Press digest – Ukraine

43rd day of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Every morning, starting March 17, a nationwide minute of silence has been declared throughout Ukraine at 9:00am Kyiv time.

“We will remember the Ukrainians who gave their lives, all the military, civilians and children” (c) President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌More than 464 children are among casualties due to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, out of them – 167 children killed. These data are not finalized yet, as finding out the precise data is still in progress in the locations with active hostilities.

📌 Three people were killed in the artillery shelling of the Russian-occupied Balakliya Kharkiv region), April 6, evening.

📌Russian occupiers forcibly deported the patients and doctors from the city hospital №4 in Mariupol to the occupied districts of Donetsk region.

📌 Russian troops continue preparation for the attack in eastern Ukraine, they do regrouping, increase aviation and control systems, continue reconnaissance. Russia is focusing its main efforts on capturing Mariupol, conducting an offensive in the Izyum area, and trying to break through the defenses in the Donetsk direction.

📌In Kakhovka (Kherson region), the Russian military abducted Valery Saltykov, a deputy of the regional council from the European Solidarity, head of the village of Osokorivka. Serhiy Kunets was delivering bread for the population. The man has been held hostage for several days by now.

📌Russian military commissariats have stepped up their work with conscripts who have resigned from military service after 2012. In the territory of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, (a state in Eastern Europe that is internationally recognised as part of Moldova) agitation work is carried out with the population having Russian citizenship.

📌Ukrainian TV presenter Dmytro Komarov demonstrated the consequences of the Russian occupation after the liberation of Chernihiv region. The village was completely destroyed, and the grenades left giant funnels.

📌Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, almost 4.5 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave for Europe and other countries.

📌Russian troops launched an airstrike on the only Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk railway overpass from cities such as Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Lyman. Three evacuation trains were temporarily blocked in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

📌According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the Zaporizhia region, the Russian occupiers banned males from leaving for the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.

📌In Ukrainian cities, which are completely or partially occupied by the Russian army, forced mobilization into the armed forces of the Russian Federation begins, said Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova. To remind, the conscription of Russian citizens living in the temporarily occupied Crimea violates Article 51 IV of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which prohibits the occupying authorities from forcing to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces.

📌Since the beginning of the war, Ukrainian police have recorded almost 5,000 violations of laws and customs of war by Russia.

📌Almost 90% of the civilians killed in Bucha in the Kyiv region were found to have bullet wounds, not shrapnel wounds. The mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk reported on it. He added that three mass graves had been found in the city. As of April 7, the bodies of 320 people had been found.

📌 Photo of the day

This lady is Liudmyla from Borodianka. Ukrainian rescuers brought her a chair, because she has been standing there for three days waiting. She is waiting for her sister and nephew to be taken out from under the rubble. They are the only family she has. The building  was destroyed on March 1.

RUSSIAN CONTEXT

⚠️About 60 Pskov paratroopers refused to fight in Ukraine – Russian media.

⚠️ The Russian authorities forcibly deliver conscripts from the Crimea, including citizens of Ukraine, to designated collection points and imposed a ban on leaving the peninsula.

📌 Event of the day 

The UN General Assembly suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council due to gross and systematic human rights violations in Ukraine by the Russian military.

The decision was supported by 93 countries.

 

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌In the United States, Ukrainian military learned how to use kamikaze drones Switchblade. Ukraine will receive two types of such drones, and the operators who studied in the United States will go to Ukraine shortly.

📌The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine together with Google experts are digitizing the consequences of the Russian invasion in the destroyed cities of Ukraine. The purpose of the project is to record the destruction caused by the Russian occupiers in Ukrainian cities and villages. The first results, panoramic photos of destroyed streets and buildings in Irpin, will be available next week.

📌The Armed Forces of Ukraine received the first batch of American-made dry meal rations. They were purchased with funds raised through the crypto fund. In total, the fund purchased 410,000 such rations for the needs of the Ukrainian military for a total of $ 3,792,500.

📌According to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal, the war caused Ukraine losses of more than 1 trillion dollars. At the beginning of March, direct losses amounted to more than 560 billion dollars. If we add the losses of GDP in the long term perspective,  from the destroyed production facilities and destroyed infrastructure, the amount of losses significantly exceeds 1 trillion dollars.

📌Germany and the Czech Republic will treat heavily injured Ukrainian rescuers. Already three SES employees from Kyiv, Kyiv region and Zaporizhia region were taken to Frankfurt, and from there –  to specialized clinics.

📌A group of special operations of the Armed Forces again seized a few units of the enemy’s air defense equipment. These are the BUK and the combat control point of the BUK M1 complex. The captured equipment is good to use and will be handed to the Armed Forces.

📌 “Within April 6-7, 16 diversionist and reconnaissance groups were caught in Kyiv by joint actions of the Armed Forces, Intelligence and the National Police of Ukraine,” said Deputy Chief of Staff of the Land Forces Command, Brigadier General Oleksandr Gruzevych.

📌Container towns for Ukrainians evacuated from hot spots have started to be built in Lviv region. The mayor of the city Andrey Sadovy reported about it. In general, several such towns will be located in the region with the assistance of Poland and the local community.

📌“The repair of the Kyiv-Chop highway, which was damaged by Russian troops during the rocket attack, has begun”, said Deputy Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

📌The Security Service of Ukraine interviewed almost 2,000 witnesses to the atrocities of the Russian occupiers in the Kyiv region. This helped reveal 33 collaborators who worked with the Russians.

 

CYBER-RESISTANCE AND DIGITAL VICTORIES

📌 Intel is shutting down completely in Russia. Earlier, the company announced only the cessation of supplies of its products to Russia and Belarus.

