Prepared by Sofia Oliynyk, Maryana Zaviyska, Anna Dovha
Photo: Destroyed Russian military equipment displayed on Khreshchatyk in Kyiv, Ukraine, 21 August 2022. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
Today Ukraine marks its Independence Day. At the same time it’s 6 months of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s full-scale invasion. 6 months of resilience, pain, and pride. On this occasion, we’ve prepared a new factsheet – 6 months of Ukraine’s resistance: Russia-Ukraine war in numbers.
Crimea.
Almost 60 states and international organizations joined the second Crimean Platform Summit that took place on August 23. This year, representatives of two more continents – Africa and South America – joined the Summit. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal presented the Strategy for the Reconstruction of Crimea after Deoccupation, which is an integral part of the general strategy for the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltengberg said that NATO will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, however ‘Winter is coming and it will be hard. And what we see now is a grinding war of attrition. This is a battle of wills and a battle of logistics’. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that the EU’s support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion would continue ‘for the long term.’ Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ‘The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law’. While President Zelenskyy in his evening address underlined that Crimea will be returned to Ukraine ‘We will take back Crimea – it is our territory. We will do this in any way which we decide. We will decide this by ourselves, without consultation with any other country in the world.’
Cities under attack.
On the night of August 22, the Russian occupiers launched missiles on Kharkiv. The infrastructure facility and two buildings were damaged. On the same day, the Russian invaders shelled three districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region. As a result of the shelling, 4 people were injured. Residential buildings, shops, markets, school and kindergarten were damaged. The power line was damaged. Up to 2,000 people were left without electricity.
On the night of August 23, two districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region were attacked. One person was killed, 3 people were injured. Gas and water lanes were damaged in one of the cities, in another – power line was damaged. Private houses were damaged as a result of the shellings. In the evening, the Russian invaders fired on Dnipro. As a result, private houses were damaged. At the same time, the Russian occupiers shelled Zaporizhzhia.The occupiers hit infrastructure facilities in one of the districts of the city. The whole day on August 23, the Russian troops actively shelled Kharkiv. Three attacks on three districts of the city were recorded. Three-floor building was hit by fire with 100 rescuers trying to distinguish the fire.
Starting from midnight of August 24, Russian forces started ‘congratulating’ with missiles Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. At midnight, the enemy launched attacks on Zaporizhzhia. As a result of a nighttime attack, the city’s civilian infrastructure was damaged. At least six residential buildings are known, in which the windows have blown out and the window frames have been destroyed. Also early in the morning, an infrastructure object was damaged. In the Dnipropetrovsk region the night was ‘a continuous air raid alarm’, as stated by the head of the region. Russians shelled the region with BM21 and BM24, heavily targeting three districts.
Cities under occupation.
Zaporizhzhia region. The Russian invaders announced the opening of a filtration camp in Vasylivka. Through this settlement, residents of the Kherson region leave for the territory controlled by Ukraine. This is done for more thorough checks of Ukrainians and the creation of even longer queues for departure. Meanwhile, the occupation authorities in the Zaporizhzhia region covertly proclaimed the ‘independence of the region’ from Ukraine. They call citizens of Ukraine who enter the captured region ‘temporary asylum seekers’. Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region receive SMS with fake information regarding accession to the Russian Federation and a link to a Russian propaganda Telegram channel. In the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian military threatens to deport residents who disagree with the occupation.
Human rights.
The leader of the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ Denys Pushilin announced that the preparations for the tribunal over the 23 Ukrainian soldiers from the ‘Azov’ regiment are coming to an end in Mariupol. In regard to the preparation for a trial, Ukraine asked the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to register the planned trial of the defenders of Azovstal as a violation of the Geneva Convention by the Russian Federation. The UN OHCHR expressed concern on Tuesday about plans by Russian-backed authorities to try Ukrainian prisoners of war in Mariupol, possibly within days, saying such a process could itself amount to a war crime. At the same time, Ukraine submitted an urgent petition to the European Court of Human Rights with the demand to ensure the protection of the Ukrainian defenders of Azovstal, who were captured by Russia. The appeal demands that no courts or tribunals be held over the soldiers and that the Ukrainian side be given access to their places of detention. Before, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that if the Russian Federation holds a court in Mariupol, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia will become impossible.
More than a thousand Ukrainian children, who were illegally deported by the Russians from the temporarily occupied Mariupol, were given up for ‘adoption’ in the Krasnodar region, the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, Russia is offering a bonus for the adoption of the children of Mariupol.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 5587 civilians were killed and 7890 were injured. Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes, according to the UN.
Energy security.
The Russian occupiers shelled the ash pits of the Zaporizhzhya Heat Power Plant to raise clouds of radioactive dust. Monitoring of the radiation background, which is carried out near the nuclear plant, indicates an increase in the level of radiation.
On Tuesday at an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the situation at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant took place.The United States and their allies accused Russia of courting disaster and peddling lies about who is responsible for the danger at Zaporizhzhia. Traditionally, Russia accused similar charges against Ukraine. All sides agreed that experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency should visit the site to ensure its safety. Though both Russia and Ukraine blame each other for delaying that inspection.
Ukraine has terminated an agreement with Russia on measures to ensure the parallel operation of the energy systems of the two countries.
Sanctions.
Canada will introduce sanctions against another 62 people and one enterprise of the Russian defense sector. The country will extend sanctions against 1750 people and companies in the Russian Federation and Belarus.
Recent polls.
The Russian Public Opinion Research Center conducted a survey of Russians about the influence of the West on national culture. More than half of the Russian population (59%) do not see the benefits of Western civilization, democracy and culture: 33% believe that they do not suit Russians, and 26% call them destructive. At the same time, the share of those who believe that a lot of useful things can be taken from Western civilization, democracy and culture has decreased from 55% in 2000 to 30% in 2022. However, young people are among those who remain loyal to the West; among 18-34-year-olds, attitudes that West can give a lot of good (55-50%) dominate.
Reading corner.
- Ukraine’s independence day was always important. Now it is a matter of life and death by Nataliya Gumenyuk | The Guardian – Ukraine marks its 31st independence anniversary. What would mark the day under the constant threat of Russian attack – and facing a watershed in the course of the war.
- Six months, twenty-three lessons: What the world has learned from Russia’s war in Ukraine | Atlantic Council – The war in Ukraine has already transformed much of what the world thought it knew about not only military operations and strategy, but also diplomacy, intelligence, national security, energy security, economic statecraft, and much more. Six months since the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Atlantic Council asked experts across our vast network to share the biggest lessons they’ve learned from the crisis.
- In Ukraine, a Nuclear Plant Held Hostage | The New York Times – Five months after Russian forces took over the Zaporizhzhia plant, all that stands between the world and nuclear disaster are dedicated Ukrainian operators working at gunpoint.
Statistics.
- General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the total estimated losses of the Russian military as of 10 a.m., August 24, 2022: personnel – around 45 700, tanks ‒ 1924, APV ‒ 4243, artillery systems – 1036, MLRS – 266, anti-aircraft warfare systems – 147, fixed-wing aircraft – 234, helicopters – 199, operational-tactical level UAV – 819, cruise missiles – 196, boats and light speed boats – 15, soft-skinned vehicles and fuel tankers – 3160, special equipment – 99
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