Press digest – Ukraine

PRESS DIGEST – UKRAINE

Seventh month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of September 16, 2022

#RussiaIsATerroristState #ArmUkraineNow

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 More than 1,137 children were affected by the Russian armed aggression in Ukraine. 384 children were killed, and another 753 were wounded.

📌Russia has committed more than 40,000 war crimes in Ukraine — Andrii Smyrnov, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

📌 Police discover the mass grave of 440 bodies in Izium. All bodies will be exhumed and sent for forensic examination.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ office said it wanted to send a team to Izyum to verify Ukrainian allegations that a mass grave had been found after recapturing the city from Russia.

📌KYIV REGION:

  • In the village of Moschun, Kyiv region, near the forest, a skull was found sprinkled with the earth – these are the remains of a person killed by the Russian military during the occupation of the village. During the examination, it was established that there is damage to the bones of the skull, which may indicate that the person was executed.

📌DONETSK REGION:

  • Night shelling of Kramatorsk on the night of September 13-14. Russia shelled the private sector.
      • On September 15, the Russian invaders destroyed an apartment building in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. 4 people were under the rubble.On September 9, Russia shelled the central part of Kharkiv. Residential buildings and educational infrastructure facilities were damaged, and fires took place. 14 people were injured. Including three children of 3, 11 and 15 years old. Children are hospitalized in a medical facility. Doctors assess their condition as average. Their lives are not in danger. 4 adults have minor injuries and did not require hospitalization, they were treated on the spot.  The condition of the rest of the victims is satisfactory.

      📌LUHANSK REGION:

      • Russians in the temporarily occupied territories of the Luhansk region received only 2,400 applications for compensation for housing and property lost as a result of hostilities, according to the head of the Regional Military Administration Serhii Haidai. Even though most of the residential buildings in the villages of Rubizhne, Popasna, Sievierodonetsk, and Hirske were destroyed, other residents were found the reasons to refuse.

      📌 KHARKIV REGION:

    • On September 9, Russia shelled the central part of Kharkiv. Residential buildings and educational infrastructure facilities were damaged, and fires took place. 14 people were injured. Including three children of 3, 11 and 15 years old. Children are hospitalized in a medical facility. Doctors assess their condition as average. Their lives are not in danger. 4 adults have minor injuries and did not require hospitalization, they were treated on the spot.  The condition of the rest of the victims is satisfactory.
  • In the recently liberated village of Hrakovo, Kharkiv region, burial places of victims of Russian occupiers have already been discovered. After the village was liberated, a resident turned to the National Police with a statement about the crime committed by the Russian military. The victims have signs of torture.
  • On September 10, Russia shelled one of the districts of Kharkiv with multiple rocket launcher systems. One person is killed. The shells hit a residential building and an administrative and production building. A fire broke out at the site.

📌 ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION:

  • On September 11, 2022, the last power unit 6 of the Zaporizhzhia NPP was disconnected from the power grid. Preparations are underway for its cooling and putting it into a cold state.
  • On September 12,  the reserve power transmission line to the Zaporizhzhia NPP has been restored, the IAEA reports. “A backup transmission line to the Zaporizhzhia NPP in Ukraine has been restored, providing the plant with external power supply necessary for reactor cooling and other safety functions,” the report says.
  • 📌 MYKOLAIV REGION:
    • On September 11, the Russians opened heavy fire on the city of Mykolaiv – 9 people were wounded to varying degrees, and residential buildings were damaged.
    • On September 14,  the Russian shelled Mykolaiv. 2 people were killed and 3 were wounded. An educational institution, infrastructure facilities, and residential buildings were damaged, in particular, there was a hit near the nine- and five-story buildings.

📌POLTAVA REGION:

  • On September 11, due to the Russians shelling in Poltava, 3 trolleybuses caught fire right on the road due to power surges.

📌DNIPROPETROVSK REGION:

  • On September 11, Russian at night fired a missile at Dnipro and fired Nikopol with Grad multiple rocket launchers, wounding 4 people.

On September 14, Russian troops shelled the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight – residential buildings, gas pipelines, and power lines were damaged. Nearly 3,000 families were left without electricity. Some of them have already been reconnected. Power engineers continue to repair the networks.

On September 15, the Russians hit the Inhulets dam in Kryvyi Rih with Iskander and Kinzhal missiles. Due to the attack, the water level rose from one to almost two meters in different parts of the Inhulets River. So far, it has been reduced by 13 centimetres. The water has already flooded 112 residential buildings and the impact of the rocket has damaged several water pipes. Almost 5,000 people are without water in the Sofiivka community. Restoration work continues.

