraine signed a number of documents and received access to funding for digital projects under the EU Digital Europe program for €6 billion.

📌The EU and Ukraine signed a document on the allocation of assistance to Kyiv in the amount of €500 million. The funds will be used to finance the construction of housing and education for internally displaced persons.

📌Three Bayraktar TB2 drones arrived in Ukraine, the money for which was collected as part of the People’s Bayraktar project. As a result, the manufacturer decided to transfer these drones to Ukraine for free. With the money raised, Ukrainian people purchased a year’s access to the database of satellite images of the ICEYA constellation and one of the satellites.

📌 Estonia, Latvia, and Poland allocate the largest amount of aid to Ukraine to the ratio of allocated resources and GDP of these countries. 

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy took into account only official financial, humanitarian and military aid from January 24 to August 3, 2022. But when compiling the rating, the costs of accommodating Ukrainian refugees were not considered.

📌The people of Ukraine were awarded the German M100 Media Award for defending freedom and sovereignty in the fight against the Russian invasion.

📌The absolute majority of Europeans are in favour of supporting Ukraine and reducing dependence on Russian gas. This is evidenced by the Eurobarometer public opinion survey as of June-July 2022. The absolute majority is in support of Ukraine in relation to the attack by the Russian Federation. 78% support economic sanctions against Russian elites and businesses. 86-87% of respondents agree that EU countries need to invest more in renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on Russian gas.

📌Three “People’s Bayraktar” drones arrived in Ukraine — volunteer Serhii Prytula. The drones were named Khalepa (“Trouble”), Kovinka (“Stick”) and Triastsia (“Dammit”). Each of the three boards has stickers with the words «People’s Bayraktar» and drawings of a special embroidery ornament, designed by a Lviv craftswoman.

📌According to their information, the Pentagon intends to offer the Armed Forces of Ukraine a long-term cooperation program, which will take into account both the military assistance received by Ukraine and the one that is still planned.

📌Ukraine will receive 105-mm howitzers from Lithuania, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense reported.

📌Biden approved a new U.S. aid package to Ukraine of about $675 million — the Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin at the opening of the Ramstein-5 defence ministers meeting. According to Mr. Austin, the package will include 105-mm howitzers, artillery ammunition, HARM missiles, Humvee military trucks, armoured ambulances, and small arms.

📌The United States has supplied Ukraine with its most accurate Excalibur GPS-guided artillery projectiles.  The Excalibur, with precise guidance, allows commanders on the battlefield to aim targets more accurately. It has a range of 40.5 kilometres, according to documents.

📌Norway will hand over 160 Hellfire missiles and night vision devices to Ukraine — the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence

📌The United Kingdom will hand over 120 tractors for military equipment to Ukraine. They will speed up the redeployment of equipment, including multiple rocket launchers.