Press digest – Ukraine

57th day of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

#ArmUkraineNow

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌A new 30-meter mass grave has been found near Mariupol. Russians dug a mass grave near Mangush. Trucks are bringing bodies to hide there.

📌95-98% of all buildings in Mariupol have already been destroyed.

📌Putin called the Mariupol operation “a success”. As a reminder, according to the preliminary data, about 22,000 civilians were killed in Mariupol. The city is destroyed.  Russians could not take it for more than 50 days, and about 2 thousand combat-ready soldiers are still there.

📌Saltivka district of Kharkiv was shelled at night. Fires broke out in two high-rise buildings, cars parked in the yards burned down. Also, the head of the Kharkiv regional state administration Oleh Sinegubov reported that the Russian army shelled the Kharkiv region 15 times during the day on April 21.

📌The Russians fired on Mykolayiv. The number of victims and the destruction are being determined.

📌In Borodyanka, Kyiv region, two mass graves with the bodies of 9 civilians were found, including a 15-year-old girl.

📌The Russian Federation Armed Forces are advancing from the bridgeheads in the Donbas towards Kramatorsk, where they continue to launch missile attacks.

📌The Russians destroyed all food warehouses in Severodonetsk, — Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration reported. People receive food exclusively from humanitarian aid.

📌The high level of the military aviation is used by the Russian Federation. They are trying to attack eastern parts of Ukraine to overwhelm and destroy Ukrainian air defenses.

📌New facts of atrocities of the Russian military were reported by the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Yevhen Yenin in an interview for the “Ukrainian News”. “The number of victims in Bucha is already more than 300 civilians, and in total in the Kyiv region it can reach a thousand people. Now we can definitely talk about more than 800 civilians found, the whole families were killed in their own homes or tortured to death,” — said the first deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

📌About 500 mercenaries from Libya and Syria are fighting on the side of the Russian Federation on the territory of the temporarily occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Recently, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed a small detachment of enemy mercenaries.

📌Recently, it became known about the shooting of volunteers coming from the village of Shevchenkove. Before, all occupied settlements of Velykoburlutskyi district, Kharkiv region have been blocked.

📌More than 100 people have died since the Russian invasion of Popasna. The city still has more than 2.5 thousand residents. Now the Russians control over half of the city. From the occupied part of Popasna, the Russians “evacuate” people — deport people to Pervomaysk.

📌A pseudo-referendum on the establishment of the People’s Republic of Kherson in Kherson Region is scheduled for April 27. This was reported by the operational command Skhid.

📌2 missile strikes in Zaporizhzhia: an explosive wave smashed windows in four cars of the Zaporizhzhia-Lviv train. There are no injured people and the train is on its way, according to Ukrzaliznytsia.

📌The military intelligence of Ukraine got audio interception of the conversation of the Russian occupiers, in which they refer to the order to kill all captured prisoners of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of Popasna (Luhansk region).

📌The video of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel-mill fortress in peacetime, and then after nearly two months of war.

📌The rocket attacks on Zaporizhzhia on Thursday, April 21 hit the island of Khortytsia, one of the strikes damaged the sanatorium building, — the Head of the Zaporizhzhia Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh.

📌Photo of the day

This is the hat of 13-year-old Elisey from Brovary, Kyiv region

 

RUSSIAN CONTEXT

⚠️According to British intelligence the Russian Federation is probably trying to show success before Victory Day (9th of May), which may affect the speed and intensity of its military operations.

⚠️During the meeting with Putin, Minister of Defence Serhiy Shoigu reported that the Russian troops need three to four days to complete the “Azovstal” operation.  According to him, it seems that the whole Mariupol is under Russian control. 

⚠️Germany, by the order of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, excluded all heavy weapons from the list of military assistance to Ukraine. The list was reduced from 48 to 24 pages.

⚠️Russia rejected a proposal by UN General Secretary António Guterres to declare a four-day humanitarian break on Easter to withdraw civilians from Mariupol and deliver humanitarian aid to the affected areas.

⚠️Russians are preparing to use old Soviet equipment, which has been in storage since the 1970s, in the fight against Ukraine. 

⚠️Head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov shared information about the preparations for the assassination of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. The information was provided by Ukrainian intelligence. “Regarding the liquidation of our top leadership. The plan was received on February 3 by Kadyrov when visiting Putin. At this meeting, a plan for the elimination of our President was agreed upon, and Kadyrov took upon himself the obligation that his group would do this,” he said.

⚠️Russia has imposed sanctions against Mark Zuckerberg, according to the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation.