The Russians shelled the Nikopol and Kryvyi Rih districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region six times overnight on September 16. More than 40 Russian shells were fired at Nikopol by the Russians. A 57-year-old woman was wounded. 11 multi-story and private houses, a lyceum, a kindergarten, a social service centre, several enterprises, gas pipelines, and power lines were damaged in the city.

  • The invaders from the Russian Federation have banned the transportation of humanitarian aid for residents of occupied Kherson through Vasylivka. 

📌The missile terror that Vladimir Putin resorted to on September 11, leaving some regions of Ukraine without electricity and other needs, will occur more and more often, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. According to preliminary data from the Ministry of Energy, the September 11 shelling of energy facilities in Ukraine killed 4 energy workers and injured 3 more.

📌At least 1,000 civilians were killed in Izium due to the actions of the Russian military.

📌The bodies of 4 civilians with signs of torture and gunshot wounds to the head were found in the de-occupied village of Zaliznychne, Kharkiv region. According to residents, all of them had been killed by Russian soldiers.

📌After a successful counterattack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russians began to flee deep into the temporarily occupied territories or leave for Russia. While fleeing, they plunder everything they can get their hands on – cars, generators, phones, computers. The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine reported this.

📌Russian torture chamber in Balakliia, Kharkiv region. Opposite the posters with “Ukrainian Nazism” and a chair with a hammer, there were holding cells, screeds and traces of blood in another room.

📌Russia banned the UN from visiting places where Ukrainian prisoners of war are being held. This is also worrisome because observers have evidence of ill-treatment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said the head of the UN mission for human rights in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner. She added that the cases of torture and humiliation of Ukrainian human rights activists documented by the UN can be equated with war crimes.

RUSSIAN AND BELORUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️ The Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, criticized the “strategy” of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and stated that he would “contact the leadership of the country to explain the situation to them” if there are no changes in the war.

⚠️️For some reason, Russians advise collaborators to flee to Russia. On their information resources in Enerhodar, the occupiers posted an announcement in which “due to the aggravation of the situation” they recommend residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine to leave for the Russian Federation.

⚠️️ According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the loss of Izium jeopardizes the original plan of the Russian military campaign at this stage of the war and ensures that any Russian offensive near Bakhmut or around Donetsk cannot be decisive.

⚠️️The explanation of the Russian Ministry of Defense that the withdrawal of their units from the Kharkiv region is a planned “regrouping” designed to strengthen the Donetsk direction is the same lie as the “goodwill gesture” during the retreat from Kyiv at the end of March, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War says. 

⚠️️ Municipal deputies of 18 regions of Russia signed a petition demanding the resignation of Russian President Putin. The statement said that Putin’s actions harm the future of Russia and its citizens. At the time of writing, the petition has been signed by at least 20 municipal deputies.

⚠️️The Russian military command does not send new units to Ukraine, as the volunteers categorically refuse to serve — General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russians do not trust the high command. The situation is also affected by information about the actual number of killed and the attitude towards the wounded.

⚠️️ In the state of the enemy, the level of the moral and psychological state has significantly decreased, the General Staff reports.

⚠️️Employees of the Federal Security Service of Russia and the commanders of some military units, secretly from their subordinates, are trying to sell their housing and urgently take their relatives out of Crimea.

⚠️️ Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, called the document on security guarantees for Ukraine, which was presented in Zelensky’s office, a “prologue to World War III”.

⚠️️ Russia is increasingly purchasing weapons from other heavily sanctioned states, such as Iran and North Korea, as its stockpiles are depleted — British intelligence.

⚠️️ Russia massively cancels planned deployments of personnel to the war due to the refusal of the military to participate in combat operations in Ukraine — Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

⚠️️ After a successful counterattack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the defeat of Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, Russian authorities are intensifying hidden mobilization and recruitment for war in Ukraine — ISW.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌3.1 million tons of grain have already been exported from Ukrainian ports — Ministry of Infrastructure.

📌The Armed Forces of Ukraine has established fire control over almost the entire Kherson region — representative of the Operational Command “Pivden” (“South”). 

📌 Russia lost at least 5,800 pieces of military equipment in Ukraine. This figure was identified by the Oryx project, which collects information only from visually verified data. According to analysts, 3,668 vehicles were destroyed, 136 were damaged, 303 were abandoned, and 1,693 were captured.

📌The September 11 missile attacks on the thermal power plant cost the Russian Federation about $117 million. At the same time, Ukrainian air defences shot down missiles worth $97.5 million.

📌On 6-11 September, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed enemy equipment worth $670 million, much of which was destroyed during a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region — Forbes Ukraine.

📌The results of the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 This is what liberated Balakliia looks like. Trucks with food and medicine have already arrived in town, but there are still problems with water, electricity and food.

