Prepared by Sofia Oliynyk, Maryana Zaviyska, Anna Dovha
Photo: Mstyslav Chernov
Foreign policy.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi held a meeting with the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Urmas Reinsalu. The visit to Kyiv was the first foreign visit of Urmas Reinsalu. The process of restoring the priority infrastructure, including schools and kindergartens, was initiated during the visit. “I want to thank you for starting this process […] We are grateful that the work started in your country. Thank you to the government of Estonia and Estonians,” Volodymyr Zelenskyi said. In the frame of the Minister’s visit a capsule was laid in the border town of Ovruch in the Zhytomyr region on the occasion of the start of the construction of the first kindergarten within the Fast Recovery Plan, reads the statement. This is the first of 15 objects of general infrastructure that the Zhytomyr Regional State Administration submitted for consideration by the Estonian government for assistance in the reconstruction of the region. Estonia has been one of the countries that committed to the reconstruction, but the first one to proceed with actual project.
The Commander of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksiy Neizhpapa, held an online meeting with the Commander of the NATO Maritime Command, Keith Blount. During the meeting, the topic of grain export from Ukrainian ports was discussed. The parties paid great attention to ensuring mine safety and creating safe routes along which vessels transporting Ukrainian grain and food products should move.
Human rights.
The Red Cross stated that it did not guarantee the safety of Ukrainian military personnel who left Azovstal. “We did not guarantee the safety of the PoWs once in enemy hands because it is not within our power to do so. We had made this clear to the parties in advance. It is the obligation of parties to the conflict to ensure POWs are protected against acts of violence, intimidation, and public curiosity, as well as against the effects of hostilities. Only parties to the conflict can definitively ensure the safety and security of PoWs,” the Red Cross reported.
According to Dmytro Lubinets, Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation regarding the recognition of the Ukrainian regiment “Azov” as a terrorist organization is an attempt by Russia to withdraw the prisoners of war of the “Azov” regiment from the scope of the Third Geneva Convention. As a result, Russia will deny access to prisoners of war to ICRC representatives and consider it legal.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that he will launch a fact-finding mission regarding the explosion in the Olenivka colony in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region, where approximately 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed on July 29. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the Russian Federation deliberately mined the colony and killed the captured soldiers there in order to hide the facts of torture and abuse of them.
Cities under attack.
Over the past day, the police received information about shelling of 30 settlements, as a result of which 16 people died and dozens more were injured, reported Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs. The situation remains extremely tense in the Donetsk region, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kherson regions continue to be mercilessly shelled.
The Kharkiv Regional Military Administration reported that the Russians shelled Chuguyiv, Kharkiv region. Mayor of Kharkiv Ihor Terekhov reported that two explosions were heard in Kharkiv by morning. As a result of the second explosion, an infrastructure facility was damaged. One person died, two were injured. As a result of night shelling, a kindergarten and a church were struck, the power line was damaged in the village of Velyka Kostromka, Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Valentyn Reznichenko. As a result of shelling by Russian troops, several private houses were damaged and a 70-year-old woman was killed in the village of Velyka Kostromka, Zelenodilska community, Dnipropetrovsk region. In Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on the morning of August 3, the Russian military destroyed the office of “Free Radio” with a targeted strike. “Russian troops probably deliberately targeted a civilian object,” reported the “Free Radio”. The Russian troops shelled the vicinity of the railway station, the elevator, and the center of Krasnopillia, Sumy region.As a result of this shelling, residential buildings were partially damaged, the roof was destroyed and windows were broken. During the shelling of Mykolaiv on the morning of August 3, the Russians destroyed a supermarket and twice hit the territory of an equestrian school. High-rise buildings, premises of a pharmacy and several shops were damaged.
Cities under occupation.
Russian occupiers kidnapped the director of a school in the Kherson region. According to the First Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council Yuriy Sobolevsky, there is a huge pressure on school directors throughout the region, because the vast majority of Ukrainian teachers refuse to work with the occupiers and reorganize the work of educational institutions under the Russian program”
The Ministry of Defense of Great Britain with reference to intelligence data reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine damaged the railway connection between occupied Kherson and Crimea as a result of an attack on a Russian train with ammunition in the Kherson region.
The second evacuation train arrived from Donetsk region to Kirovohrad region on the night of August 3. Pensioners, people with disabilities, injured people and children came. There were ten children. Representatives of social services, public organizations, the Red Cross, doctors, rescuers, psychologists and police met the displaced people.
In the temporarily occupied Mariupol, the Russian military is dismantling a memorial to servicemen in order to erect a monument to Alexander Nevsky on a horse, according to the Mariupol City Council.
Dmytro Orlov, mayor of Energodar, informed that the Russian military shelled the temporarily occupied Energodar from nearby villages in order to blame it on the Armed Forces.
A new TV channel was launched in the occupied Melitopol, which will broadcast Russian propaganda. The studio of the new TV channel will be located under the occupied TV tower in Melitopol. There is still no information about who headed the propaganda TV channel. At the beginning of May it became known that three journalists from Melitopol agreed to cooperate with the occupiers.
Over the month of July, Russia increased the area of land they control in Ukraine by approximately 165 km², which equates to a total of ~19.4% of Ukraine being occupied. ~0.02% more than at the end of June.
Energy security.
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Raphael Grossi, said that the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant captured by the occupiers is completely out of control. “Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, he said.
The government has determined the terms of a new offer to Naftogaz Eurobond holders to postpone payments. “The Government noted that they are counting on a positive decision by the holders of Naftogaz Eurobonds regarding the new conditions for deferring payments, which will allow all available resources to be consolidated for the primary needs of the state,” Naftogaz reported.