 

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌The Armed Forces of Ukraine became the fourth NATO army. Only the armies of the United States, Great Britain and Turkey are ahead. At the same time, as the war showed, the Russian army does not exist. This was announced by a member of the Atlantic Council, Yuriy Romanyuk. He also added that Ukraine could become a member of NATO in the near future, despite threats from the Kremlin.

📌By the end of June, the European Commission will announce the first conclusions on candidate status for Ukraine, after which this issue will be included in the agenda of the European Council.

 

HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS AND EVACUATION UPDATES

📌Ukraine demands from Russia a humanitarian corridor from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers, — Iryna Vereshchuk.

 

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s daily statements 

🇺🇦 President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is preparing for the military unblocking of Mariupol and the cities under temporary occupation.

 

PUBLIC AND BUSINESS SUPPORT

📌Georgian creatives sell “pieces of the Russian Federation” as NFT. All the proceeds will be transferred to support Ukraine. The initiators of the project Russia for Sale divided the territory of Russia into administrative zones, each of which is presented in the form of a token. 

📌Maye Musk appeared on her Instagram account in an embroidered shirt.

📌British band Florence + The Machine has released a video for the track FREE, starring actor Bill Nighy. This is the third video of the band in the last two months, shot in Kyiv. It was dedicated to Ukrainians.

📌Billionaire and founder of the Virgin Group Richard Branson called for increased military aid to Ukraine, as well as the abandonment of Russian oil, gas and coal. 

📌“Man with Iron Balls”: a song about Zelensky recorded by Gogol Bordello and Sean Lennon. “We jumped on creating affirmative music that calls for unity and pays respect to the real doers in Ukrainian defense, such as President Zelensky, who demonstrated previously unheard of stamina and heroism,” explains Gogol Bordello in a comment to Rolling Stone. 

He was joined by Sergei Ryabtsev, as well as Sean Lennon, Billy Strings, Stuart Copeland of The Police and Les Claypool of Primus.

📌About 300 people took part in a rally in support of Ukrainian Mariupol in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, on April 20. This is the largest event so far, organizers told.

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌The Prime Ministers of Spain and Denmark arrived with a visit in Kyiv today.

📌Denmark is ready to help Ukraine with the restoration of Mykolaiv, — said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

📌Denmark will provide equipment for water supply and sewerage systems to the regions of Ukraine affected by the war.

📌Spain has sent Ukraine 200 tons of ammunition, 20 armored vehicles and other military equipment, — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said during a joint briefing in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

📌The United States has imposed a new package of sanctions on Russia. The sanctions targeted about 30 individuals associated with “Otkritiye” Bank and another 40 legal entities.

📌UN Secretary General António Guterres wants to meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy and separately with Russian leader Putin. Guterres passed on official requests for meetings in Kyiv and Moscow to the permanent missions of Ukraine and Russia.

📌The G7 countries called for curtailing cooperation with the Russian Federation and expressed regret because of his participation in the G20 meeting.

📌Lithuania handed over heavy mortars to Ukraine to help fight Russian aggression.

📌Croatian Prime Minister Andriy Plenković has stated that he is severing all contacts with pro-Russian President Zoran Milanović. 

📌In Latvia, the citizenship will be revoked for supporting Russian war crimes. The country’s Parliament also unanimously approved a statement on Russia’s aggression and its war crimes in Ukraine, recognizing that Russia is currently committing genocide against the Ukrainian people.

📌Joe Biden has announced another $ 800 million military aid package for Ukraine – it will include artillery systems, howitzers and ammunition, and tactical drones. He added that the United States does not report on all weapons transferred to Ukraine. The Pentagon adapted the drones specifically for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 121 Phoenix Ghost drones are handed over to Ukraine by the US Department of Defense in a new aid package. 

📌UnionPay suspends cooperation with sanctioned banks. This means that Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, VTB and many other banks will not be able to issue a joint card of the two Mir payment systems.

📌Great Britain has provided Ukraine with $ 500 million in credit guarantees, — Minister of Finance Serhii Marchenko. “This will allow the government to continue to implement all protected expenditures and social programs,” — he added.

📌President Biden to announce Uniting for Ukraine, a new streamlined process to welcome Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

 

📌 Tweet of the day

We have already proved that the Ukrainian state and public institutions are effective enough to withstand even the test of war. We are already doing as much to protect freedom on the European continent as other nations have never done.

Photo: Paweł Pieniążek, Chris McGrath, Serhii Nuzhnenko, Genya Savilov, Felipe Dana