Prepared by Sofia Oliynyk, Maryana Zaviyska, Anna Dovha
Photo: Nikopol district/ the-village.com.ua
Foreign policy.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said that the CBS News channel should conduct an internal investigation due to the publication of statements about Ukraine’s alleged “sale” of Western weapons on the black market. ‘You have misled a huge audience by sharing unsubstantiated claims and damaging trust in supplies of vital military aid to a nation resisting aggression and genocide. There should be an internal investigation into who enabled this and why’ – he stated.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called on Western countries to completely ban entry for all Russians. He proposes to do this in response to the attempt to annex new Ukrainian territories by the Russian Federation. Zelensky said that Russians should ‘live in their own world until they change their philosophy.’ At the same time, the Prime Ministers of Estonia and Finland are calling to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians for trips to the European Union. ‘It is wrong that while Russia is waging an aggressive, brutal war of aggression in Europe, Russians can live a normal life, travel around Europe, be tourists,’ – Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said.
Cities under attack.
According to the Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, on the night of August 8, Nikopol and Kryvorizky districts were shelled. Four villages in two communities were under fire. As a result of the shelling, several private houses were damaged, explosions destroyed two premises of the agricultural company, damaged four of its warehouses, equipment and transport. Air defense forces shot down Russian missiles over Odesa and Cherkasy regions in the morning of August 8. Ihor Taburets, head of the Cherkasy Regional Military Administration, reported that as a result of the fall of the remains of the downed missile, the object of civil infrastructure was damaged and two people were injured. As a result of the shelling by the Russian military on the morning of August 8, one person died in Kharkiv, according to the Mayor of Kharkiv Ihor Terekhov. On the night of August 8, the Russian military shelled an enterprise in Kharkiv. According to the rescuers, as a result of the fall of ammunition, the building of the enterprise was damaged, in which three sources of fire started at once. Head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration Dmytro Zhivytsky stated that the Russian invaders fired more than 130 shells in the Sumy region on August 8. As a result of the shelling, one person died. According to the Head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration Pavlo Kyrylenko, Russian occupiers killed 3 civilians, 19 more people were injured On August 8.
The Head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleh Sinegubov reported that 1 person died, 5 civilians were injured on August 9 as a result of the shelling. The Russian occupiers damaged transport and critical infrastructure, the hotel and restaurant complex and set on fire a field with wheat. In the Chernihiv region, the civilian population was forbidden to approach the border with Russia at a distance of two kilometers along the state border due to the shellings from the Russian territories of the border areas.
Cities under occupation.
Pro-Kremlin collaborators signed an ‘order’ to hold a pseudo-referendum in the Zaporizhzhya region. Illegal voting on this matter took place in temporarily occupied Melitopol. In the Zaporizhzhya region, the Russian military fired on a bus on which people were being evacuated from Melitopol. One of the shells hit the ground next to the bus. The shock wave in the transport caused the windows to fly out on one side and the rear door was knocked out. The passengers were not injured. The Kherson regional state administration reported that the Russian occupiers mined vital communications in Kherson before a possible counteroffensive of the Armed Forces, including gas, electricity, and water supplies. 24 crimes committed by the Russian military were recorded during August 8 in the Kherson region. Among them the seizure of a network of gas stations and a green tourism base in the Kherson region. In addition, 22 tons of complex mineral fertilizers worth more than 500 thousand hryvnias were stolen from the territory of the port in Kherson. Head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Yaroslav Yanushevich stated that the occupation authorities increased the number of “cash assistance” points in the Kherson region. This is done to collect personal information of locals.
Human rights.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, children were the most affected by the actions of the Russians in Donetsk region, Kharkiv region and Kyiv region as a result of the Russian invasion. At least 361 children died as a result of Russian military shelling.
In total 458 bodies of people who died as a result of Russian military aggression were found and identified on the territory of the Bucha community. 419 of them were killed by the Russian military. Among the dead were 12 children under the age of 21. Most of them were shot in their cars during evacuation from the city. In addition, 14 residents of the Bucha community were captured by the Russian military. 10 people are considered missing, Deputy Mayor Bucha Mykhailyna Skoryk-Shkarivska said.
The Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhii Gaidai, reported that the occupiers are organizing the deportation of orphaned children to the Russian Federation. He informed that Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, is actively involved in the ‘deportation organization process’. In the near future, the Russian invaders plan to illegally take 104 children from the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region.
The Association of Families of Defenders of Azovstal appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations with a call to prevent the trial of Ukrainian military personnel in Mariupol.
The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine reported that an operation was held to transfer the bodies of fallen soldiers. Ukraine returned 17 bodies of its defenders. The process of returning bodies takes place in accordance with the norms of the Geneva Convention.
According to the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, Amnesty International used the testimony of people who were in filtration camps and prisons in the temporarily occupied territories to prepare a report that discredits the Ukrainian army. Therefore, such interviews were taken under pressure from the security forces of the Russian Federation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported that on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea, the aggressor state Russia consistently and purposefully pursues a policy of extermination and displacement of indigenous peoples from the peninsula. The Russian occupation administration illegally detains more than 120 citizens of Ukraine from Crimea, most of whom are Crimean Tatars, for political or religious reasons.
Energy security.
Energoatom reported that the Russian occupiers threaten to blow up the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. According to Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Russian occupiers mined the power units of the Zaporizhzhya NPP.
Ukraine sent letters to the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency urging them to send a security mission to the Zaporizhzhya NPP. ‘I call on the Secretary General of the UN, the IAEA and the entire world community […] to completely demilitarize the territory of the NPP and provide security guarantees to the employees of the nuclear plant and the residents of the city of Energodar for the maintenance of the plant,’ Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets stated.
The Russian occupiers want to reconnect the Zaporizhzhya NPP to the annexed Crimea. The staff of ‘Rosatom’ handed over a special program to the captured ZNPP for reconnection to the Crimea. According to the Head of Energoatom Petro Kotin, in order to switch the ZNPP to Crimea, the occupiers will have to completely ‘extinguish’ the station and the entire south of Ukraine. This will be the most dangerous mode for the Zaporizhzhya NPP: if the plant shuts down and switches to diesel generators, the situation will depend on the reliability of their operation.
Russia suspended the transit of oil through the Ukrainian part of the Druzhba oil pipeline. Russian oil company Transneft reported that it could not pay for transit services due to EU sanctions. ‘Gazprombank’, which handles payments, informed us that the payment was returned in connection with the entry into force of the European Union regulations, i.e. the seventh package of sanctions.
The first 39 wagons of coal from Australia arrived at the Ukrainian Thermal Power Plant. The coal was provided as part of humanitarian aid from the Australian government.
Ukraine and Poland have started restoration of the cross-border power transmission line. The project to restore the cross-border power transmission line is implemented in accordance with the memorandum between the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the Ministry of Climate and Environment of Poland, which was signed in June 2022.
Economic security.
The World Bank announced that it will mobilize $4.5 billion provided by the United States in additional financing for vital support to Ukraine. Specifically, the project will help the Government of Ukraine to cover social payments, healthcare services, and pensions, which are essential for the well-being of the country’s citizens in mitigating the social and economic impacts of the war.
Rebuilding Ukraine.
The government of Taiwan provided Chernihiv with half a million dollars to restore the damaged infrastructure. The funds were allocated to repairs of three educational and medical institutions.
Migration.
Finland has registered a record number of refugees following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, beating the previous record set during the 2015 migration crisis. In total, more than 37 000 people are currently registered in the Finnish reception system.
Biodiversity.
As a result of Russia’s military aggression on the territory of Ukraine, the ecosystem of the Sumy region suffered damage in the amount of almost UAH 180 million. Of these, UAH 150 million is damage from atmospheric air pollution and UAH 25 million is soil and agricultural land. Green spaces and water resources were also damaged.
Food Security.
The Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon reported that the buyer in Lebanon refused to take 26 thousand tons of corn from the ship Razoni, which was the first to leave the ports of Odesa. The reason is a delivery delay of more than five months. The supplier is currently looking for another buyer.