📌Twitter restricts access to Russian government accounts. The official Twitter blog explained that the new policy is designed to address the “serious information imbalance” that arises when an authoritarian government blocks access to online platforms while continuing to use the same platforms for propaganda.

📌 Avid Technology, an American company majoring in audio and video technologies, has stopped selling and supporting all customers, users and resellers in Russia and Belarus.

📌Developer Bumble Inc. announced the termination of its activities in Russia, as well as the removal of all its applications from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in Russia and Belarus. The company owns dating services Bumble and Badoo.

📌 Havas Group announced the suspension of new investments in Russia indefinitely in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

 

HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS AND EVACUATION UPDATES

📌As of the evening of April 7, 4,676 people were evacuated through humanitarian corridors. 3,256 people traveled to Zaporizhia by their own transport and evacuation buses from Mariupol and Berdyansk. 1,205 of them are from Mariupol.

📌2,050 people arrived from the cities of Zaporizhia region: Pologi, Vasylivka, Berdyansk and Melitopol.

📌Today a convoy of 9 evacuation buses will arrive in Melitopol. Humanitarian aid will also be delivered by the buses.

📌 “Tomorrow we will continue working on the humanitarian corridor for Mariupol and the blocked cities of Zaporizhia region, as well as for the evacuation of people from the cities of Luhansk region,” said Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

 

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s daily statements 

📌President Zelensky addressed the parliaments of Greece and Cyprus, thanking for the support of Ukraine and calling to do even more both at the EU and national levels to end the war in Ukraine.

📌Vladimir Zelensky gave an interview to the Indian TV channel Republic Media Network and spoke about the atrocities of the Russian military in Ukraine and negotiations with Russia after Bucha, as well as about the guarantors of security. The President invited India, as the world’s largest democracy, to be the guarantor of Ukraine’s security in the future.

 

PUBLIC AND BUSINESS SUPPORT

📌Pope Francis condemned the massacres in Bucha. He unfurled a Ukrainian flag sent to him from that city. “Recent news from the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, brought new atrocities, such as the massacre of Bucha,” the pontiff said.

📌In Berlin, a huge number of people held a rally in support of Ukraine and called on the West to stop trading in energy resources ​​with Mordor. Similar protests took place outside the German embassy in Vilnius and near the Georgian parliament.

📌Activists in the Polish LEROY MERLIN changed the inscriptions on the price tags. Buckets are now “containers for human remains”, hammers – “goods for murder, Leroy supports the genocide in Ukraine”, floor brushes “a set to cover up guilt.”

📌 Oxxxymiron held the third charity concert in support of Ukrainian refugees Russians Against War at the Huxleys Neue Welt in Berlin.

📌 A legendary American heavy metal band Metallica’s charity has donated $500,000 towards food supplies for Ukrainian refugees. The heavy metal legends’ All Within My Hands Foundation made a generous donation to the World Central Kitchen, the non-profit providing meals to victims of the war amid the humanitarian crisis.

📌American director of “Transformers” and “Armageddon” Michael Bay supported Ukraine in the war against Russia. He condemned the journalist for being interested in insignificant things while children are being killed in Ukraine: “There are babies getting blown up in Ukraine right now. We should be talking about that.” 

📌 The Weeknd released a music video Out Of Time and banned it from being shown in Russia.

📌Activists from Latvia started supplying ATVs adapted to military conditions to Ukraine. This weekend, the third batch of the vehicles was sent from the LV-Teh plant.

📌China’s state-owned oil refineries avoid new oil contracts with Russia, despite big discounts, – Reuters.

 

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌The U.S. Senate voted to refrain from importing energy from Russia. It was followed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

📌The European Parliament supported the resolution calling for a full and immediate embargo on imports of Russian energy: oil, gas, coal and nuclear fuel. This was announced by MEP Guy Verhofstadt.

📌Since the beginning of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, 18 countries have expelled 318 Russian diplomats.

📌 The US, UK, EU and G7 have completely banned all new investments in Russia.

📌The Netherlands has arrested 14 yachts belonging to Russian citizens.

📌Denmark froze the assets of Russian citizens in the amount of 11.8 million dollars.

📌The U.S. Treasury has suspended the ability of the Russian Federation to service the debt from blocked accounts in American banks.

📌President of Poland Andrzej Duda supported the statement of Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia’s actions in Bucha are genocide of the Ukrainian people.

📌The House of Deputies of the Czech parliament unanimously recognized the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-33 as an act of genocide of the Ukrainian people. Earlier, the Czech Republic recognized the Holodomor only as a criminal act of the totalitarian regime of Soviet power.

📌 Russia’s ambassador to Canada was summoned to the Canadian Foreign Ministry to show the atrocities of the Russian occupiers in Irpen and Bucha.

 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba’s daily statements 

📌“When it comes to the fate of the century, only suicides and hypocrites can think of business interests”, – Dmytro Kuleb on the new sunctions against Russian Federation.

📌In addition to a new package of the powerful sanctions, which the world has already applied to Russia and Belarus, Dmytro Kuleba also named significant goals of the struggle on the diplomatic front:

🖇Full oil, gas and coal embargo (Ukraine wins on coal, oil next);

🖇Closure of world ports for all Russian ships and goods (we are already winning in the EU, more is coming);

🖇Disconnection of all Russian banks from SWIFT;

🖇Blocking ways to circumvent sanctions and preventing unjustified exceptions to already applied sanctions.

📌 “Weapons love silence. I will say just one thing – Ukraine will have what to defend itself with”, –  Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after meeting with NATO colleagues. On a separate note, the Minister added that most of his colleagues personally expressed admiration for the heroism of the Ukrainian nation.

📌 Tweet of the day