PRESS DIGEST – UKRAINE

Seventh month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of September 30, 2022

#RussiaIsATerroristState #ArmUkraineNow

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌On September 29, Putin signed decrees “on the recognition of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya Regions as “independent territories” based on the “results of referendums” “held” by Russians in the occupied territories of Ukraine, Russian news agencies report.

📌On September 30, the illegal annexation of the temporarily occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, and Donetsk Regions was announced.

📌More than 1,177 children were affected by the Russian armed aggression in Ukraine. 397 children were killed, and another 780 were wounded.

📌The police have already registered more than 620 war crimes of the Russian Federation in the de-occupied Kharkiv region — press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

📌In Izium, the exhumation of people killed by the Russians is being completed. After the liberation of the city, more than 440 graves were found in the forest – some of them had more than one body.

📌  Russian soldiers raped and tortured four-year-old children in Ukraine. This was stated by a group of independent lawyers during a UN meeting in Geneva on September 23. Based on the evidence collected, the commission concluded that many shellings it is investigating were carried out without distinction between civilians and military, including shelling with MLRS and airstrikes on populated areas.

📌A group of UN experts found evidence of war crimes committed by the occupiers in Ukraine. After experts visited several dozen settlements where Russians killed, tortured, and raped Ukrainian civilians, the chairman of the UN human rights commission, Eric Meese, said: “Based on the evidence collected by the commission, it came to the conclusion that war crimes were committed in Ukraine.” Experts recorded numerous cases of executions of civilians and  sexual and physical violence. Their investigation is ongoing, and its results can be used in the International Criminal Court.

📌 KHARKIV REGION:

• On September 25, 5 districts in the Kharkiv region were shelled. An educational institution and an agricultural enterprise were damaged, while 7 people were hospitalized with injuries in the Kupiansk district.
• On September 26, the Russian army launched a missile attack on the town of Pervomaiskyi. 

A father holds a photo of his daughter, Nataliia, who was killed in the town of Pervomaiskyi by a Russian missile strike on September 26. She was 13 years old.

📌 ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION:

• At night on September 24, the invaders made another massive missile attack on Zaporizhzhia. The missile hit the residential sector of Zaporizhzhia, causing a fire in a multi-storey building. 1 person died and 7 were injured.

• On September 25, the Russians fired 10 rockets at Zaporizhzhia and a village on the outskirts of the city at night. Three people are wounded. A power substation in one of the city districts was de-energized.

• Russians struck Zaporizhzhia with missiles at night on September 26. Residential buildings were damaged, with windows shattering, and a health care facility and a garage cooperative were also hit.

• On September 27, the IAEA recorded new attacks on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Monday and Tuesday. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called for immediate action to reduce the threat to the nuclear facility.
• On the morning of September 28, the city of Hulyaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region was attacked by invaders. The enemy fired three S-300 missiles into the centre of the city. A ruined building that had the status of a historical monument. Also, the road was damaged.

On September 30, Russia struck a civilian convoy on its way out of Zaporizhzhia with missiles. People were standing in line to leave for the temporarily occupied territory to pick up their relatives and deliver aid. According to preliminary data, 25 people were killed and 50 people were wounded.

📌DNIPROPETROVSK REGION:

• On September 25, Russians fired more than 170 shells with Grad multiple rocket launchers and barrel artillery at three communities in the Nikopol district.
• Russian invaders fired an X-59 missile at Kryvyi Rih airport on September 26. The infrastructure of the airfield is destroyed, and its further use is impossible.
• On September 29, Russian invaders struck Dnipro City with missiles at night, killing 3 people, including one 12-year-old girl who was pulled out of a destroyed house. 5 more people were injured. Several private houses in the city were completely destroyed, and more than 60 private houses and several multi-story buildings were damaged, as well as a market, buses, cars and power lines.
• On the same day, the Russian invaders hit the industrial infrastructure, wounding 19 employees of the enterprise and damaging the administrative building.

• On September 29,  Russia once again shelled Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The Russian invaders shelled the area with Grad multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery. Industrial infrastructure in Nikopol was damaged, and 10 private houses, outbuildings and cars were disfigured.
• At least 1 person was killed, and 5 others were wounded as a result of the Iskander missiles’ arrival in Dnipro City on September 30. The transport enterprise was completely destroyed.

• Due to empty “voting stations” for participation in the pseudo referendum in the Kherson region, the invaders forced people to vote for themselves and their relatives, if they are not at home, according to Yuriy Sobolevsky, First Deputy Head of Kherson Region Council.
• The Russian occupiers in the Kherson region are threatening residents with eviction and forced deportation outside the occupied territories if they do not receive Russian passports by October 1.

📌DONETSK REGION:

• In Mariupol, the invaders are forcing people to participate in a pseudo-referendum for joining Russia, threatening to deprive them of their jobs and wages otherwise.
• On September 29, the Russian army launched four missile strikes on Kramatorsk in the daytime. At least 10 people were wounded.

