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Volodymyr Zelenskiy orders evacuation of Donetsk region
July 30th 2022
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for the evacuation of the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, which has seen fierce clashes between his country’s forces and the Russian military. The governor of Donetsk, where Moscow is focusing the brunt of its offensive, said that six civilians were killed and 15 wounded by strikes on Friday. “There’s already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from Donetsk region,” the Ukrainian president said in his daily address. “Please, follow evacuation. At this phase of the war, terror is a main weapon of Russia.” Zelenskiy warned that thousands of people, including children, were still in the battleground areas of the Donetsk region.
“The decision to leave should be taken at some point. The more people who leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will kill,” he said. Logistics and support operations were being handled by the authorities “from A to Z”, he added. “We will help you. We are not Russia. We will do everything possible to save the maximum number of human lives and to maximally limit Russian terror.”
SOURCE = The Guardian
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Ukraine war: The key developments you need to know for Saturday
July 30th 2022
Ukrainian authorities have denounced Russian calls to “hang” or inflict a “humiliating death” on fighters from the Ukrainian Azov regiment, the day after a strike on a prison where some of them were being held that killed more than 50 prisoners of war. “There is no difference between Russian diplomats calling for the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war and Russian troops doing so in Olenivka. They are all complicit in these war crimes and must be held accountable,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Twitter. He was reacting to a tweet posted on Friday evening by the Russian Embassy in London, which Twitter flagged with a warning as having “breached rules on hateful conduct”, but remains available to view as Twitter considers it “of interest to the public”. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack on the prison in Olenvika a “deliberate Russian war crime.”
Authorities in Ukraine believe that Russia carried out the attack to kill the prisoners of war and cover up evidence of torture, maltreatment and war crimes. The Russians have accused Ukraine of bombing the prison. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has organized civilian evacuations in the war and worked to monitor the treatment of POWS held by Russia and Ukraine, said it has requested access to the prison “to determine the health and condition of all the people present on-site at the time of the attack.” “Our priority right now is making sure that the wounded receive life-saving treatment and that the bodies of those who lost their lives are dealt with in a dignified manner,” the Red Cross said in a statement.
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SOURCE = Euro News
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Day 156, July 29. Summary of Arestovych and Feygin daily broadcast
July 29th 2022
Battlefield update:
🇷🇺 attacks on Pisky and Avdiivka, where 🇺🇦 built up defence for 8 years. There are no logical objectives for that. Donbas becomes deserted, 🇷🇺 relocating to Kherson-Zaporizhye. Experienced 🇷🇺 units remaining near Izium. Everything else – Soledar, Siversk, Bakhmut – only units on their 1st and 2nd [year of service] and private military company fighters, total about 7-8 BTGs. They will have aviation and artillery support, but they are unlike like regular forces. 🇷🇺 might attempt to push at Mykolaiv.
Russia’s potential near-future plans:
1) Switch to a complete defence, short counter-attacks, making 🇺🇦 spend reserves on attacks, lose and not capture anything significant, finish with Minsk-3 agreement.
2) do counter-offensive against 🇺🇦, force 🇺🇦 to spend reserves on defence, grab more land and possibly create conditions for future offensive in half to several years.
3) Combine – first offensive, then defence, which judging by the amount of forces looks to be 🇷🇺 intent.
Such plan looks very complicated – main offensive, 2 side offensives, fake offensive (possibly 2), then return to Donetsk, then possibly Kharkiv. Complicated plans, which Russian are drawing now don’t work, but simpler, 2-move plans do work. Russian offensive expected approximately on 5th-6th August. Expecting battles in steppe. Medium-positive prognosis for 🇺🇦 win.
🇺🇦 military is being modest, they have learned their lessons, they plan according to resources, while 🇷🇺 military are still forced to realize drunken fantasies, often adjusting to the circumstances.
