Ukraine Daily

Friday, July 8

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Russia’s war against Ukraine

A photo of Kyiv resident Bogdan Lega’s apartment after Russian missiles struck his building on June 26, 2022. (courtesy)

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Johnson resigns as UK Prime Minister, to serve until new leader is selected. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns from office. “I will serve until a new leader is in place,” he added. Johnson also had a message for Ukraine. “We in the U.K. will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes,” said Johnson. President Volodymyr Zelensky called Johnson a “true friend of Ukraine,” adding that he is confident that Britain’s policy toward Ukraine won’t change despite his resignation.

Putin threatens Ukraine, saying that Russia hasn’t ‘started anything yet.’ Russian dictator Vladimir Putin once again blamed the West for the war Moscow launched against Ukraine saying that “the West wants to fight with us until the last Ukrainian,” adding that “everything is coming to that,” the Russian state-controlled RIA Novosti news site reported on July 7. Putin also said that Russia does not refuse to hold peace talks, “but those who refuse should know that the further, the more difficult it will be for them to agree with us.”

Belarus again extends military drills. Belarus has extended military exercises until at least July 16, monitoring project Belarusian Gayun reported on Telegram, citing the schedule of exercises at Belarusian military training grounds.

Zaporizhzhia Oblast Administration: Russians leave military facilities in occupied areas in fear of HIMARS. The administration claimed, citing Ukrainian intelligence, that after Ukraine hit Russia’s military facilities in the occupied territories with HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System), provided to Ukraine by the U.S., Russian troops started to panic and leave their equipment warehouses en masse.

General Staff: Ukraine repels Russia’s attempt to advance towards Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on July 7 that Russian troops had unsuccessfully stormed the Bohorodychne village, not far from Sloviansk, trying to occupy the village’s entire territory. According to the U.K. Defense Ministry’s intelligence, Sloviansk is the next “key contest” in the Battle of Donbas.

Russian shelling destroys wheat fields in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. According to Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council, Russian shelling set fire to around 20 hectares of wheat on July 7. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry responded, saying “It is not Ukrainian wheat that is on fire, it is the food security of the world.”

Ukraine decries Turkey for releasing ship with stolen Ukrainian grain. The Turkish authorities have released the Russian cargo ship Zhibek Zholy, which they had initially detained upon request from the Ukrainiain authorities. The ship arrived in Turkey carrying a load of grain stolen from the occupied Ukrainian territories, according to a statement by the Ukrainian foreign ministry. The ministry said that “due to this situation,” it “invited the Turkish ambassador in Ukraine to visit the ministry.”

Russian military reportedly steal ‘all valuable exhibits’ from Mariupol museums. According to the Mariupol City Council, the Russian troops occupying the city stole all the valuable exhibits from the city museums, including original paintings by artists Arkhip Kuindzhi and Ivan Aivazovsky, and valuable icons. “It’s exactly how the Nazi invaders acted 75 years ago,” the city council said in a statement.

Digital Transformation Ministry: Ukrainians file over 225,000 damaged housing claims. Ukrainians have reportedly filed 225,596 reports of damaged property in the past three months. Kyiv Oblast Governor Oleksiy Kuleba stated that Russia’s full-scale war has also damaged over 100 and fully destroyed 44 businesses across Kyiv Oblast. “In spite of everything, we must create conditions for businesses to recover and operate,” Kuleba added.

Ukraine’s international reserves decrease by 9% in June. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported that the government body sold $4 billion, decreasing the national reserves to $22.8 billion. “The increasing inflow of international aid to Ukraine made it possible to decrease such interventions,” NBU wrote in a statement.

Governor: Russian forces blame residents of occupied settlements in Luhansk Oblast for explosions in their depots. According to Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai, Russian troops have started looking for locals who could have reported the locations of Russian depots in occupied territories to the Ukrainian Armed Forces or “simply photograph the location of the targets.” In Kreminna, a town in the Sievierodonetsk District, Russian occupiers forbid locals from using their mobile phones and even shoot people dead for talking on the phone too much, suspecting them of spying, Haidai said on July 7.

