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 2, 2022

#RussiaIsATerroristState #ArmUkraineNow

 

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 More than 1117 children were affected by the Russian armed aggression in Ukraine. 380 children were killed, and another 737 were wounded.

📌The Russian military has completely destroyed 127 hospitals in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Another 800 medical facilities were partially damaged. The estimated cost of rebuilding the medical infrastructure is more than 38 billion hryvnias.

📌Russia has already spent at least 55% of its reserves on strikes against Ukraine – Main Intelligence Directorate. Russia has problems with missiles. 

Thus, the Russian Federation has about 20% of Iskanders and Kalibrs left, and about 30-40 hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, since they did not have time to put them into mass production. In this regard, Russia has to use the X-22 and S-300, but these missiles are also running out.

 

📌KYIV REGION:

  • The body of another civilian, tortured by the Russian army, was found in the village of Zdvyzhivka in the Bucha district. The man’s hands were tied, a hood was put over his head, and he was executed. The body was found at the former positions of the Russian army.

📌DONETSK REGION:

  • The Russians are trying to turn children from the occupied Mariupol into a modern analogue of the Hitler Youth. In particular, in Melekino they set up a camp where they try to brainwash children, and teach them to shoot and hate Ukraine.

  • On August 27, the Russian army hit the city of Zolochiv, Bogodukhiv district, and the village of Donets, Izyum district, with multiple rocket launches. In Zolochiv, a shell hit a residential building. A 52-year-old woman was killed. A 49-year-old man was injured in Donets.
  • The Russians announced the opening of 16 schools in Mariupol: four of them have bare walls, and one has no roof.

 

📌LUHANSK REGION:

  • Russia sent a batch of Russian “teachers” to the occupied Luhansk region who will Russify Ukrainian children. 106 teachers will work in the areas of the Luhansk region, seized after February 24. The goal is to Russify Ukrainian children because no one recognizes the documents of Russian schools on the territory of the so-called LPR and DPR.

 

📌SUMY REGION:

  • On August 28, Russians shelled 6 communities in the Sumy region, wounding two people.

📌 KHARKIV REGION:

  • During the night on August 27, the invaders were actively shelling the center of Kharkiv. A historic building in the center of Kharkiv was damaged and the school was also destroyed.
  • On Tuesday, August 30, Russian troops shelled the center of Kharkiv, killing 5 people and wounding 7 more.
  • The Russians once again struck at the peaceful infrastructure of Kharkiv and the region on September 2. The Russians destroyed the premises of the Lokomotiv sports complex named after Kirpa in the Kholodnohirsk district with S-300 missile strikes.

📌 ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION:

  • On August 26, the Russians attacked the temporarily occupied village. All 6 shots were fired from the occupied territory at residential buildings. It is known, that 5 people were killed, including a mother with 2 children.
  • Over the 6 hours of August 28, more than 200 shellings to the city of Orikhiv. The middle part of the city suffered the most.  The center was on fire. The units of the State Emergency Service made more than 18 trips, they continue to extinguish fires in private houses.
  • On August 29, 10 citizens received multiple shrapnel wounds of varying severity as a result of Russian shelling of Enerhodar. Two of them were hospitalized in the intensive care unit in serious condition. At least 20 cars parked near houses were destroyed and damaged.
  • On August 31, 2022, the Russians fired artillery at a dairy farm. It was established that about 10-12 hits were made on the farm facilities, respectively, 11 buildings were destroyed (3 survived), including a milking parlor, and a feed hangar. There were almost 2,000 cattle on this farm, of which about half died during shelling.

📌 Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant:

  • On August 26, 2022, one of the power units of the ZNPP, which was completely stopped yesterday, was connected to the power grid, and power is being commissioned.
  • On August 26, the second of the units shut down at the Zaporizhzhia NPP on Thursday, is connected to the power grid, and the collection of capacity continues.
  • The staff of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, temporarily seized by the Russians, are experiencing brutal repression, and those whom the occupation authorities considered “not trustworthy enough” disappeared before the visit of the IAEA mission to the plant.
  • On September 1, 2022, as a result of another mortar attack by the Russian occupying forces on the site of the Zaporizhzhyia NPP, emergency protection went off and the operating 5th power unit was shut down.

