Date—August 26, 2022

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Stories

1. The number of victims of the Russian missile attack on Chaplyne in the Dnipropetrovsk region has increased from 22 to 25, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the President’s Office. “Due to shelling the residential sector and the railway station, 25 people died, two children. An 11-year-old boy died under the rubble of a house. Another 6-year-old died in a car fire near the railway station. Thirty-one people were injured,” the OPU representative said. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation struck Chaplyne on August 24, on the 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. Russian rockets hit a private house and objects of the railway infrastructure, in particular, the station, where as a result of the explosion, several carriages of a passenger train and cars parked nearby, in particular with people, burned down. The adviser of the President’s Office, Oleksiy Arestovych, assured the Ukrainian army would respond to this war crime soon. (Source: NV).

War

1. In the Kharkiv direction, the enemy fired from tanks, military vehicles, cannons, and rocket artillery along the line of collision. In the Sloviansk direction, the areas of the settlements of Bolshaya Kamyshevakha, Novaya Dmitrovka, and Brazhkovka fell under the shelling of barrel and rocket artillery. In the Kramatorsk direction, shelling from tanks, cannon artillery, and MLRS was recorded near Disputed, Ivano-Daryevka, Zvanovka, Serebryanka, and Seversk. In the Bakhmut direction, the areas of the settlements of Bakhmut, Soledar, Veselaia Dolina, Mayorsk, Shumy, Zaitsevo, Belogorovka, Kodema, and Yakovlevka were subjected to shelling by the enemy, inflicted air strikes near Orekhov, Gulyaipole, and Shcherbakovka. In the Yuzhnobuzhsky direction, the invaders shelled Ukrainian positions and civilian infrastructure from tanks, cannons, and rocket artillery along the line of combat. An airstrike was carried out near the village of Belaya Krinitsa. The Armed Forces of Ukraine also reports that the enemy unsuccessfully tried to storm the settlements in the Sloviansk, Bakhmut, and Avdeevka directions. (Source: Telegram).

2. The Russian army used banned cluster munitions hundreds of times in the war with Ukraine, according to a report by the international organization Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). Representatives of the SMS reported that at least 215 people were killed due to shelling by the Russian military of the settlements of Ukraine with cluster shells, and another 474 people were injured of varying severity. Human rights activists clarified that they only talked about civilians wounded during the shelling. The Russian army used cluster munitions in the shelling of 10 out of 24 regions of Ukraine. The Ukrainian military could use cluster munitions at least three times – in the Donetsk, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions. Russia does not deny using cluster munitions during hostilities in Ukraine, considering their use acceptable. The report also notes that the Russian side accuses Ukraine of using this ammunition. In June, the international human rights organization Amnesty International published a message stating that seven cluster munition attacks by the Russian army were documented in different districts of Kharkiv. The researchers analyzed 41 military strikes on Kharkiv, which, according to their data, killed at least 62 civilians and more than 196 people were injured. They also interviewed 160 people and collected and analyzed material evidence from the places of strikes, including fragments of ammunition. In 2010, 110 countries signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which provides for the ban on production and storage and the transfer to third countries of such weapons. Russia and Ukraine did not sign this document. (Source: CT).

Economy, Social life, and Culture

1. Law enforcement officers have identified the Russian man who shot two unarmed civilians in the back near Kyiv in March to rob a company. According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, in March, five Russian servicemen in a car with the letter “V” and the inscription “Tank special forces RUS” arrived at the enterprise near the village of Mriya in the Buchanskyi district of the Kyiv region. The owner and the guard, who were unarmed, approached the occupiers. The Russians were convinced that these people did not threaten them and allowed them to leave. However, when the owner and the security guard moved a few meters away, the occupiers opened fire on the back of the civilians. The civilians, having received at least 12 gunshot wounds, died on the spot. Then the lieutenant and his accomplice robbed the enterprise, loaded the loot into a car, and drove away. The crime was committed by Mykola Serhiyovych Sokovikov, born in 1995, who is a native of Omsk and registered in the village of Yelovka in Buryatia. He was on duty in the 5th Separate Tank Guards Tatsynskaya Red Order, Order of Suvorov 2nd degree brigade – military unit No. 46108 in Ulan-Ude. Under the procedural guidance of the Buchansk district prosecutor’s office, he was notified in absentia of the suspicion of violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 428 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). In May, the media obtained footage from surveillance cameras near Kyiv where Russian soldiers shot dead two unarmed civilians as they retreated in March. (Source: UP).

