Prepared by Sofia Oliynyk, Maryana Zaviyska, Anna Dovha
Photo: The Ministry of Internal Affairs
5 months of Russian war in Ukraine
Russia’s so-called ‘liberation’ mission is actively proceeding with its ‘destruction’ mission. Nevertheless Ukraine is transforming and keeping up its resistance as never before. Some of the updated statistics about the last five months of war.
- More than 50,000 women are now working in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including more than 38,000 are serving, of which more than 5,000 are on the front line, said Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar. ‘These are tankwomen, artillerywomen, military drivers-truckers. There was a discussion about professions that are directly harmful to health. Our women defended their right to choose even such professions’, she said;
- At the peak of fighting in May and June, Ukraine was losing between 100 and 200 military people a day; now, it is down to 30 fatalities a day and around 250 wounded, said Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his interview to the Wall Street Journal;
- 492 647 Ukrainian children have been integrated into the national school systems of EU countries, says the European Commission;
- At least 18 medical personnel had been killed and nearly 900 medical facilities damaged or destroyed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
Cities under attack
The Russian forces fired 13 missiles at the Kirovohrad region in the morning – they hit the Kanatove air base and one of the Ukrzaliznytsia facilities, killing at least three people and injuring nine. In Kostyantynivka and Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Russian forces destroyed two more schools. In Novodmytrivka, the enemy destroyed a kindergarten.On July 24, the Russians wounded 8 civilians of the Donetsk region. The head of the Sloviansk city military administration, Vadym Lyakh, believes that because of the war, it will not be possible to start the heating season with the onset of cold weather. Meanwhile about 22 thousand people remain in Sloviansk, out of which about 3000-4000 are children. On the night of July 25, Russian troops shelled three districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region: Nikopol, Dnipro, and Kryvorizky, damaging private houses, a gas pipeline, and hangars of agricultural enterprises.
Cities under occupation
Self proclaimed authorities in Kherson make attempts to instill pro-Russian sentiments among Ukrainian youth in the occupied territories. The occupation authorities in the Kherson region create youth public organizations and contests aimed at further pro-Russian ‘military-patriotic education’ of Ukrainian children. For this purpose, Russia-backed authorities try to form ‘public organizations’ such as ‘young builders of the Kherson region’, ‘the youth of Kherson’ and others. The participation of Ukrainian youth in them is increasingly becoming forced. At the same time, the senior population of the region is involved in the newly created organizations ‘Union of Mothers of Kherson Region’, ‘Organization of Veterans of Kherson Region’.
Partisans damaged the railway infrastructure in the Melitopol district. Guerrillas blew up the railway track used by the occupiers to transport military equipment and personnel in the direction of the cities of Vasylivka and Tokmak.
At least 243 of the Russian contract servicemen, who refused to continue to fight against the Ukrainian Armed Forces, are being held captive in the cellars of the town of Brianka in Luhansk region. The report refers to the relatives of captive soldiers. Military Command of the Russian Federation claims that it did not authorize the detention. The relatives were informed that the servicemen were detained by the “soldiers from Luhansk,” although they are aware that those who refused to fight are guarded by the Vagner Group mercenaries.
Human rights
Human Rights Watch released a new report on torture, disappearances in occupied South. Human Rights Watch spoke with 71 people from Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Skadovsk and 10 other cities and towns in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. They described 42 cases in which Russian occupation forces either forcibly disappeared civilians or otherwise held them arbitrarily, in some cases incommunicado, and tortured many of them. The purpose of the abuse seems to be to obtain information and to instill fear so that people will accept the occupation, as Russia seeks to assert sovereignty over occupied territory in violation of international law, says the report.
Russian occupation forces continue kidnapping people in the temporarily Russian-occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration, reports that so far, 415 abductions have been reported. Over 170 people are being held hostage by Russia. Starukh explained that a person is considered to have been kidnapped or abducted if she or he has been held captive for over three days. The number of people detained by the Russians for one or two days in order to hold them to ransom far exceeds the number stated above.
Food Security
In some 24 hours after signing the grain export deal, Russia attacked Port with Kalibr-type cruise missiles. Two of the missiles were shot down by air defense, and two more hit infrastructure facilities of the port. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called on Türkiye and the UN to influence Russia to fulfill the agreements on the export of Ukrainian grain. Less than 24 hours after the signing of the agreement, the Odesa Sea Port has already been hit by a missile.