Kherson:
🇷🇺 VDV is equipped for attack, not defence. Their rear structures are half of normal army, which might have some advantage considering only 2 supply points, that 🇺🇦 will attack. Looks like 🇷🇺 wants to get rid of their paratroopers completely. There were 12-15 BTGs already, now added 10 more, possibly can expect more. Yesterday 800 vehicles (5-7 BTGs) crossed Kakhovka dam. Bad news: 🇺🇦 offensive delayed a bit. Good new: perspective is better, as there will be nobody left to defend Kherson. 🇷🇺 offensive is th emost stupid thing, they can do (besides all-out mobilisation). It will save 🇺🇦 2 months of battles.
🇷🇺 will attempt to reach Kherson district borders before planned referendum in September.
Olenivka
Phase of war is changing after massacre, which is probably not intentional.
On June 5 🇷🇺 propaganda channel discusses possible attack on PoW camp in Olenivka
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SOURCE = WarTranslated
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Ukraine Slams Russian Call to ‘Hang’ Azov Fighters
July 30th 2022
Ukrainian officials on Saturday denounced a call by Russia’s embassy in Britain for fighters from the Azov regiment to face a “humiliating” execution. The Russian tweet came as Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over a strike on a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian-controlled territory that killed around 50 people, reportedly including members of the Azov regiment. “Azov militants deserve execution, but death not by firing squad but by hanging, because they’re not real soldiers. They deserve a humiliating death,” Moscow’s diplomatic mission wrote in an overnight Tweet. The post — which Twitter said violated its rules on “hateful conduct” — was accompanied by a video purportedly showing a couple in Russian-held Mariupol claiming they had been shelled by Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal metal plant during the fierce battle for the city. “Russia is a terrorist state. In the 21st century, only savages and terrorists can talk at the diplomatic level about the fact that people deserve to be executed by hanging.
Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism,” Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, wrote on Telegram. “What more evidence is needed?” Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of carrying out the deadly bombardment of the jail holding captured servicemen in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka. Moscow said Ukraine targeted the facility in a bid to dissuade its troops from surrendering, while Kyiv accused Russia of carrying out a “war crime” by striking the prison. Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko tweeted “there is no difference between Russian diplomats calling for execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war and Russian troops doing it in Olenivka. They are all accomplices in these war crimes and must be held accountable.” Ukrainian forces, including members of Azov, in May ended a weeks-long siege of the vast Azovstal plant in Mariupol by agreeing to surrender. Around 2,500 combatants were taken captive by Moscow’s forces after calling a halt to their resistance. The Azov regiment is a former volunteer battalion that has drawn controversy for its links to far-right figures.
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SOURCE = Kyiv Post
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Ukraine condemns Russia’s ‘humiliating death’ tweet after prison attack
July 30th 2022
Ukraine has labelled Russia a “terrorist state” after Moscow’s UK embassy tweeted that Ukrainian Azov battalion soldiers deserved a “humiliating death” by hanging. The embassy tweet came after more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) held by Russia were killed – Azov soldiers reportedly among them. They died in an attack on Olenivka prison in Russian-held eastern Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia blame each other for Friday’s attack in the Donetsk region. Twitter acknowledged that the post from the Russian embassy violated the social media company’s “rules about hateful conduct” – but added that it may be in the public interest to keep it accessible. Besides the Ukrainian government, many other Twitter users voiced outrage at the tweet. It comes as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a “mandatory evacuation” to all civilians still living in the region, warning of an intensification of fighting between Kyiv and Moscow’s forces. In a late night address, Mr Zelensky said “full support” will be offered to the hundreds of thousands of people still there.