 

📌 MYKOLAIV REGION:

  • Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Mykolaiv region, the Russian military has partially or completely damaged 10,000 civilian objects. Among these, there are 6,466 residential buildings, 67 medical institutions, and 331 educational institutions.

📌DNIPROPETROVSK REGION:

  • On August 30, the Russian military launched missile strikes at the Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro districts. The Nikopol area was shelled with Grad multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery. Russians hit a residential area in the Chervonohryhorivka community, one person was wounded.

On August 23, the Russian Federation troops again shelled Nikopol and Kryvyi Rih districts – with Uragan multiple rocket launchers. 1 person was killed, and 3 more civilians were wounded.

On August 31, Russian occupying forces fired on it four times with Grads and heavy artillery the Nikopol. 12 high-rise buildings, several shops and several pharmacies, a college, a youth sports school, and a cultural and sports complex were damaged.

📌KHERSON REGION:

  • In the temporarily occupied territories of the Kherson region, the invaders promise parents 10,000 rubles (approx. $160) each if they agree to send their children to schools organized by them.

📌RIVNE REGION:

  • On August 29, the Russians launched 4 missile strikes at the Rivne region. The shock wave damaged 30 residential buildings and the central hospital in the town of Sarny.

📌Defender of Azovstal, 100 days of military captivity. The first photo (from the left) is from May 20, 2022. The second photo (right) is from August 28, 2022.

📌 Telegram channels write that the border guards of the Russian Federation are doing their best to prevent people from leaving for Latvia through the territory of the Russian Federation, passing up to 10 people per hour. 

As a result, the Ukrainians have to stand in line for three days, and the Russians are looking for reasons not to let them in, explaining the delays with system failures, shift changes, or simply closing the checkpoint for the night.

RUSSIAN AND BELORUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️ Russia has started using Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine. And Iran, according to Western Intelligence, offered its financial networks to help Russia bypass the sanctions. The union of these two countries can change the course of the war against Ukraine, writes the Washington Post.

⚠️️The Kremlin has decided on a preliminary date for holding a “referendum” in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. This was reported on September 14, citing sources, by the Russian edition of Verstka. They want to hold pseudo-referendums on the territory of only two Ukrainian regions – Luhansk and Donetsk.

⚠️️ Russia has started returning its air defense systems from Syria. The Israeli publication Kan showed pictures demonstrating that Russia has transferred surface-to-air missile systems of the S-300 type from Masyaf to its base in Tartus. The Russian Federation can use these missile systems in the war with Ukraine.

⚠️️The Russians brought 10 chemical laboratories to Melitopol to save their military leadership from radiation in case of an accident at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

⚠️️ Russian spies have been monitoring the training of Ukrainian soldiers in Germany. Der Spiegel, citing data from the German Military Counterintelligence Service, reported this.

⚠️️The profits of Russian companies increased by 25% in the second quarter, despite the sanctions imposed by the West, which pushed the Russian economy into recession.

⚠️️Russia created the 3rd Army Corps for the offensive, consisting of physically unhealthy and old volunteers with no experienced junior officers. According to ISW, the Army Corps units are unlikely to create an effective combat force. The Russian military intends to introduce the 3rd Army Corps to reinforce offensive operations near Donetsk and in the southern direction.

⚠️️On September 1, Russia will begin joint large-scale military exercises with China “Vostok-2022”. They will last a week at military training grounds in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, as well as in the Sea of Japan. In recent years, relations between China and Russia have become closer. China, officially declaring its “neutrality”, supports the Russian Federation in its war against Ukraine, accusing the US and the West in general of propaganda.

⚠️️The President of the Russian Federation, during a meeting with schoolchildren, was convincing them that Ukraine did not exist before the formation of the Soviet Union and that the alleged purpose of Russia’s war against Ukraine “is to stop the war that has been going on in Donbas since 2014 and to protect Russia”.

⚠️️The Russian occupation forces are again adjusting their plans and actions under Putin’s order to enter the administrative borders of the Donetsk region by September 15, —  deputy chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

 

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 14 Ukrainian defenders returned home. Among them, ten are from 58 OMBR and four are from 30 OMBR. They were captured by the occupying forces this spring. The exchange took place today in the Donetsk region. Among the released soldiers are an officer and a military medic.

