Ukraine Daily

Thursday, September 8

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Ukrainian gunners prepare to fire with a BM-27 Uragan, a self-propelled 220 mm multiple rocket launcher, at a position near the front line in Donetsk Oblast on August 27, 2022. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)

Zelensky: ‘Good news’ awaiting in Kharkiv Oblast amid reports of counteroffensive in the region. In his daily evening address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sept. 7 that it’s not the right time yet to name the settlements that Ukrainian troops recently liberated in Kharkiv Oblast. He added, however, that “every citizen feels proud of our warriors.”

CNN: Ukrainian official says 2.5 million people have been forcibly deported to Russia. At a UN Security Council meeting on Sept. 7, Deputy Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said that 2.5 million people have been forcibly deported from Ukraine to Russia’s “isolated and depressed regions of Siberia and the far east,“ including 38,000 children, CNN reports.

Ukraine destroys barge with Russian troops, equipment in Kherson Oblast. Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command said on Sept. 7 that a barge was destroyed during a Russian attempt to establish an alternative crossing near Hola Prystan, a town in Kherson Oblast. The nearby Kakhovsky Bridge is within Ukrainian firing range, making it impossible for the Russian troops to repair it, the military added.

Ukraine to set up coordination headquarters for liberated territories. The Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories said that Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk would head the newly-created government entity that will specialize in reintegrating territories liberated by Ukrainian troops.

General Staff: Ukraine repels 11 Russian attacks, destroys 2 aircraft and 1 helicopter. Ukraine’s General Staff reported unsuccessful Russian advances near Pytomnyk, Ruski Tyshky, Hryhorivka, Zaitseve, Mayorsk, Mykolaivka Druha, Soledar, Bakhmutske, Bakhmut, Dolyna, and Opytne. Two Russian Su-25 close air support aircraft and one Ka-52 attack helicopter were destroyed.

ISW: Ukraine retakes 400 sq km of ground in opportunistic Kharkiv Oblast counteroffensive. The Institute for the Study of War reports that the Ukrainian military is taking advantage of Russian redeployments to the Kherson region to launch an effective assault on Russian-held territory in Kharkiv Oblast. The advance threatens Russian supply and communication lines near Izium, experts say. Ukrainian forces continue methodically targeting Russian logistics, communications, and military equipment in Kherson Oblast. According to Operational Command “South,” Ukrainian troops carried out over 250 fire missions between Sept. 6 and 7.

Zelensky: 2023 budget to provide more than trillion hryvnias for security, defense. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his video address that the 2023 budget will include the payment of pensions, reducing non-essential government spending, supporting businesses and employees, and the creation of a special recovery fund while allocating close to $27 billion (over trillion hryvnias) to the country’s defense.

UK Intelligence: Russia will be tested by Ukrainian counterattacks. The U.K. Defense Ministry reported on Sept. 7 that Ukraine’s multiple concurrent threats spreading across 500 kilometers would test Russia’s ability to coordinate operational design and reallocate resources across multiple groupings of forces. The ministry said that over the past 24 hours, heavy fighting had taken place on three fronts: in the north near Kharkiv, in the Donbas in the east, and in the southern Kherson Oblast.

Air Force: Russia increasingly uses outdated Soviet weapons in Ukraine. Yurii Ihnat, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force, said that Russia’s reserves had started to run out, which is why its forces had resorted to launching less accurate Soviet S-300 systems, as well as the Kh-22 and Kh-59 missiles.

Read our exclusives here

In constantly shelled Mykolaiv, volunteers do not back down

Located a mere 30 kilometers from the war’s southern front lines, Ukraine’s shipbuilding capital Mykolaiv has been a constant target for the Russian military throughout its full-scale invasion. Shelled almost daily, the regional capital with a pre-war population of 480,000 has seen over 500 residential buildings destroyed and more than 130 civilians killed by Russian attacks, according to Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Learn More

Anastasiia Shestopal was escaping Russia’s war when she arrived at the train station in Kramatorsk early in the morning of April 8. She had a couple of hours to spare before a driver was supposed to pick her up and take her to a safer part of the country. She found an empty bench at the train station crowded with other evacuees and decided to do some reading. Then, out of nowhere, a powerful blast knocked her off the bench. Shestopal survived the Russian strike on Kramatorsk train station. Read her story here.

Ukraine reportedly liberates Kharkiv Oblast settlements in its second recent counteroffensive effort. Learn more about this and other war updates here.

The human cost of Russia’s war

Official: Russia returns body of British aid worker with signs of torture. Russia had announced the death in custody of volunteer Paul Urey in July, saying he died “as a result of stress and illness.” Given the clear signs of harsh torture on Urey’s body, there was no doubt regarding what he had been through, according to Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights ombudsman. Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin announced a criminal investigation into the circumstances of Urey’s death.

International response

Bild: Germany refuses to send Dingo armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. Citing a secret document from the German Defense Ministry, Bild reported that the potential delivery of the vehicles was rejected due to Germany’s “own needs.” Andriy Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, told Bild that the Dingos would save many lives in the Kherson counteroffensive, where the lack of such vehicles forces Ukrainian soldiers to advance on foot. Germany has over 500 Dingo infantry mobility vehicles. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been repeatedly accused of blocking arms supplies to Ukraine.

CNN: Pentagon working on ‘detailed analysis’ how to support Ukraine’s military long term. The U.S. Defense Department is preparing a “detailed analysis and working out how to support the Ukrainian military in the medium and long term,” including after Russia’s war has ended, CNN reported on Sept. 7, citing three anonymous defense officials. According to CNN, Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is leading the efforts.

In other news

MP from Zelensky’s party charged with bribery. The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office said on Sept. 7 that it had charged Oleksandr Trukhin, a lawmaker from the ruling Servant of the People party, with offering a Hr 150,000 ($4,000) bribe to police officers. Trukhin made the offer in August 2021 after allegedly causing a car accident that injured six people, according to video footage from the scene. Trukhin said he would suspend his membership in the Servant of the People faction in the Ukrainian parliament during the investigation.

Zelensky fires two heads of intelligence agency’s regional branches. Yevhen Netuzhylov, head of the Chernihiv Oblast branch of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was replaced by Oleksiy Lyakh. In Kherson Oblast, most of which remains under occupation, Artem Borysevych was appointed to replace Serhiy Kryvoruchko. Kryvoruchko was fired in March for his failure to protect the region from Russian troops at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in February.

Want to get the news faster? Follow our website: kyivindependent.com.

Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Toma Istomina, Thaisa Semenova, Oleksiy Sorokin, Daria Shulzhenko, Oleg Sukhov, Asami Terajima, Olena Goncharova, Brad LaFoy, Lucy Minicozzi-Wheeland, and Sergiy Slipchenko.

If you’re enjoying this newsletter, consider becoming our patron on Patreon or donating via GoFundMe. Start supporting independent journalism today.