📌ODESA REGION:

• On September 23, 25 and 26, Odesa was attacked by kamikaze drones from the sea. A civilian was killed, and the administration building in the city center was hit three times.

📌MYKOLAIV REGION:

• On September 27, Mykolaiv came under heavy fire twice during the night – residential buildings and stores in different parts of the city were damaged. At least 8 high-rise buildings were disfigured. Windows were broken, and balconies were destroyed. Two houses have damaged roofs. All the stores that were located on the first floors of these buildings were also destroyed to varying degrees. The premises of the city exhibition hall were damaged.

📌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 29, 2 people were killed when a Russian missile hit a public transport stop in Mykolaiv. There are also 12 wounded.

Video: consequences of the Russian attack on the public transport stop in Mykolaiv on September, 29.

• New explosions broke out in Mykolaiv on the night of Friday, September 30 – a missile hit a multi-story building; people are trapped in the rubble, and at least 8 are wounded.

📌Invaders dropped containers with poison on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on September 24. “With the help of an unmanned aerial vehicle, containers with a poisonous substance, presumably a K-51 chloropicrin grenade, were dropped onto our combat positions. The combat medics did a good job, there are no casualties or critical conditions,” the command said.

📌British citizens, who returned from Russian captivity, told the Daily Mail in an interview that the Russians tortured them by beating, stabbing, staging the death penalty, and electrocuting them.

The prisoners were kept in a cramped prison cell for 23 hours a day. According to Harding, the Russians are “quite inventive” when it comes to torture. They adapted an old phone into a torture device so that a prisoner would dial a number, and when the dial turned to its place, it would hit him with an electric shock.

📌This is what the hand of Mykhailo Dianov, the defender of Mariupol, looks like. Recently, the photos of him were everywhere, and only now the hero showed the consequences of being in Russian captivity. Mykhailo’s wounded arm has not healed properly – it is missing 4 cm of bone.

📌None of the Ukrainian defenders, while being held captive by the occupiers, have seen a representative of the Red Cross. This was announced by the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets.

📌2.5 thousand Ukrainians are still in Russian captivity, including civilians. Several exchanges in a row do not release civilians. Also, according to the minister, there are many women among the captured civilians.

📌About 1.5 million Ukrainians, most of whom are women and children, are currently in Russia without an opportunity to return home, and their relatives cannot establish contact with them. Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, reported this.

📌Representatives of diplomatic institutions from more than 20 countries of the world visited the Kharkiv region. These are delegates from Austria, Lithuania, Spain, France, Slovenia, Denmark, Turkey, and other countries. They examined the consequences of the Russian occupation: dungeons, mass graves, and ruins.

📌Russia mobilizes the Crimean Tatars and throws them into the hottest spot of the frontline — General Staff. The General Staff reports that the Russian occupiers were instructed to mobilize the Crimean Tatars in Crimea as a priority and send them to the areas of most intense combat operations.

📌In the occupied territory of the Donetsk region, the so-called “local authorities” are recruiting and training another 250 prisoners, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports. In the coming days, they will be sent to replenish the units at the forefront.

RUSSIAN AND BELORUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️ The Russian army is unlikely to be able to create a quality reserve – ISW. Analysts believe that the problems and mistakes of “partial” mobilization testify to the poor preparation of the recruiting infrastructure, which will not allow the Russian troops to quickly eliminate fundamental and systemic problems. In addition, according to the researchers, mobilization in different regions can exacerbate social tension, which has already grown due to the inequality of battalions with volunteers.

⚠️️ Russia fired General Dmitry Bulgakov, who is responsible for the logistics of the army.

⚠️️Putin signed the law introducing 10 years prison term for the following: refusal to participate in military action; voluntary surrender; desertion and failure to report for military service.

⚠️️The Russian occupational authorities forced Ukrainian prisoners of war to vote in the pseudo referendums. 57 prisoners of war kept in the Olenivka prison were forced to participate in the “referendum”, according to the Russian mass media.

⚠️️The Russians send newcomers to the mobilization of military personnel without preparation directly to the front line, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports.

⚠️️The self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said at a meeting with Putin that the Russian Federation and Belarus would not tolerate humiliation from Europe, although the future lies in cooperation, and Putin called on the West to respect Russia.

⚠️️Russian propagandists were given instructions on how to explain mobilization to Russians. Propaganda should convey to the people that the invasion of Ukraine is a “people’s war with NATO.” The manual says that NATO intends to “dismember and rob” Russia, and “Russian people are being killed with NATO weapons by NATO mercenaries and terrorists of the Kyiv regime.”

“The West forbade Kyiv to negotiate with Russia. NATO intelligence is collecting data on Russian territory in order to give Ukraine an order to transfer hostilities to Russia,” the manual says.

⚠️️The Kremlin is trying to shift the blame for violations during the mobilization of local officials. But they are too massive for people to believe it — ISW.

