PRESS DIGEST – UKRAINE

Fifth month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of July 22, 2022

#ArmUkraineNow

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌Since the beginning of the war, the invaders have inflicted more than 17,000 strikes on civilian objects in Ukraine, said Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin.

📌Satellite images show that approximately 1,400 new graves were added at the Mariupol Starokrymske cemetery between 12 May and 29 June, the Guardian. As the researchers note, the city has seen no further fighting since Russia captured it in late May, but the bodies of the killed could have been found under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

📌Refugees from Kherson are heading towards Kryvyi Rih. People have to walk or ride bicycles, leaving everything they have acquired in the past. They travel tens of kilometres through fields that are being shelled by Russian artillery.

📌 Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 1,346 bodies of civilians killed by the Russian military have already been discovered in the Kyiv region. The official stressed that most of them were killed with firearms.

📌 The Russians deported 2 million residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, including several hundred thousand children. 

📌More than 1041 children were affected by the Russian armed aggression in Ukraine. 358 children were killed, and another 683 were wounded.

📌311 territorial communities suffer from Russian aggression. The number of these communities is constantly changing. They are part of 9 different regions of Ukraine.

📌ODESA REGION:

• On July 16, a missile strike was carried out by Tu-95 strategic aircraft from the direction of Stavropol. Presumably, an X-101 air-to-ground missile hit the warehouse of a production and trading company, where a fire broke out in an area of 1000 m2.

• On July 19, 7 Kalibr cruise missiles were launched from the Black Sea. Air defence forces shot one down, six hit the village. Private houses, a school, and a house of culture were damaged. Six people were injured, including a child.

📌LUHANSK REGION:

• The Russians are mobilizing even prisoners under criminal charges in the occupied Luhansk region — Regional Military Administration. They no longer trust the local collaborators, therefore, the Russian security forces are in charge of mobilization issues. 

📌DONETSK REGION:

• On July 16 and July 21, the Russian military shelled the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region with “Uragan” multiple rocket launchers, as a result of which six people were injured. In addition, about 10 multi-story and private houses were destroyed or damaged, and cars were burned,” the report reads, also in several trade containers caught fire over a total area of 100 square meters.

On July 16 and July 19, Russians shelled Kramatorsk 7 residential buildings, and 2 infrastructure objects were damaged in Kramatorsk. 10 people were injured. The Russians used a Tornado-S missile with a high-explosive charge against civilians.

On July 21, the Russians again shelled residential houses and the industrial sector in Kramatorsk. Two schools were destroyed, strikes on private houses were recorded, and the industrial and central parts of Kramatorsk were shelled. Rescuers removed the bodies of three men from under the rubble.

Russian troops shelled the Saltivka District of Kharkiv on the morning of July 20. Three people were killed, including a 13-year-old teenager. A 15-year-old girl, the sister of the deceased teenager, was also injured. The killed and wounded were near a public transport stop when the shelling occurred.

On July 21, The Russians are shelling one of the most densely populated districts of Kharkiv. 21 people, including 1 child was injured. 2 people were killed. Only civilians and only peaceful infrastructure were affected: cars, trade pavilions, an apartment building with a dental clinic on the 1st floor, and public transport.

📌 ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION:

• The Russian military placed military equipment, explosives, and weapons at the power unit of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The Russian military pulled at least 14 units of heavy military equipment with ammunition, weapons, and explosives into the engine room of the first power unit of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

📌 MYKOLAIV REGION:

• On July 19 and July 21, the Russian military shelled Mykolaiv. Missiles arrival on residential houses in the private sector. Houses were damaged, and a woman and a man were injured. Also, seven S-300 missiles hit an infrastructure facility, a gas station, a gas pipeline and a warehouse. 

📌 KHERSON REGION:

• In the area of the gates of the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station, temporarily occupied by Russians, the Repellent-1 electronic warfare complex was destroyed. The main purpose of the complex is the fight against unmanned aerial vehicles, both by radio suppression as well as location and transmission of coordinates to air defence systems.
• Fields and forests are burning in the Kherson region as a result of Russian shelling. More than 230 hectares of wheat have burned in the last few days alone. The fire also damaged about 10 hectares of forest. But the occupation authorities deliberately do not allow rescuers or locals to extinguish the fires.

📌VINNYTSIA REGION:

• In Vinnytsia, the rescuers completed the dismantling of the rubble resulting from enemy shelling on July 14. In total, 55 multi-apartment and private residential buildings, 40 cars and two trams were damaged and destroyed. 26 people were killed in the shelling, including three children. 

