PRESS DIGEST – UKRAINE

Seventh month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of September 23, 2022

#RussiaIsATerroristState #ArmUkraineNow

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 More than 1,162 children were affected by the Russian armed aggression in Ukraine. 391 children were killed, and another 771 were wounded.

In total, 459 dead bodies were discovered at the mass burial site in Izyum. There were 17 bodies piled into a single grave, presumably those of the Ukrainian servicemen. Two of the victims had their hands tied behind their backs.

📌 Maxar Technologies showed satellite images of the mass burial sites of the victims of the Russian aggression near Izyum in the Kharkiv region. The photos were taken in March and August of this year and show the graves in the forest at the city entrance.

📌The body of the soldier tortured in Izium with blue-and-yellow bracelets on his arm was identified by his wife – it was a fighter of the 93rd Independent Kholodnyi Yar Mechanized Brigade  Serhii Sova from Nikopol. The man had 2 children.

📌The liberated village of Kozacha Lopan in Kharkiv region. Yet another torture chamber where the Russians tortured and killed the Ukrainians.

📌KYIV REGION:

• 2 more men killed by the Russians were found in the Buchansky district of the Kyiv region. In one of the pits near the dugout of Russian troops, they found the body of a man with his hands tied, a hat pulled over his face, and a ribbon wrapped around his neck. Glasses were found in the pocket of the deceased. The second victim was wearing a khaki fleece jacket with chevrons from the National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine. There was a gold ring on the man’s ring finger.

📌DONETSK REGION:

• On September 17, the Russians struck at the Sloviansk Thermal Power Plant. The impact caused a fire and damage to equipment at the station.
• At night on September 18, the Russians launched a missile attack on Kramatorsk. The blow fell in the very centre, in the hotel. The woman was injured.

• • On September 22, Russians struck an enterprise and a school in the Donetsk region. Russian troops again struck industry facilities in Kramatorsk with rockets, fired an art school in Chasiv Yar with cluster munitions, hit a private sector in Bakhmut, and shelled Avdiivka in the Donetsk region with artillery.

    • On September 19, in occupied Donetsk, the Russians shelled the Kuibyshevsky district: 13 people were killed. The occupation again terrorizes civilians and accuses the Armed Forces of Ukraine of shelling.

  • Consequences of the shelling by the Russian invaders in Donetsk.

On September 23, Russians hit a 9-story building in Toretsk, Donetsk region: 19 people were rescued from under the rubble. The floor slabs from the 9th to the 7th floors collapsed from the impact in one of the entrances. 19 people, including two children, were rescued from under the rubble by emergency responders.

📌 KHARKIV REGION:

• On September 21, Russians shelled the Kholodnohirskyi district of Kharkiv at night. As a result of the shelling, ten people ended up in a residential building, they were rescued by the employees of the State Emergency Service. At least one person is injured.
• The Kupiansk district of the Kharkiv region was also under fire by the Russians. 5 people, including a 13-year-old boy, were wounded.
• The upper gateway of the Pechenegs dam in the Kharkiv region was destroyed as a result of shelling by Russian troops.

📌 ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION:

• On the night of September 19, the Russian military carried out 8 missile strikes. As a result of the night shelling of the city, high-rise buildings and the premises of the educational institution were damaged. Windows in these buildings were broken. Private houses were also affected. Their windows were broken and the roof was damaged.
• On the night of September 21, the Russians fired at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The communication equipment of power unit No. 6 is damaged. As a result, its block transformer and auxiliary transformers were turned off. The diesel generators of the power unit are turned off and switched to alternation.
• On September 21, Russian missiles hit three districts of the Zaporizhzhia region, damaging infrastructure facilities and private houses. Preliminarily, it is known about three wounded.

The Russians launched nine missile strikes at Zaporizhzhia and its suburbs. They struck the regional centre in the morning. Housing infrastructure has been destroyed. 5 people were wounded. In particular, a hotel in Central City Park was shelled. The building has undergone significant destruction, there are still people under the rubble. Also, an electrical substation and a TV tower were hit.