The Olenivka prison camp is controlled by the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). What happened there on Friday remains unclear. Unverified Russian video footage of the aftermath shows a tangle of wrecked bunk beds and badly charred bodies. After the attack the Russian embassy in the UK tweeted that Azov “militants deserve execution, but death not by firing squad but by hanging, because they’re not real soldiers. They deserve a humiliating death”. The tweet included a video clip showing a couple in a wrecked building, accusing Azov troops of having shelled their home. The embassy’s call for execution repeats what the man in the video says. Azov troops were forced to lay down weapons in May after fiercely defending for weeks Azovstal, a giant steelworks in the south-eastern port of Mariupol that was eventually captured by Russia. The Azov Regiment was a nationalist group with far-right links when it was set up in 2014. It was later incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard. Russia has long accused the regiment of being neo-Nazis and war criminals, as part of the Kremlin’s propaganda campaign to justify its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
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SOURCE = BBC News
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Irish president urged to clarify position on Ukraine war following wife’s letter
July 30th 2022
Ireland’s president has been urged to make a statement on the war in the Ukraine after his wife penned a controversial letter on the conflict. Michael D Higgins has faced calls to state support for the Ukrainian cause and voice opposition to Russian aggression. It comes after Sabina Higgins wrote a letter to the Irish Times during the week about the war. Mrs Higgins’ letter, the purpose of which was to criticise a previous editorial on the conflict, said the fighting would go on until the world “persuades President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations”. Critics of the letter have suggested Mrs Higgins was drawing an equivalence in the actions of Ukraine and Russia. Senators from parties in Ireland’s coalition government have voiced concern.
Fianna Fail senator Malcolm Byrne said the letter was subsequently published on the President of Ireland’s official website – a move he described as “appalling”. The letter appears to have been since removed from the website.. “Mrs Higgins is entitled to her personal opinion and to express it, although I believe that she is totally wrong to try to see an equivalence in the positions of Ukraine and Russia,” said Mr Byrne. “However, the decision to publish the letter on the President’s website raises serious questions. “It is incumbent on the President of Ireland to now express clearly the strong support of the people of Ireland for the people of Ukraine and that we hold Russia responsible for the war and ongoing barbarism. “Ireland should rightly be proud of our response to the invasion of Ukraine.”
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SOURCE = The Independent
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Outrage as Russian Embassy in UK tweets call for Ukrainian fighters to be executed in ‘humiliating death’
July 30th 2022
The Russian Embassy in the UK has caused outrage after it tweeted a call for Ukrainian fighters to be executed in a “humiliating death”. A video posted on the embassy’s official account showed a man said to be from Mariupol suggesting fighters from the Azov battalion should be hanged. The clip claimed the man and his wife had been shelled by Azov fighters following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Embassy quoted the man in a tweet, writing: “#Azov militants deserve execution, but death not by firing squad but by hanging, because they’re not real soldiers. They deserve a humiliating death.” It comes after Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for an attack which killed 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war, including some from the Azov battalion.
UK and Ukrainian officials criticised the post and called for the Russian Embassy to banned from Twitter. Inna Sovsun, a member of the Ukraine parliament, tweeted: “Hey @Twitter, @TwitterSupport, please block the account of the @RussianEmbassy for calling for murder and genocide of Ukrainians. “It probably violates your community rules. Or maybe, do you only block Ukrainian accounts?” Labour MP Chris Bryant added: “This should be illegal. This is calling for war crimes. It is time the UK sent the whole Russian Embassy packing back to Moscow. @trussliz What are you going to do?” Twitter has since put the Russian Embassy’s tweet behind a warning which admits it violated its rules. The message says: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
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SOURCE = Yahoo News
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Ukraine says dozens of Russian soldiers killed in the south
July 30th 2022
The Ukrainian military says it has killed dozens of Russian soldiers in fighting in the south, including the Kherson region that is the focus of Kyiv’s counteroffensive in that part of the country and a key link in Moscow’s supply lines. Rail traffic to Kherson over the Dnieper River had been cut, the military’s southern command said on Saturday, potentially further isolating Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and the east. Defence and intelligence officials from the UK, which has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in the West since Moscow’s February 24 invasion, portrayed Russian forces as struggling to maintain momentum. Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to badly damage three bridges across the Dnieper in recent weeks, cutting off Kherson city and – in the assessment of British defence officials – leaving Russia’s 49th Army stationed on the west bank of the river highly vulnerable.