Foreign policy
The European Union condemned the decision of the Russian Federation to expand the list of ‘unfriendly countries’, which now includes Greece, Denmark, Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Back in March 2022, a few days after the start of the war with Ukraine, the Russian government compiled a list of ‘unfriendly countries’, which included a number of the EU states, the USA, the UK, Japan, and about 20 other countries.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky met with a delegation of the US House of Representatives in Kyiv. The delegation was led by Republican Adam Smith, who is the chairman of the House Committee on Armed Forces and is responsible, in particular, for the oversight and funding of the Pentagon and partially for energy issues. The delegation also included Republican ex-military Mike Waltz, Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who previously worked for the CIA and the Pentagon, Democrat Mickie Sherrill, a former military pilot and prosecutor, and Democrat Mike Quigley. Zelenskyi indicated that Ukraine cannot be a country where there is a ‘frozen’ war. According to him, it is extremely necessary for Ukraine to be able to take appropriate steps to de-occupy Ukrainian territories. In addition, Zelenskyy noted the importance of security assistance to Ukraine from the United States, the latest package of which, containing the much-needed HIMARS launcher systems, shells and unmanned aerial vehicles, was announced the day before. However, the statement from the delegation on Saturday made no specific reference to weapons transfers. Separately, Smith was quoted as telling the U.S.-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Washington and its allies were ready to hand over more multiple launch rocket systems, Reuters reports.
Lithuania has lifted a ban on the rail transport of sanctioned goods in and out of the Russian area of Kaliningrad, referring to the clarification provided by the European Commission. Therefore the transit ban only affected road, not rail, transit, and Lithuania should allow Russia to ship concrete, wood and alcohol across EU territory to Kaliningrad.
Energy security
Ukraine separately informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that ten of the country’s 15 nuclear energy reactors are currently connected to the grid, including three at the ZNPP, three at the Rivne NPP, two at the South Ukraine NPP, and two at the Khmelnytskyy NPP. The other reactors have been shut down for regular maintenance. Safety systems remain operational at the four NPPs, and they also continue to have off-site power available, IAEA reports.
Culture
Russia has already destroyed at least 183 places of worship in 14 regions of Ukraine. 5 out of 183 buildings damaged as a result of the Russian attack are Muslim, 5 are Jewish, the remaining 173 are Christian. The largest number of such destruction is reported in Donetsk (45), Luhansk (40), Kyiv (34), and Kharkiv (25) regions.
The Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen took place last weekend. Within the event, 120 million UAH were collected for ambulances for Ukraine. The key purpose of the event was to discuss the post-war future of Ukraine and the world. The event was attended by 23 first ladies in different formats.
Reading corner.
- Last Stand at Azovstal: Inside the Siege That Shaped the Ukraine War | The New York Times For 80 days, at a sprawling steelworks, a relentless Russian assault met unyielding Ukrainian resistance. Azovstal e a fulcrum of the war, as Russian brutality collided with Ukrainian resistance. What began as an accident — civilians and soldiers barricaded together inside an industrial complex nearly twice as large as Midtown Manhattan — became a bloody siege as roughly 3,000 Ukrainian fighters kept a vastly larger Russian force bogged down in a quagmire that brought misery and death on both sides. This is how it was for those who fought, and for those trapped beneath the battlefield.
- Kherson’s secret art society produces searing visions of life under Russian occupation | The Guardian – Under the threat of imprisonment, interrogation and the constant pressure of searches by Russian soldiers, six artists secretly met in a basement studio in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson. In the months after their homes were taken over by Putin’s forces, the artists formed a residency, Residency in Occupation, during which they created dozens of works, including drawings, paintings, video, photography, diary entries and stage plays, offering a harrowing insight into the horrors endured by millions of Ukrainians living under the Russian invasion.
- The Desperate Lives Inside Ukraine’s ‘Dead Cities’ | The New Yorker – Nowhere on earth is louder today than the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated its forces and its firepower since April, after abandoning its disastrous bid to capture Kyiv. Russian officials, far from being humbled by that ordeal, have insisted on their continued determination not only to seize Ukrainian land and resources but also to punish and terrorize Ukrainians and their supporters.
Statistics
- General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the total estimated losses of the Russian military as of 10 a.m., July 25, 2022: personnel – around 39 700, tanks ‒ 1730, APV ‒ 3950, artillery systems – 876, MLRS – 257, anti-aircraft warfare systems – 116, fixed-wing aircraft – 222, helicopters – 188, operational-tactical level UAV – 719, cruise missiles – 174, boats and light speed boats – 15, soft-skinned vehicles and fuel tankers – 2832, special equipment – 72.
Every action counts, no contribution is too small!
- Support Behind Blue Eyes project. The project is aimed at helping children from de-occupied settlements. Project organizers give children disposable cameras and publish their photos on the project’s Instagram page and collect money to fulfill their wishes. The idea is to show how children from the de-occupied territories see the world around them.
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