📌On August 29, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched offensives on many fronts in the south of Ukraine. Nataliia Humeniuk, Head of the Joint Coordination Press Centre of the Defence Forces “South”, reported this.

📌From August 22 to 28, the Ukrainian military demilitarized 27 ammunition depots and 22 enemy bases.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌On August 28, another six ships with Ukrainian agricultural products left the ports of the Odesa region, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense.

📌On August 28, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck one of the largest enemy military bases on the territory of the Avtokolorlyt Plant in Melitopol.

📌On August 30,  the first ship with Ukrainian agricultural products, chartered by the UN World Food Programme, arrived in Djibouti. It was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure. It concerns the BRAVE COMMANDER bulk carrier, with 23 thousand tons of wheat on board. After unloading, it will be delivered to consumers in Ethiopia.

📌 Through the mediation of the Red Cross, Ukraine has already returned the bodies of 541 dead soldiers, including more than 300 bodies of Azovstal defenders.

📌News from IAEA mission:

  • On August 29, the IAEA mission went to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The mission has begun on August 31 and will last until September 3.
    • The IAEA mission inspectors moved around the plant and spoke to the personnel of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the presence of Russian military and Rosatom employees.
        • On August 31, the Russians were blocking the IAEA mission. The delegation was forced to queue at the Russian checkpoint, as the invaders refused to issue special passes for IAEA representatives.Enerhoatom: The IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi left the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Most of the members of the delegation left the plant with him. Five representatives of the mission remained at the plant and will stay there until September 3.
          • There are no Americans and Britons among 13 experts selected by the IAEA Director General. Russia forced them to be excluded from the list. There are experts from Poland and Lithuania, which are friendly to Ukraine. At the same time, there are citizens of Serbia and China who are more loyal to the Kremlin. Others, which The New York Times has learned about, are from France, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Albania, and North Macedonia.
  • 📌The defense ministers of the EU member states have reached political agreements to start work on the creation of an EU training mission for the Ukrainian army, said EU High Representative for Foreign and Defense Policy Josep Borrell.“It is not only about the war, but also about how this war is waged, about the training and education of soldiers, the training of military personnel. In this sense, there are many initiatives. These needs are significant, and we must ensure that these efforts are widely publicized. All Member States agreed in this sense and on the start of the work that is necessary to determine the parameters of the mission of military assistance to Ukraine,” Borrell stressed. 

PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE 

📌One of the largest computer manufacturers DELL is leaving Russia for good. 

📌 Lithuania will purchase 37 kamikaze drones for Ukraine to fight effectively against the Russian invaders.

📌 The US is increasing production of HIMARS missile systems and GMLRS high-precision ammunition with a range of about 70-80 kilometres, reports Pentagon press service.

📌  Sweden will provide SEK 500 million (over $47 million) in military aid to Ukraine; it is part of a new package worth SEK 1 billion. 

📌 The Swiss company Logitech leaves the Russian market. All employees of the representative office in the Russian Federation will be dismissed from September 1, 2022.

📌 U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will personally host a meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on September 8, 2022, the U.S. Air Force Europe and Africa Command announced.

📌Estonia is ready to train the Ukrainian military as part of the future EU mission, – the Estonian Ministry of Defense. The head of the Estonian Ministry of Defense also noted that supporting Ukraine in various ways has been and will be a priority.

📌 Sweden will consider providing Ukraine with Archer artillery systems — the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden. The Swedish government will also consider the possible transfer of RBS 70 short-range surface-to-air missile systems. 

📌 The Pentagon announced that Raytheon Missiles & Defense would supply Ukraine with two NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems, training and logistical support for the Ukrainian military and security forces

📌On September 1, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod arrived in Kyiv to underline the firm support of the Ukrainian people.

📌Ukraine will receive six underwater mine detectors from the UK. The British will also conduct appropriate training to help Ukraine clean up the coastline, the British Ministry of Defense said.

📌Finland to provide Ukraine with additional defense aid worth €8.3 million — Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen.

📌The EU will mobilize €5 million to preserve the cultural heritage of Ukraine — Vice-President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas.

📌The Chinese payment system UnionPay banned the service of cards in Russian banks. UnionPay’s decision stems from fears of secondary sanctions. UnionPay reportedly entered into limited partnerships with sanctioned banks, both in terms of acquiring and issuance, on its own initiative.