The Ukrainian military’s southern command said more than 100 Russian soldiers had been killed and seven tanks had been destroyed in fighting in the south on Friday. The first deputy head of the Kherson regional council, Yuri Sobolevsky, told residents to stay away from Russian ammunition dumps. “The Ukrainian army is pouring it on against the Russians and this is only the beginning,” Sobolevsky wrote on the Telegram app. The pro-Ukrainian governor of Kherson region, Dmytro Butriy, said Berislav district was particularly hard hit. Berislav is across the river northwest of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. “In some villages, not a single home has been left intact, all infrastructure has been destroyed; people are living in cellars,” Butriy wrote on Telegram. The reports could not be independently verified.
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SOURCE = Al Jazeera
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Ukraine war: Zelenskyy orders mandatory evacuation of Donetsk region as fighting intensifies
July 30th 2022
Ukraine’s president has announced a mandatory evacuation of people in the Donetsk region, amid fierce fighting with Russia. In his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region also needed to leave. Mr Zelenskyy said the sooner people leave “the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill”. He said: “Full support, full assistance – both logistical and payments. We only need a decision from the people themselves, who have not yet made it for themselves. Go, we will help”. The president added that hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region needed to leave. Separately, domestic Ukrainian media outlets quoted deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying the evacuation needed to take place before winter begins since the region’s natural gas supplies had been destroyed. Donetsk has seen fierce fighting in recent days, particularly in the eastern town of Bakhmut, which is the focus of the Russian offensive in the Donbas.
The announcement comes amid continued attacks within the region, including one on a prison in Olenivkain, in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region. Officials from Russia and the separatist authorities in Donetsk said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war and wounded 75. Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately shelling the prison to cover up torture and executions there. Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack. South of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had been “partially successful” in establishing control over the settlement of Semyhirya by storming it from three directions.
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SOURCE = SKY News
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Analysis: A world changed, maybe permanently, by Ukraine war
July 30th 2022
PARIS — July 16, 1945: An incandescent mushroom cloud in New Mexico heralds the dawn of the nuclear age. July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong takes a small step and a giant leap in the dust of the Moon. Feb. 24, 2022: Russian President Vladimir Putin chews up the world order and 77 years of almost uninterrupted peace in Europe by invading Ukraine, disrupting the supplies of food it produces for many of the planet’s 8 billion people. All were watersheds in world history, turning points that will be taught in schools for decades to come. All changed not just lives but also trajectories for mankind, with repercussions felt across continents and for the foreseeable future. Russia’s invasion, the killing and maiming, have quickly added Mariupol, Bucha and other Ukrainian names to Europe’s long list of cities and towns associated with the abuses of war: Dresden, Srebrenica, the Nazi massacre in France’s Oradour-sur-Glane, to name only a few. And after nearly a half-year of fighting, with tens of thousands of dead and wounded on both sides, massive disruptions to supplies of energy, food and financial stability, the world is no longer as it was.
The air raid sirens that howl with regularity over Ukraine’s cities can’t be heard in Paris or Berlin, yet generations of Europeans who had grown up knowing only peace have been brutally awakened to both its value and its fragility. Renewed war in Europe and the need to take sides — for self-preservation and to stand for right against wrong — have also shifted the world’s geo-political tectonics and relationships between nations. Some now barely talk to Russia. Some have banded together. Others, notably in Africa, want to avoid being sucked into the breakdown between Russia and the West. Some don’t want to jeopardize supplies of food, energy, security and income. Russia and Western nations are working — notably, again, in Africa — on fence-sitters, lobbying them to take sides. The war in Ukraine has held a mirror to mankind, too, reflecting, yet again, its propensity to live on the razor’s edge of folly, to take steps back even as it pursues progress.
