Prepared by Sofia Oliynyk, Maryana Zaviyska, Anna Dovha
Photo: Ivan Chernichkin
Foreign policy.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi stated that Ukraine seeks closer cooperation with African countries. The President noted that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is planning a tour into African countries in the fall. ‘We want to expand our connections. It is very important for us. We also strive to find different areas for investment,’ Volodymyr Zelenskyi said.
Canada will resume the UNIFIER military training mission, which was suspended at the start of the Russian invasion. ‘We are fulfilling our promise and resuming a large-scale exercise within the framework of Operation UNIFIER. I have authorized the deployment of up to 225 members of the Canadian Armed Forces in Great Britain, where they will train Ukrainian recruits,’ Minister of National Defense of Canada Anita Anand said.
The President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin held talks with the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi, Russia. The Russian side announced that during the negotiations they reached an agreement on payment by Ankara for Russian gas in rubles. Putin and Erdogan discussed cooperation in energy, the banking and financial sphere. They also emphasized the need for full implementation of the Istanbul ‘grain agreement’, while noting that Russian fertilizers and grain should be exported without hindrance.
While the US and its allies have sanctioned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, half of the countries in the Group of Twenty (G20) have not signed up, Bloomberg stated.
Human rights.
In the temporarily occupied Mariupol, Donetsk region, the death rate has increased. According to the authorities, every fourth patient dies in hospitals. A sharp increase in infectious diseases is recorded, and the bodies of dead people are still found in the middle of the streets.
About 20-25% of missing Ukrainian soldiers were found in Russian captivity. ‘We talked about the fact that more than 7 thousand people are considered missing. This number is not correct. Since then, we have found about 20-25% in captivity. That’s why this number is lower,’ Oleg Kotenko, the Commissioner for Missing Persons In Special Circumstances, said.
In the Kyiv oblast, on the Zhytomyr highway near the village of Berezivka, a manʼs body was found in a technical well filled with water. According to Andriy Nebytov, chief of the police of the Kyiv oblast, after examining the body, the police established that the man died at the end of February or the beginning of March, when part of the populated areas of the oblast were under the occupation of Russian troops.
The head of the Ukrainian office of Amnesty International, Oksana Pokalchuk, announced that she resigned after the report of the organization’s central office that discredits the armed forces of Ukraine. ‘I believe that any work for the good of society should be done taking into account the local context and thinking through the consequences,’ she said.
Cities under attack.
As a result of shelling by the Russian military in the village of Novoivanivka in Zaporizhzhia region, civilian objects were destroyed. The granary of one of the farms, the premises of the dispensary and residential buildings were damaged. The Russians launched a missile attack on the Dnipropetrovsk region. As a result, there is destruction of housing, a damaged gas pipeline in the Myriv community. In Nikopol 10 private houses and farm buildings were damaged. A bus and several cars burned down at a local enterprise. Russian troops shelled Mykolaiv during the day. 22 people were injured, some were killed as a result of shelling. The head of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, Hanna Zamazeyeva, reported that the shelling took place in the afternoon from the Kherson side. According to Zamazeyeva, one of the victims is a teenager. The Russians shelled a village of Slatine in Kharkiv Oblast with phosphorus ammunition. As a result of the attack, six private houses burned down.
Cities under occupation.
The Ukrainian military liberated the village of Dibrivne, in the Izyum direction, in the Kharkiv region.
The Russian occupiers shelled the residential quarters of Energodar from the direction of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. Currently there is no Internet in the city, telephone communication works with interruptions.
Energy security.
The Russian occupiers shelled the biggest in Europe Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant twice. Three hits were recorded near one of the power units where the nuclear reactor is located. “The Russians seriously damaged the nitrogen-oxygen station and the combined auxiliary corps. There are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances. Fire danger is high,” stated Energoatom. After the first shelling, one of the working power units was disconnected from the network.
The Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN announced that Canada allocated $6 million for projects to improve nuclear security in Ukraine. 1 million will be allocated to IAEA to strengthen security, safety and safeguards at Ukrainian nuclear facilities and 5 million to the US to help Ukraine to detect and respond to illicit nuclear trafficking in its territory.
Food Security.
Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov stated that the first caravan of ships with Ukrainian grain left the ports of Odessa under the “grain” agreement. There are 57 000 tons of Ukrainian corn on board three bulkers, which are headed for Turkey, Great Britain and Ireland.
Farmers have collected 17.5 million tons of grain in Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, agricultural producers of 11 regions of Ukraine have completely finished threshing peas, and agrarians of Odesa and Mykolaiv region have finished harvesting wheat by 99%.
40 million people may experience food insecurity due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, says the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. As a result sub-Saharan Africa will be hardest hit. The Ambassador underlines that Russia has systematically captured some of Ukraine’s most productive farmland, causing severe damages with mines and bombs. Meanwhile, African governments have largely avoided taking sides in the conflict, and have refused to join Western condemnation and sanctions.