Governor: Russians try to recruit Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk residents to join their army. According to Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai, the Russian occupiers are seeking to replenish their army reserves by recruiting residents of captured Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. According to him, the occupiers post job ads to lure in local men, who then get conscripted.

General Staff: Over 70% of Russia’s projectiles miss targets. General Oleksiy Hromov, deputy chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, said that most Russian projectiles and air-to-surface missiles either are downed by Ukraine’s air defense or hit areas that lack military targets.

16-year-old son of Zaporizhzhia official released from Russian captivity. Vladyslav Buryak, the son of Oleh Buryak, the head of the Zaporizhzhia District State Administration, has been released from Russian captivity, the campaign “Save Vlad Buryak” reported on July 7. The campaign provided no details. The boy was kidnapped at a Russian checkpoint in temporarily-occupied Vasylivka, a town in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, on April 8.

Ukraine to introduce criminal liability for illegal actions regarding EU funds. Director of the Bureau of Economic Security Vadym Melnyk said in a televised address on July 7 that several state authorities are developing a new facet of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, which will ascribe criminal liability for illegal actions with EU funds. Such actions may include the “illegal receipt or misuse of EU funds.”

Read our exclusive, on the ground stories

It is an almost everyday occurrence in the Russian-occupied parts of eastern and southern Ukraine. Russia’s ammunition depots blow up, with large fires erupting as tons of ordnance detonate for hours. Some of these incidents cause giant blasts with a radius of hundreds of meters. Read our story here.

Will the end of Boris Johnson’s tenure as the U.K.’s prime minister significantly impact Britain’s commitment to help Ukraine fight off Russia? Read our story here.

Did the War End? Ep. 6: Night at the Museum — Art Theft During the War. Listen to our podcast here.

The human cost of Russia’s war

Schemes: Area of mass burials in Mariupol nearly doubles in two months. Schemes, a journalist investigation project by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, analyzed Planet Labs satellite data and reported that more than 15,000 people could be buried in a mass graveyard in Mariupol, currently occupied by Russian forces after a months-long siege.

Ukrainian intelligence: In occupied Kherson, Russian soldiers burn bodies to hide military losses. According to Defense Ministry’s intelligence, in Kherson, the Russian military regularly burns the bodies of the killed soldiers to hide the real number of casualties.

Governor: 3 civilians killed in Russia’s recent attack on Kharkiv. Five more people were injured as a result of Russia’s shelling of Kharkiv’s Nemyshlianskyi neighborhood on July 7, according to Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov. Earlier today Syniehubov reported that Russian forces shelled the city with multiple launch rocket systems.

Governor: Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk kills at least 1, injures 6 others. Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported on July 7 that the number of casualties may increase and once again urged residents to flee Donetsk Oblast, currently Russia’s main target.

Local official: 8 people blown up while clearing rubble in Mariupol. According to Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to the Mariupol mayor, eight civilians were blown up by mines while clearing rubble at a metallurgical plant in Russian-occupied Mariupol. The occupiers are using local civilians as explosive ordnance disposal specialists, the official said.

Russian forces kill 7 in Donetsk Oblast on July 6. According to Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, Russian troops killed three civilians in Toretsk, two in Avdiivka, one in Kodema, and one in Siversk. Another 2 people were injured, the official said.

Prosecutor General’s Office: Russia’s war has killed at least 347 children since Feb. 24, wounded more than 646. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the numbers are expected to be higher since they do not include casualties in the Russian-occupied territories and areas where hostilities are ongoing.

International response

Bloomberg: European Commission’s budget unit blocks 1.5 billion euro loan for Ukraine as ‘caution prevails over Ukraine’s urgent needs.’ According to Bloomberg, the European Investment Bank, which is the “EU’s lending arm,” offered Ukraine a loan to “support the war-torn nation as it faces mounting war costs and revenues collapse.” The proposed loan, however, was blocked by the European Commission’s budget unit “because of concerns over its financial reliability,” Bloomberg reported on July 7 citing anonymous officials.