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SOURCE = ABC News
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‘Horrific’ video apparently showing castration of Ukrainian fighter condemned
July 30th 2022
Ukrainian officialspledged to identify the perpetrators after a series of gruesome videos recently surfaced on pro-Russian Telegram channels showing a group of men, one of them seen wearing pro-Russian symbols, castrating and executing a prisoner dressed in military fatigues with Ukrainian military insignia. “This horrific assault is yet another apparent example of complete disregard for human life and dignity in Ukraine committed by Russian forces,” Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said Friday. In a roughly1½-minute-long video, a man dressed in military fatigues, wearing a “Z” patch and an orange-and-black ribbon associated with Russian forces, castrates the bound prisoner using a green utility knife. A separate video shared on pro-Russian Telegram channels shows a single shot being fired into the prisoner’s head. The Washington Post was unable to confirm the date or location of where the videos were filmed.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described the men in the footage as Russian “propagandists” delighting in torture. “But the fog of war will not help to avoid punishment for the executioners,” he tweeted. “We will identify and get to each of you.” Social media users, investigative journalists and members of conflict intelligence groups have been poring over other footage of Russian forces available online, in an attempt to identify the men shown in the videos. The Post was unable to identify the captive in the footage. Aric Toler, director of research and training at the investigative collective Bellingcat, said the presence of the “Z” symbol, which has become an emblem of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on a car in the background in one video “goes against some claims … that the video may be old and just now emerging after a year or two.” The E.U.’s top diplomat described the footage as an example of the “inhumane, barbaric acts” that amount to war crimes.
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SOURCE = The Washington Post
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Sabina Higgins criticised for letter on war in Ukraine
July 30th 2022
A Ukrainian member of parliament has described calls by Sabina Higgins for a negotiated settlement of the war in Ukraine as “under-informed” and “painful”. Kira Rudik told RTÉ News that she had an emotional reaction to the comments by the President’s wife saying “it’s easy to call for peace when you are not actually inside war”. In a letter to the editor of the Irish Times, which was published on Wednesday and signed by Sabina Coyne Higgins from Dublin 8, Ms Higgins criticised an Irish Times editorial published on 20 July saying she was “disappointed” and “dismayed” that it did not “encourage any ceasefire negotiations that might lead to a peace settlement”. Ms Higgins said until the world persuades Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations, “the long haul of terrible war will go on”. It is reported that the letter was published on the President’s official website yesterday but was later removed. RTÉ News has asked Áras an Uachtaráin why the letter was published and removed, and for their response to reaction to its content, however the Áras has not yet responded to the request.
“When somebody calls for peace, I can tell you there is too much blood, too much pain and no security guarantees. So we are not aiming for peace, we are aiming for the victory,” said Ms Rudik. Ms Rudik also said she hopes in future that people would be careful making such statements. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland said she does not believe the letter is the official position of the President of Ireland. Larysa Gerasko (pictured below) said she saw the letter on the President’s website and is aware that it has now “disappeared” but she said that, as far as she understands, that means it is not the President’s official position.
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SOURCE = RTE News
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Belarusians kicked out of Ukraine en masse
July 30th 2022
As Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko sided with Russia in its attempt to curtail Ukrainian independence, those fleeing Lukashenko’s oppressive regime found themselves unwanted in Ukraine as well. Since February, Belarusians in Ukraine have been facing a set of financial and bureaucratic restrictions forcing them out of the country. The Belarusian diaspora in Ukraine has grown significantly over the past two years, as the inflow of political migrants escaping the brutal crackdown and ongoing repressions that unfolded in Belarus after the fraudulent 2020 presidential election increases. Back then, the Ukrainian government had issued a decree allowing Belarusians a 180-day visa-free stay, double that granted to other foreigners.
In 2021 alone, Ukraine issued 4,300 residence permits to Belarusians, many of whom fled Belarus to avoid persecution. In November 2021, the decree was extended to 2022. Now, despite officially keeping all legislation unchanged, many Belarusians who have chosen Ukraine as their new home are silently kicked out of the country. After Ukraine’s State Migration Service resumed operations in May following a nearly three-month shutdown due to the war, Belarusians who were set to prolong their legal status in Ukraine were both officially and unofficially denied the right to stay in the country. This applied even to Belarusian activists recognized for their role in assisting Ukraine during the war.
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SOURCE = Kyiv Independent
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