Economic security.
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine announced that the State Budget of Ukraine received grant funds from the Government of Albania in the amount of 1 million euros. The funds will be directed to financing priority expenditures of the State Budget of Ukraine.
Minister of Finance Serhii Marchenko signed an agreement on receiving a EUR 200 million soft loan from Italy. The funds will be directed to the state budget to cover expenses for the salaries of teaching staff of general secondary education institutions.
Sanctions.
The Government of Ukraine approved the draft presidential decree on the confiscation of 903 objects belonging to the Russian Federation. Confiscated assets will be converted into funds that will be directed to the defense and reconstruction of Ukraine. ‘The list of objects has been formed: there are hundreds of buildings, corporate rights, land plots and financial assets. All property is divided into three categories: the first category is property belonging to the Russian state, the second category is assets belonging to sanctioned Russian citizens and companies, the third category is assets of Russian banks,’ Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal stated.
The Embassy of Latvia in Russia has indefinitely suspended the issuance of visas to citizens of Russia. Visas will be issued only to Russians who will go to the funeral of a close relative.
Sport.
The Turkish football club ‘Fenerbahce’ was punished for the behavior of its fans during the match with ‘Dynamo’ Kyiv in the Champions League qualification in Istanbul when they chanted ‘Vladimir Putin’. The club was fined 50 000 euros. Also, UEFA has appointed partial closure of the stands (at least 5000 seats) in the club’s next European Cup home match as punishment. The partial closure of the stadium is subject to a trial period of two years.
Technologies.
Russia plans to launch a spy satellite on behalf of Iran to use it against Ukraine, according to the Washington Post. According to the media’s sources, Russia plans to use the device for several months or longer to strengthen surveillance of military targets in Ukraine.
The Security Service of Ukraine announced that an online service for searching for prisoners of war and missing persons in wartime conditions was launched. In this way, the Security Service of Ukraine protects against fraudulent schemes, when unknown persons can call and offer ‘help’ in allegedly freeing relatives from captivity.
Heritage.
According to Oleksiy Kuleba, the Head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, the Russian invaders damaged 84 objects of cultural heritage, 24 religious buildings and 16 memorials in the Kyiv region. ‘The occupiers purposefully destroyed not only buildings, but also crushed the carriers of Ukrainian culture: books, towels, national costumes, instruments and other objects of local museum funds,’ he said.
Media.
The Russian propaganda media group RIA Novosti has announced that its Twitter accounts have been blocked in 28 countries. The accounts of the media group are blocked in Great Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria and a number of other EU countries. Not only news accounts, but also sports and economic accounts are blocked.
Former Ukrainian TV presenter Yuriy Kot, who currently lives in the Russian Federation and spreads Russian propaganda narratives, was charged with treason. ‘Yuriy Kot engaged in informational distortion of events during the Euromaidan. In addition, he incited inter-ethnic conflicts, incited separatist sentiments among Ukrainians, and formed a false image of part of the Ukrainian population as ‘national fascists,’ the report of the prosecutor’s office stated.
Culture.
The local authorities of Berlin have banned the organization of an exhibition of Russian military equipment destroyed during the fighting in Ukraine. According to the Berlin authorities, the reason for the refusal was that people could be killed in this destroyed equipment, therefore, the exhibition is inappropriate.
Recent polls.
Kyiv International Institute of Sociology conducted a survey on the topic of religious self-identification of the population of Ukraine. According to results of the survey, 72% of respondents consider themselves Orthodox. At the same time, 54% of them identified themselves as believers of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, 14% did not identify themselves with a specific patriarchate, and 4% of respondents declared a connection with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. 10% of respondents called themselves atheists, 8% – Greek Catholics. Other religions and denominations were mentioned less frequently.
Reading corner.
- Ukrainian Grandmaster Bids to Unseat Russian Head of World Chess Body | The New York Times – ‘Mr. Baryshpolets pointed out that in 2020, the last year for which financial statements are available, Russian state and private companies provided more than 90 percent of all donations to FIDE, contributing more than 45 percent of the organization’s budget. Chess has traditionally been intertwined with the Russian state and a projection of its global power — a legacy of Soviet domination of the sport that it funded and nurtured. From the establishment of the International Chess Federation’s first world championship in 1948, to 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Soviet players won every championship but one.’
Statistics.
- General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the total estimated losses of the Russian military as of 10 a.m., August 06, 2022: personnel – around 41 900, tanks ‒ 1802, APV ‒ 4051, artillery systems – 955, MLRS – 260, anti-aircraft warfare systems – 127, fixed-wing aircraft – 223, helicopters – 191, operational-tactical level UAV – 744, cruise missiles – 182, boats and light speed boats – 15, soft-skinned vehicles and fuel tankers – 2970, special equipment – 85.
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