European Parliament supports allowing Ukrainian refugees to keep driver’s licenses in EU. The European Parliament on July 7 voted in favor of a proposal that allows Ukrainians with a temporary protection status in the EU to continue using their Ukrainian driving license without needing to exchange it for an EU driving license. The draft rules will now have to be formally adopted by the EU Council.

Reuters: Canada to send 39 armored vehicles to Ukraine later in summer. Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said on July 7 that Canada will send 39 armored combat support vehicles to Ukraine later this summer. The vehicles, made at the U.S. General Dynamics plant in Canada, “can be used as ambulances, maintenance, and recovery vehicles, or to carry troops,” Reuters reports.

Danilov: Ukraine has received 9 HIMARS. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, told the Wall Street Journal that the delivery of these multiple rocket launchers from the U.S. allowed Ukraine’s Armed Forces to strike Russian military targets far behind the front lines. The Russians “are defenseless against them,” he said. “They are very worried.”

Poland ready to build terminal for Ukrainian grain to ease logistics. Amid Russia’s ongoing blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, through which most of the Ukrainian grain was exported before the war, Poland’s Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk said that his country is ready to help improve logistics to speed up the procedure for processing grain.

Germany refuses to send Fuchs armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. Citing Germany’s security interests, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has rejected the earlier proposal from the Christian Democratic Union political party regarding the delivery of armored vehicles. Lambrecht told the German Press Agency on July 7 that “we support Ukraine with everything that is possible and responsible,” but Germany needs to be able to have the ability to defend itself.

Reuters: Ukraine urges Canada not to release gas turbine to Russia. Citing a Ukrainian energy ministry source, Reuters reported that Ukraine is against transferring a gas turbine, which is currently being serviced in Canada, to Russian state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom. Russia claims the turbine is necessary for the supply of natural gas to Germany. “The sanctions forbid the transfer of any equipment related to gas,” says the energy ministry source.

Reuters: British HSBC bank in talks to sell its Russian lending unit. London-based HSBC Holdings is in talks to sell its Russian unit to local lender Expobank, Reuters reports citing a source with knowledge of the matter. HSBC’s corporate lending business employed around 200 people on the eve of the Feb. 24 invasion, according to HSBC’s Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson.

In other news

Time features First Lady Olena Zelenska on its cover. She’s the fourth Ukrainian to be featured on the cover of Time magazine after her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Kyiv Independent Editor-in-Chief Olga Rudenko, and aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky. Titled “Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska takes on the trauma of war,” the front-page article addresses the “overwhelming” mental toll of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Bild: Scholz considers purchasing Iron Dome for Germany. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reportedly approved a special fund in the amount of 100 billion euros for the German armed forces, intended for defense measures, and is considering purchasing the Iron Dome air defense system for Germany, according to Bild.

Finland to fortify barriers at border with Russia. On July 7, Finland’s parliament voted in favor of legislation permitting barriers along its border with Russia and its closure from asylum seekers in case of exceptional circumstances. Amid fears that Russia could retaliate over Finland’s plans to join NATO, the law is intended to “improve the operational capacity of the border guard in responding to hybrid threats,” according to a Finish interior ministry source quoted by Reuters.

Russian war symbol floods Serbian city. Thousands of inscriptions with the letter Z, a symbol of Russia’s war against Ukraine, have appeared on the walls in the Serbian city Nowy Sad, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The city will host a music festival Exit on July 7-11. The winners of Eurovision 2022, the Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra, were to perform at the festival. On July 6, the organizers announced that this performance is canceled “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Asami Terajima, Toma Istomina, Olga Rudenko, Daria Shulzhenko, Oleksiy Sorokin, Teah Pelechaty, Alisa Sobolieva, Olena Goncharova, and Anastasiya Gordiychuk.

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