On August 8, in the course of the implementation of the ‘grain initiative’, the first ship with Ukrainian products since February 24 left the ‘Pivdenny’ port – the bulk carrier SACURA is bound for Italy, according to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
On August 9, 2 vessels left the port of Chornomorsk with a total cargo volume of 70,000 tons. The RAHMI YAGGI vessel will deliver 5.3 thousand tons of products to Turkey, and the panamax bulker OCEAN LION will deliver almost 65 thousand tons of corn to South Korea.
War crimes prosecution.
The Chernihiv court sentenced Russian tanker Mykhailo Kulikov to 10 years in prison for violating the laws and customs of war. He was found guilty of shooting a high-rise building in Chernihiv from a tank in February. The Kyiv Court of Appeal announced the sentence to Russian soldier Vadym Shishymarin. He was sentenced to 15 years for the murder of a civilian. Vadym Shishymarin is the first Russian soldier to be sentenced for a crime against a civilian.
Sanctions.
It is proposed to create a Bureau of Sanctions Policy under the National Security Council of Ukraine. According to the draft law, the Bureau of Sanctions Policy is a working body of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, which will coordinate the activities of entities implementing the sanctions policy of Ukraine.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, submitted to the parliament the draft resolution on the expansion of sanctions against the Russian Federation and its citizens. However, the sanctions will not apply to Russians living in Ukraine legally.
Russians were banned from visiting Vincennes Castle in France near Paris, which notably houses the archives of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, since an internal directive issued following the invasion of Ukraine. The Castle notably contains one of the centers of the Defense History Service, whose libraries and archives are accessible to the public under certain conditions. However, the Ministry of the Armed Forces explained that “requests relating to journalistic duties” could be made by Russian citizens to visit the archives.
Technologies.
Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov called on the owners of websites and IT products to support the flash mob “Russia Is A Terrorist State”. The task of the flash mob is to change the name ‘Russia’ to ‘Russia – a terrorist country’ on all sites and online systems where it is possible to select a country or language. ‘A country that is shelling peaceful cities, committing war crimes and bringing the whole world to the brink of nuclear war does not deserve to be called anything else,’ he stated.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine launched a new mobile application for mine safety. The application allows users to report the detection of suspicious objects, as well as receive notifications about approaching a dangerous object.
The number of Russian propaganda sites has doubled since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, according to the New York group of NewsGuard researchers. NewsGuard has identified 250 Russia-Ukraine disinformation sites that have promoted false claims about the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
The Cabinet of Ministers has expanded and simplified the procedure for submitting an information notice about destroyed or damaged property as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. If earlier Ukrainians submitted information through the application ‘Diya’ only about houses destroyed during the period of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, now the range has been expanded: the application accepts data about property damaged by the enemy since February 19, 2014.
Recent polls.
Kyiv International Institute of Sociology conducted a survey on the dynamics of the attitude of ukrainians towards Stalin. According to the results of the survey, the majority of Ukrainians – 64% – have a negative attitude towards Stalin and only 5% have a positive attitude (another 23% are indifferent to him). In all regions and among all age categories, the share of those who have a negative attitude towards Stalin significantly outweighs those who have a positive attitude towards him. However, there are still regional peculiarities of perception. If in the West and in the Center, a clear majority has a negative attitude towards Stalin, then in the South – a little more than half (55%) (only 6% are positive). In the East, 45% have a negative attitude (another 35% have an indifferent attitude, and 12% have a positive attitude).
Reading corner.
- Russian disinformation spreading in new ways despite bans | Associated Press – ‘NewsGuard, a New York-based firm that studies and tracks online misinformation, has now identified 250 websites actively spreading Russian disinformation about the war, with dozens of new ones added in recent months. Claims on these sites include allegations that Ukraine’s army has staged some deadly Russian attacks to curry global support, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is faking public appearances, or that Ukrainian refugees are committing crimes in Germany and Poland.’
Statistics.
- General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the total estimated losses of the Russian military as of 10 a.m., August 10, 2022: personnel – around 42 800, tanks ‒ 1832, APV ‒ 4076, artillery systems – 971, MLRS – 261, anti-aircraft warfare systems – 133, fixed-wing aircraft – 232, helicopters – 193, operational-tactical level UAV – 766, cruise missiles – 185, boats and light speed boats – 15, soft-skinned vehicles and fuel tankers – 3005, special equipment – 89.
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