📌DNIPROPETROVSK REGION:

• On September 17, the Russians shelled the Nikopol area all night. Mutilated houses, cars, a lyceum, a workshop of an industrial enterprise, gas pipelines, and power lines. Communication was lost in one of the villages.

On September 18,  during the night, the invaders fired three times from anti-aircraft guns and heavy artillery at the Nikopol district. Several dozens of multi-storey and private houses, cars, several outbuildings, a kindergarten, several shops, a hairdresser’s, a local administration building, gas pipelines, and power lines were destroyed in the city. A fire broke out at the local market, the flames have already been extinguished.

• On September 18, Russians shelled the Dnipropetrovsk region one more time. They fired with Grad multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery. More than 60 shells were directed at civilians.2 men were killed. 2 more men and a woman were wounded.
• On September 21, Russian invaders hit the Dnipropetrovsk region – 1 person was killed, and 2 wounded.

On September 22, the Russian army shelled two districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region at night. The Russians fired 20 shells with Grad multiple rocket launchers at the central quarters of Nikopol around midnight. The shelling damaged 17 multi-story and private houses, a gas pipeline, and power lines. A man was killed. Russian shells also hit 2 hospitals, a school, a soccer field, a museum of local lore, administrative buildings, several stores, and a market.

Russian troops fired about 30 shells with Grad multiple rocket launchers at the Nikopol district on the night of September 23. As a result of the shelling, 2 people were killed. 9 more were wounded. There is the destruction of residential buildings.

📌KHERSON REGION:

• Occupants in Kherson are actively looking for partisans and checking the phones of civilians. According to the international intelligence community InformNapalm, the invaders are looking for active citizens who resist the occupation by entering the street from different directions and searching every apartment. In addition, they launch a drone for aerial surveillance. The occupiers check the house by floor, and demand phones from the owners.

📌As of September 17, the Russians stationed about 430 Russian planes and 340 helicopters are stationed on the military airfields in Russia, Crimea, and Belarus reports the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force.

📌 Citizens of Sri Lanka spoke about being held captive by the Russians during the occupation of the Kharkiv region.

“Seven Sri Lankan citizens – a woman and 6 men were in Kupiansk at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. They tried to walk to Kharkiv in May. But at the very first checkpoint of the Russian army, they were detained, had their hands tied, bags put on their heads, and were taken to a makeshift prison in Vovchansk,” said the head of the Investigative Department Serhii Bolvinov. According to him, Sri Lankans were kept in the prison in inhumane conditions and forced to work as cleaners.

📌On September 19, the Russians fired at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant at night — the missile fell 300 meters from nuclear reactors. The shock wave damaged the nuclear power plant buildings, and more than 100 windows were broken. One of the hydroelectric units of the Oleksandrivska HPP, which is part of the South Ukrainian Energy Complex, stopped. Three high-voltage power lines were also switched off.

📌“Referendums” for joining the Russian Federation began in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. “Voting” will last from September 23-27. People will be approached in front yards and at home and will be urged to come to the “polling stations” on the last day. In the self-proclaimed “LPR” and “DPR”, people will be asked, “Do you want to join Russia?” And in the occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions – “Do you support secession from Ukraine, the creation of an independent state and its accession to the Russian Federation?” The results of the so-called referendum are to be announced on September 27-28.

RUSSIAN AND BELORUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️ The Washington Post: Before the Ukrainian counteroffensive the Russian soldiers stationed in Izyum, Kharkiv region, were morally depressed and a lot of them refused to fulfil their duties.