Military Help

1. In the coming weeks, the administration of US President Joe Biden plans to announce a long-term military mission to support Ukraine and appoint a general who will be responsible for the delivery of aid and training of the Ukrainian military. The announcement of the army operation means its official recognition. It indicates that the USA is planning long-term financing of support for Ukraine and the participation of the American military in this process, which in particular can be rewarded for this. “The election of a general, expected to have two or three stars, reflects the creation of a command center responsible for coordinating efforts. It differs from the mostly temporary measures that have provided military training and assistance to Ukrainians in recent years,” the media noted. Washington became aware of changes in the parameters of Kyiv’s support when the United States announced an additional $2.98 billion military aid package for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Ukraine’s Independence Day. The new package included, in particular, six national advanced anti-aircraft missile systems (NASAMS) with additional ammunition, up to 245,000 rounds of 155-mm caliber, and up to 65,000 rounds of 120-mm mortars. It is noted that since January 2021, the United States has allocated more than 13.5 billion dollars for security assistance to Ukraine. The US has distributed more than $15.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014. (Source: WSJ).

Invasion Damage

1. Zerkal: The visit of the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Zaporizhzhya NPP is planned for next week. Currently, the occupiers are artificially creating all the conditions so that the IAEA does not reach the plant. “Next week, the visit of the IAEA mission is planned, and now all the logistical routes are being decided, how they will get there. Even though the Russians agreed that the mission would go through the territory of Ukraine, they are artificially creating all the conditions so that the mission does not reach the object because of the situation around him,” said Lana Zerkal, adviser to the Minister of Energy. She added that the primary purpose of the visit of the IAEA mission is to monitor the situation at the station and take the necessary measures to protect Europe and the whole world from a possible disaster. The IAEA is preparing for an already planned two-week international mission to check security systems and wants to visit the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in occupied Energodar by September 5. Even before the start of a full-scale war, the IAEA planned to visit the Zaporizhia NPP for two weeks in September 2022. It was supposed to be the first inspection in the last 16 years. Thus, the agency wants to visit the station before September 5 to combine two checks at once. Inspectors will be given more extensive powers than initially envisaged. (Source: YouTube).

Foreign news

1. Fires in the Ryazan region were caused by the fault people, said the head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Alexander Kurenkov. Elements of sabotage and arson are visible, but experts and investigating authorities will deal with this. The security forces will wait for residents for any information that will help to understand what happened. Kurenkov admitted that now the situation in the Ryazan region is difficult but controlled. Of the seven fires, rescuers have already localized two. But the head of the department did not say the specific timing of the elimination of the fire. The fire front stretched 11 kilometers, and extinguishing highly depends on the weather. The day before, there was a heat of 35 degrees and a strong wind, which almost started crown fires. But the ground team of firefighters and aviation did not allow the fire to spread further. Now the Ministry of Emergency Situations is engaged in extinguishing the fire and rescuing local residents from Olgin, Golovanov, and Deulin. Some Russians have already begun to be evacuated. Earlier, the media wrote that the fire also started in the Vladimir and Rostov regions. (Source: SF).

2. Norway has overtaken Russia in supplying gas to the EU and expects to maintain record production levels until 2030, Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aasland said. Norway plans to maintain its current high level of gas production until the end of the decade, as Europe prepares to cut off Russian imports due to the invasion of Ukraine. Norway is forecast to produce around 122 billion cubic meters of gas in 2022, up 8% from 2021 and possibly breaking the production record set five years ago. “I expect that we will be able to maintain the level of production we are at now until 2030. We see that there are projects and development and operation plans that can help maintain high gas volumes in the future,” Aasland said. Norway is the largest gas supplier to Europe, overtaking the Russian Federation, which has reduced gas supplies. The minister also said he is more than confident in the long-term demand for Norwegian gas in Europe after the agreement signed in June to increase gas imports from the Norwegian continental shelf. On August 25, gas prices in Europe exceeded $3,200 per thousand cubic meters. In the summer, Gazprom reduced pumping through both the Nord Stream and the territory of Ukraine. (Source: Reuters).

3. Since February 24, almost a million Russians have entered the EU. After the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, nearly a million Russians entered the territory of the European Union. From February 24 to August 22, 998,085 Russian citizens crossed the EU borders, said a European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex representative. Since the beginning of the war, 7.7 million Ukrainian citizens have fled to the EU. At the same time, 4.7 million Ukrainians returned to their country. (Source: BBC).

Refugees

1. Yale University experts have prepared a report on the results of a study funded by the US State Department. The authors assure that they found 21 “filtration camps” in the Ukrainian territories controlled by Moscow, where Ukrainians are illegally detained from the occupied territories. The report is based on open data and satellite photos. It speaks of makeshift prisons for those undergoing “filtering,” equipped in the buildings of schools, markets, and ordinary jails. Project leader Nathaniel Raymond says the study confirmed Russia’s creation of a “filtering” system that constitutes a “human rights emergency.” The State Department on Thursday urged Russia to stop “filtration” operations and the illegal deportation of Ukrainians. “President Putin and his government will not be able to continue these violations with impunity. Bringing those responsible to justice is critical, and the US will not be silent,” the State Department said in a statement. (Source: Telegram).