📌On September 15, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, arrived in Kyiv. This is already her third visit since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation of Ukraine.

📌The IAEA demands an immediate cessation of hostilities near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the organization’s director general Rafael Grossi said in a video message

“The energy infrastructure supplying Enerhodar was destroyed as a result of the shelling of the city thermal power plant. Now there is no water, electricity, or sewerage in Enerhodar. Restoration of ZNPP external power supply is unlikely. The IAEA says plant operators are considering shutting down the only remaining reactor. After that, the entire power plant will be completely dependent on emergency diesel generators,” Grossi said.

According to the head of the IAEA, it is necessary to immediately create a nuclear safety zone in this area. This is the only way to ensure that an accident does not occur.

📌The liberated territories of the Kharkiv region.

📌The Russian military is fleeing the territory of the Luhansk region, they are leaving even the towns that were occupied back in 2014. The Ukrainian flag, hung by the partisans, is flying in Kreminna — head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhii Haidai.

📌Activists of the “Yellow Ribbon” resistance movement in Simferopol, inspired by the counterattack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, continue to spread pro-Ukrainian graffiti and the yellow ribbon as a symbol.

📌On September 10, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit. 

📌In the war against Ukraine, Russia lost 57% of its missile potential. According to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, the NATO countries, probably fearing a direct clash with the Russian Federation, did not dare to close the sky. However, the Ukrainian air defence forces themselves began to successfully shoot down 

📌The Armed Forces of Ukraine defeated the elite Russian army, which was trained to defend Moscow and the war with NATO.

📌The Office of the President of Ukraine presented its vision of a future treaty on security guarantees for Ukraine. Thus, guarantees should be spelt out in bilateral agreements, which will be combined into a joint document on strategic partnership called the Kyiv Security Treaty.

This document will unite Ukraine with a group of guarantor states, which may include the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, and Turkey, as well as the countries of Northern and Baltic, Central, and Eastern Europe.

The guarantees, the vision of which was presented today at the Office of the President of Ukraine, are aimed at providing opportunities to deter an armed attack or act of aggression. But they will not replace the North Atlantic Alliance, which Ukraine seeks to join.

📌The IAEA Council adopted a resolution calling on the Russian Federation to withdraw its troops from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Reuters reports.

Russia and China voted against the adoption of the resolution. The Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN called the document “anti-Russian”, noting that it was “dragged” by Western countries.

PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌Ukraine and Poland have agreed to build a hub for the repair of military equipment, said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

📌 Ukraine received TheMIS tracked unmanned armoured personnel carriers from Estonia – they can be used to evacuate the wounded or deliver ammunition. Delfi published a photo of tests of such machines by Ukrainian military doctors at a training ground near Kyiv. MIS can carry weight up to 750 kg.

📌The EU Council approved the allocation of macroeconomic assistance to Ukraine of 5 billion euros, according to the Czech Ministry of Finance.

📌 The United States is ready to impose sanctions on companies buying Russian oil at a price above the limit — US Treasury.

📌 Spanish army will train the Ukrainian combat units in Saragosa, reports El Mundo, referring to the Ministry of Defense of Spain.

📌 Ukraine will receive about 530 million USD from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

📌The captain of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina refused to play in a friendly match with Russia.

📌 Since February 24, the United States supplied Ukraine with 140 artillery systems and 660,000 shells and missiles.

📌Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands no longer accept documents for tourist visas from Russians.

📌Ukraine has accepted Denmark’s offer to train Ukrainian soldiers on Danish soil. The Minister of Defence of Denmark, Morten Bødskov, announced this during his visit to Kyiv.

📌 The Head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that Ukraine would join the EU roaming zone.

📌 The European Commission will allocate 100 million euros for the reconstruction of 74 Ukrainian schools as part of the Rapid Recovery Plan.

📌Austria will build and equip three medical facilities in Ukraine. The projects will cost 600 million euros.

📌 The European Union extended for six months the sanctions against 1,206 individuals and 108 legal entities of Russia, imposed in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war on February 24.

📌The Lithuanian government will decide to send two batches of armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine — the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

📌Austria will allocate €500 million for the construction of Ukrainian hospitals.

📌The European Parliament has approved a €5 billion macro-financial assistance package for Ukraine, reported Radio Liberty journalist Rikard Jozwiak.

📌 Germany will send 50 Dingo armoured vehicles to Ukraine.

📌 The United States announced a new $600 million military aid package. It contains additional ammunition for HIMARS systems, tens of thousands of 105 mm artillery shells, a thousand high-precision 155 mm shells, anti-drone systems, demining equipment and more.