⚠️️Putin commented on Ukraine’s counteroffensive for the first time and made several statements on the war during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit. Key points:

• Reaction to the counteroffensive: “We’ll see how it ends. Russia responds rather discreetly. But for the time being. More recently, the Russian armed forces have conducted some sensible strikes. Let’s consider these to be preemptive strikes.”
• The war plan against Ukraine: “Not subject to correction. The General Staff makes operational decisions during the operation. Something is considered the key, the main goal – and the main goal is the liberation of the entire territory of Donbas, this work continues, despite attempts by the Ukrainian army to counterattack.”
• On the negotiations: Putin said that Russia was not opposed to negotiations, but added that he was not familiar with the recommendations on guarantees recently offered by the Office of the President of Ukraine.

⚠️️ Military exercises in Belarus have once again been extended: now they will last until at least September 24, and the total number of extensions has already reached 21 weeks.

⚠️️Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia, according to Russian media. “Only citizens who are currently in the reserve and, above all, those who served in the Armed Forces, who have certain military specialities and relevant experience, are subject to conscription for military service.”

⚠️️ On September 21, protests against mobilization broke out in Russia. 1,026 people in 38 cities of the Russian Federation were arrested as a result of anti-war protests  — Russian human rights media project “OVD-Info”. 394 of them were arrested in Moscow and 376 in St. Petersburg.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 215 Ukrainian servicemen have been released from Russian captivity.  Many of the Ukrainian prisoners, released on September 21, were subjected to very brutal forms of torture — Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

“Everyone is in a completely different state. Unfortunately, this is true. Some individuals are physically more or less in a normal condition, except for chronic malnutrition. Some individuals have suffered very brutal torture. Unfortunately, the percentage of such individuals among those we returned is quite high… Many of them [released – ed.] were subjected to very brutal forms of torture”.

📌This is the largest exchange of prisoners of war since February 24.

📌Russia handed over 10 foreigners captured in Ukraine to Saudi Arabia — Al-Arabiya. The plane with the prisoners has already landed in the Arab country.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌France, Sweden, the US, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania have filed claims on Russia’s genocide against Ukrainians with the International Criminal Court.

📌Ukraine will provide African countries with 50,000 tons of wheat free of charge. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated 420 million hryvnias to provide humanitarian aid to Ethiopia and Somalia. The government also instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to agree with the United Nations and the competent authorities of Ethiopia and Somalia on the delivery and payment of grain transportation from the Port of Odesa to the ports of these countries at the expense of international organizations.

📌Hackers hacked into the website of the Moscow Regional Energy Administration and posted a photo of NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov against the backdrop of the burning Kremlin. Shortly after the hacker attack, the Mosoblenergo website stopped working altogether. The hackers also hacked into the Crimea Russian information server. They replaced the information about the rest of the temporarily occupied peninsula with data on the losses of the occupiers in Ukraine.

PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌Belgium will supply Ukraine with large-calibre machine guns ad ammunition for them, reports Ludivine Dedonder, Belgium Defense Minister. The new 12 million euro assistance package will also include non-lethal materials for the winter season: helmets, extra equipment, and reconnaissance equipment.

📌  The first 500 million Euros out of the whole 1.59 billion packages were received as per the Plan of Restoration of Ukraine, informs Danylo Hetmantsev,  Chairman of the Parliament Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy.

📌Spain has sent 5 cargo planes carrying ammunition for large-calibre artillery systems to Ukraine, reports the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

📌Estonia helps in training the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

📌 PepsiCo completely stopped selling Pepsi, 7UP and Mountain Dew in Russia.

📌 Great Britain is going to send at least $2.6 billion in support of Ukraine next year — The Financial Times. According to the newspaper, the newly elected Prime Minister, Liz Truss, will announce this during her trip to the United States this week.

📌The US Department of Justice asked Congress to legalize the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. At least $300 billion worth of Russian assets is blocked in the US.

📌 The Pentagon signed a contract for long-range Switchblade drones for Ukraine. The US Department of Defense has published a fact sheet on the award of a $2.2 million contract for the supply of Switchblade 600 drones, the contractor is AeroVironment.

Almost €1 million that Latvia has raised for Ukraine will be used for drones and vehicles for the Armed Forces — Ukrainian Embassy.