⚠️️Belarus prepares to receive military trains from Russia – Belarusian Gayun. As for now, they are:

• checking places of loading (unloading) at railway stations with the involvement of officials of the BelZhD departments and the commandant’s offices of the VOSO (military communications service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation);
• carrying out repairs of loading and unloading platforms (if necessary), as well as preparing car entrances to places of loading and unloading at stations;
• fixing the unloading of shunting diesel locomotives at railway stations;
• providing the development of schedules for the movement of military trains along the BelZhD (after the provision of a plan for military railway transportation), etc.

⚠️️The Russian Federation has already mobilized more than 100,000 people, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces. It is expected that the number of mobilized will be much higher.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 If Russia stops fighting, there will be no war. If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 Estonia joined Ukraine’s genocide claim against the Russian Federation. The state has decided to apply Article 63 of the Genocide Convention and join the claim.

📌 Former Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj urged Russians not to fight against Ukraine. He invited the Buryats, Tuvans, and Kalmyks to flee to his country in order to avoid forced mobilization in the Russian Federation. Note that Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj is a great friend of Ukraine, he graduated from the Lviv Military-Political Institute.

📌The IAEA has started negotiations on establishing nuclear safety zone at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. According to the IAEA Director General, Rafael Mariano Grossi, he is meeting with the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Bonnie Jenkins.

“The focus is on the urgent establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The work to help ensure the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities remains a priority, and U.S. support is greatly appreciated,” he wrote on Twitter.

📌A man at the airport of Tbilisi, Georgia, stood with a placard reading “Greetings to Russian deserters”.

📌Poland closed airports and seaports for Russians. Now only those Russians who do so for humanitarian purposes, as well as dissidents, and members of diplomatic missions, who have a permanent residence permit or are involved in the transportation of goods, will be able to enter the country.

📌On September 27,  French investigators have arrived in Ukraine to help investigate the crimes of the Russian invaders in the Izium district of the Kharkiv region.

📌The UN said that they do not consider it possible to recognize the results of the so-called “referendums” held in the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia.

PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌Ukraine received the NASAMS air defence system from the United States. The United States transferred two batteries to the complex.

📌The Netherlands will donate 2,000 bicycles to Ukraine. They will be sent to doctors, social workers, and volunteers who help the population in the de-occupied territories. This is reported by the Stichting Zeilen van Vrijheid Foundation.

📌 Japan banned exports of chemical weapons-related goods to Russia. As part of the sanctions, it also imposed restrictions on 21 Russian companies, including scientific laboratories.

📌 Poland, Ireland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have prepared a joint proposal for a total ban on diamond imports from Russia.

📌 The United States allocates $457.5 million to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

📌Belgium will provide Ukraine with M2HB heavy machine guns, ammunition, and equipment for the military. The total amount of military assistance will be 12 million euros.

📌U.S. to provide Ukraine with an additional $457.5 million to support civilian security – U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

📌New Zealand announced financial and travel sanctions against 19 new “members of Putin’s inner circle”. At the same time, the country’s government stated that it could not provide further military assistance as it did not have anything that Ukraine wanted.

📌Turkish Airlines has cancelled flights to Minsk, Sochi, Rostov and Yekaterinburg until the end of the year. The airline said that passengers who bought tickets for these flights would be able to either choose another route or get their money back. The reason is not reported.

📌Meta blocked a network of Russian bots and a separate network of accounts managed from China. The Russian network promoted pro-Kremlin narratives about the war unleashed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine. It includes thousands of accounts on various social networks.

📌France will fully support the new package of EU sanctions, which is being prepared in response to the so-called “referendums” held by Russia, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said. According to her, the European Union will impose additional sanctions if the Russian Federation recognizes the “vote results”. EU states are already holding consultations to expedite the approval of these measures.

📌Lithuania will send winter uniforms for 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anušauskas said. “In the coming months, winter uniforms worth several million euros will be purchased from Lithuanian enterprises and transferred to the Ukrainian military,” Anušauskas said.

📌U.S. Senate backs more than $12 billion in temporary funding for Ukraine – Washington Post.

📌The Pentagon announced the allocation of a new $1.1 billion military aid tranche to Ukraine. The package includes 18 HIMARS multiple rocket launcher systems, 150 off-road vehicles, radars, and anti-UAV defence systems.

📌The EU transferred €500 million of budget support to Ukraine — Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, at a briefing in Kyiv.

📌Canada will help Ukraine to restore the railway infrastructure – Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

📌Finland will close the border to Russian tourists on September 30 — Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Pekka Haavisto. 

📌UEFA will not allow clubs from Crimea to participate in the championship of Russia. The Union of European Football Associations stressed that they would not lift the ban on the integration of Crimean clubs, adopted back in 2014.

📌Montenegro has declared six Russian diplomats persona non grata, according to Russian media, citing the country’s Foreign Ministry.

📌The US Senate has approved a bill to continue funding the government, which includes an additional $12.4 billion in aid to Ukraine.

📌The Pentagon intends to establish a command centre in Germany for military support to Ukraine. Its mission is to optimize the training and aid system for Ukraine that the U.S. and its allies created during the Russian invasion.