📌DNIPROPETROVSK REGION:

• On July 15, the Russian army launched 5 missiles on the city of Dnipro. A large fire broke out at the site of the shelling.  A bus driver was killed. Missiles hit an industrial enterprise and a nearby street. Three people were killed, and 15 more were injured. Two cars burned down, and almost 10 cars were damaged. Windows and doors were smashed in nearby houses.

On July 16 and July 18, the Russians fired at the residential areas of Nikopol from Grads. As a result of the shellings, 12 five-story buildings, a school, a vocational school building, and a dozen private houses were damaged. Two women were hurt. Two people were under the rubble of the destroyed apartments.

In total, on July 19 and July 20, the Russian military fired 70 missiles and shells in the Nikopol. Two industrial enterprises were destroyed. Several private houses and power grids were damaged in the city. At least two people were killed, and five times as many injured.

• On July 22, the Russian army covered 3 districts of the Dnipro region with fire. Nikopol was fired upon twice from the MRL.  Up to 100 shells were fired.  One person died, and one was injured. 11 private houses were damaged.  There are gusts of the gas pipeline and the water pipeline — ruined railway track.  In Apostolovo rockets hit three schools in the city.  They are destroyed.  Damaged residential buildings nearby.  8 people were injured.  

📌SYMY REGION:

• On July 16, the Russian army kept shelling the Sumy Region throughout the day. Over 140 missile strikes were reported. Civilian households, buildings, and power supply lines were damaged. No casualties among the population.
• On July 18, the Russian military shelled a psychoneurological boarding house in the village of Atynske in the Sumy region. The Russian army used mortars, rocket artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, and large-calibre machine guns against the civilian population. There were no casualties.

📌 The “DPR” reported that the British volunteer Paul Urey, who was in captivity, died on July 10 from “illness and stress.” The British Foreign Office summoned the Russian Ambassador over the death of a Briton held captive by the invaders. 

📌 The Russian military occupation of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone has become a crime against the environment, Greenpeace experts. The main conclusion is that the level of radiation in the combat areas of the Russian military operations that took place corresponds to the level of nuclear waste and is at least three times higher than the estimate of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

📌 Sixty-eight foreign vessels remain blocked in the ports of Ukraine. Some of the crews are on ships, others have been replaced by Ukrainian sailors.

📌At least 689 missiles have been launched from Belarus since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Most of the launches took place in February-March. At the end of June launches intensified again.

📌 The Russian army continues to destroy Ukrainian grain. According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, more than 70 hectares of wheat burned in the Donetsk region overnight due to shelling. It is an area of about a hundred football fields. At the same time, emergency workers managed to save 55 hectares of a wheat field in the Kramatorsk district from fire.

RUSSIAN AND BELORUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️Belarus gained equipment. A train with at least 15 infantry fighting vehicles of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus arrived in Yelsk. The information was confirmed that this echelon arrived from Slonim, where part of the 11th separate mechanized brigade is stationed. Among the equipment, 15-20 BMP-2 units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus were seen. It is also worth noting that in the morning in Mozyr the same train was seen moving towards Yelsk.

⚠️️The invaders are trying to restore the work of ports on the temporarily occupied coast of the Sea of Azov to organize the export of seized property by sea, the General Staff reports.

⚠️️ The Insider: In the mosques of Chechnya, men are being recruited into Akhmat battalions to go to war in Ukraine. These occur during Friday sermons, the publication writes, citing the founder of the Chechen social and political movement 1ADAT Ibrahim Yangulbayev. Men aged 18-40 are offered wages of 60,000 rubles (about $1,000) while being told they will not be taken to Ukraine.

⚠️️ISW: Putin sends more ethnic minorities to fight, therefore avoiding the general mobilization of ethnic Russians. 

⚠️️Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that “the geographic tasks of the war have changed” – it is now not only the so-called “DPR” and “LPR”, but the Russian Federation is also interested in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia regions and “other territories”. Russia does not like the fact that Ukraine receives long-range weapons from the United States, in particular HIMARS missile systems that regularly destroy enemy equipment and troops.

⚠️️Self-proclaimed President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the end of the Russian aggression depends on Ukraine which should enter the negotiations and promise not to pose a threat to Russia. Also, Lukashenko said that he de facto had recognized the formation of the “LPR” and “DPR” as well as the annexation of Crimea by Russia and, if necessary, would issue a corresponding decree.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌33 volunteer drivers were held in captivity in the Donetsk region for about 100 days, of which 32 have already been released. The drivers were transporting Mariupol residents to Zaporizhzhia in late March and early April and were detained at that time.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌​​10,000 Ukrainian soldiers started training in Great Britain. They will receive training during the upcoming weeks.