A new compression station in the west of Ukraine was put into operation. It will help extract more gas, ensure the reliable operation of the entire complex for uninterrupted fuel supply during the heating season for Ukrainians, and also improve the quality of blue fuel.“Because of the war, it is even more important for us to ensure an increase in production where possible, where active hostilities are not ongoing, and to ensure the reliability of the entire system,” Yuriy Vitrenko, Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, noted.
The new report on the global consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was released by the UN Global Crisis Response Group. The ongoing energy crisis, worsened by the war in Ukraine was highlighted in the new report. “The truth is that we are seeing these excessive, outrageous profits from the oil and gas industries at a time when we are all losing money,” Antonio Guterres told a press conference to mark the release of the third UN report on the global consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some of the findings include: there are growing fears of a looming economic slowdown that, coupled with high inflation, might imply a return to stagflation at the end of 2022 or in 2023. The world is in the grip of a major energy crisis, with countries worldwide affected by extremely high and volatile prices, particularly of fossil fuels. Rising energy prices may price out many developing countries, with a high level of impact on the most vulnerable citizens, from energy markets.
Food Security.
The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported that the first ship with Ukrainian grain passed the inspection of the Joint Coordination Center in Turkey and is ready to go to its destination in Lebanon. Its stop in the territorial waters of Turkey is connected with the next stage of the implementation of the “grain initiative”, which was signed in Istanbul, namely the inspection of the vessel for prohibited cargo.
The operatives of the Maritime Guard revealed the scheme of illegal export of Ukrainian grain from the occupied territories by Russian and Syrian vessels through the Crimea, according to the Maritime security of the State Border Service of Ukraine.
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, with the financial support of Canada, has launched a new project in the amount of 40 million US dollars to further solve the problem of grain storages in Ukraine. It is noted that this initiative will allow for the storage of an additional 2.4 million tons of grain in 2022-2023, along with appropriate technical support and equipment.
Ukraine has exported 3 million tons of grain and oil crops through alternative routes in July 2022. “In June we’ve shipped 2 million and two thousand tons, while for July this value amounts to about 3 million tons of grain and oil seed which reflects improved logistics,” said Denys Marchuk, Deputy Head of Ukrainian Agri Council.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that 12 million tons of grain of the new crop were collected on an area of 3.5 million hectares during the harvest period. He noted that this year’s harvest is expected to be larger than initially forecast — 65-67 million tons instead of 60 million tons.
Sanctions.
Canada expanded sanctions against Russia. Thus, 43 people were included in the list, including Russian servicemen involved in the atrocities in Bucha. Sanctions were also applied to 17 organizations from the defense sector that support the Russian army. Also, Switzerland introduced sanctions on the import of gold from Russia. Switzerland also mirrored the European exemptions from sanctions on the supply of agricultural products and oil to third countries.
The largest European satellite company, the French Eutelsat, stopped the broadcast of NTV-Mir throughout the European territory because the Russian TV channel spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda. According to the regulator, the channel “tends to repeatedly portray not only the Ukrainian leadership and the Ukrainian army, but also and above all the Ukrainian population, as adhering to the Nazi ideology of the Third Reich”.
Italy’s tax police has seized assets worth more than 141 million euros belonging to the architect who designed a luxury estate on the Black Sea for Putin.
Technologies.
The first control complex and four Fly Eye reconnaissance drones arrived in Ukraine. They were purchased within the framework of the “Army of Drones” program, which is aimed at purchasing drones for the Armed Forces. According to the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov, 755 million UAH have already been collected for the Drone Army through the UNITED24 platform.
Culture.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, 346 art objects and cultural institutions were destroyed or damaged as a result of the Russian military aggression. 14 objects in Donetsk region, Kyiv region, Sumy region and Chernihiv region were completely destroyed.
Keen to explore recent Ukrainian movies? Have a look at the selection prepared by the Ukrainian Institute.
Reading corner.
- War Spurs Ukrainian Efforts to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage | The New York Times – The role of gay soldiers, the lack of legal rights for their partners, and the threat of Russia imposing anti-L.G.B.T. policies have turned the war into a catalyst for change in Ukraine. Assuring rights for L.G.B.T. people has taken on added urgency at a time when Moscow is seizing territory and apparently plans to annex it into Russia, where sexual minorities routinely face official and unofficial discrimination, homophobia and social stigma. In Ukraine, the sight of L.G.B.T.Q. people in uniform fighting back against Russian invaders has helped foster acceptance of sexual minorities.
- Making sense of the senseless: Ukrainian war-art exhibition arrives in Brussels | The Guardian – Traditional Ukrainian embroidery featuring guns and military helicopters; a graffitied portrait of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin; photographs of smartly dressed school leavers standing in the ruins of a shelled building in Kharkiv: all feature in an exhibition of Ukraine’s newest artworks. While the country’s art is perhaps getting more attention than ever before, The Captured House exhibition, which opened in Brussels last week, stands out because 90% of the works have been created since the Russian invasion began on 24 February.
Statistics.
- General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the total estimated losses of the Russian military as of 10 a.m., August 04, 2022: personnel – around 41 500, tanks ‒ 1789, APV ‒ 4026, artillery systems – 946, MLRS – 260, anti-aircraft warfare systems – 118, fixed-wing aircraft – 223, helicopters – 191, operational-tactical level UAV – 742, cruise missiles – 182, boats and light speed boats – 15, soft-skinned vehicles and fuel tankers – 2960, special equipment – 83.
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