📌The European Union and 43 other countries supported Ukraine’s intention to sue the Russian Federation under the Genocide Convention, – EEAS press centre.  “We reiterate our support for Ukraine’s petition to bring proceedings against Russia in the International Court of Justice under the 1948 Genocide and Punishment Convention,” the statement said.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌The EU Council approved the seventh package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, including a partial embargo on Russian gold — President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

📌 Gas production in Russia fell to a record low, – The Moscow Times. In Russia, from January 1 to July 15, gas production decreased by 10.4%. The monthly drop in June has already fallen by 30%. This is the largest production cut in the history of Gazprom.

📌Ukraine has become an associate member of the Multilateral Interoperability Programme (MIP), which implements technological cooperation among the armies of NATO member states. As an associate member, Ukraine is now entitled to jointly develop and amend key NATO standards for interoperability of combat management systems and related standards.

📌 The US and Saudi Arabia agree to help Ukraine with grain exports. “The parties stressed the importance of strategic economic and investment cooperation, especially against the backdrop of the current crisis in Ukraine and its consequences.”

📌Partisans in Kherson Region are distributing new leaflets for the Russian soldiers. The warning leaflets can be seen throughout the temporarily occupied city and region reports the Operational Command “South”. The leaflets contain the following motto: “The Russians go to bed, time for HIMARS to wake up”.

📌On July 17, a 19-year-old conscript of the National Guard of Ukraine shot down the 6th Russian aircraft from the Igla MANPADS. The name of the National Guardsman nicknamed the “Zaporizhzhia Avenger,” was not disclosed. It is known that after 3 downed aircraft, the servicemen were awarded the highest state award – the star of the Hero of Ukraine.

Russia has lost more than 30% of its combat capability on land, said British Chief of Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin. According to him, 50,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded, and more than 5,000 pieces of equipment were destroyed. The Russian Federation is failing in all of its ambitions and is now even more weakened than at the beginning of February.

📌The EU Council approved the fifth tranche of military aid to Ukraine worth EUR 500 million. The EU’s military equipment support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine now amounts to 2.5 billion euros.

📌The EU and Ukraine signed a memorandum on 1 billion euros of emergency macro-financial assistance. This is the first tranche of the total amount of macro-financial assistance in the amount of nine billion, which the Council of Europe adopted at the end of the June 24 summit. Aid to Ukraine should be paid at the end of July.

📌Hungary announced that it was ready for the transit of military cargo to Ukraine. Magyar assured that third countries can use the territory of Hungary to supply weapons to Ukraine.

📌The United States and its allies are beginning to study the possibility of training Ukrainian pilots to help Kyiv create a renewed Air Force — Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Charles Brown Jr.

📌The United States will provide four more HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine as part of new military assistance, Pentagon chief Austin Lloyd said at the Ramstein-4 defence ministers meeting.

📌Austrian and Czech Foreign Ministers Alexander Schallenberg and Jan Lipavský visited Irpin as part of their visit to Ukraine, Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn said.

📌 Diplomats from 17 EU countries and Israel arrived in Vinnytsia. This was announced by the mayor of the city Serhiy Morhunov. The diplomats arrived to express their condolences to the families and friends of those who died as a result of the Russian missile attack on the city centre on July 14.

📌The United States has included Russia in the list of countries practising human trafficking.

PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌Russia was deprived of the right to host a prestigious figure skating tournament. For the first time since 1996, the Figure Skating Grand Prix will not take place in Moscow.

📌Norway and Canada are launching a fundraising campaign to transfer Bayraktar TB2 UAVs to Ukraine, following Lithuania and Poland.

📌The United States has included $100 million in the defence budget for training Ukrainian pilots. 

📌Ireland has suspended visa-free travel for refugees from 20 European countries to make room for Ukrainians — Politico. 

📌55 people were included in the new list of EU sanctions against Russia, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.

📌France sent six more Caesar self-propelled guns to Ukraine, head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna said.

📌Lithuania will provide Ukraine with additional M113 and M577 armoured personnel carriers, as well as ammunition. 

📌The UK banned imports of gold from the Russian Federation and is giving up on coal and oil. The corresponding amendment within the sanctions regime against Russia came into force on July 21.

📌ABB, a Swedish-Swiss company specializing in electrical engineering, power engineering, and information technology, announced its withdrawal from the Russian market.

📌LEGO created figures of steel heroes of Azovstal.