WAR IN UKRAINE: July 3, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 495
The award-winning Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina
Another voice silenced, another pen put down due to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine: Award-winning Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina has died from her injuries from the Russian missile strike on a Kramatorsk restaurant. “Her death was caused by injuries incompatible with life,” PEN Ukraine said. At the time she’d been documenting Russian war crimes with a delegation of Colombian writers and journalists. The strike that took her life and that of 12 others and wounded 60 has been identified as a war crime. PEN said: “Victoria was severely injured. Doctors and paramedics in Kramatorsk and Dnipro did everything they could to save her life, but the injuries were fatal and incompatible with life. In the last days of Victoria’s life, her closest people and friends were with her.” Victoria Amelina was born on January 1st, 1986, in Lviv, and had lived in Canada for a while with her father. At the time of her death, she’d been working on her first non-fiction book - “In War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War,” which tells stories of Ukrainian women who are documenting Russian war crimes, and their lives during the war.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on July 2 that Ukrainian forces had advanced in the direction of Berdyansk and Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Separately, Ukrainian forces continue to gradually advance on the flanks of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, the Eastern Command spokesperson Serhii Cherevatyi told national television on July 2 - Kyiv Independent
Poland is to deploy additional police officers to its border with Belarus to boost security in response to plans by the Wagner group of Russian mercenaries to set up base there, Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said on July 2. The 500 extra police, including members of the anti-terrorism unit, will support 5,000 border guards and 2,000 soldiers already stationed along the border with the country's eastern neighbor. According to Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland has learned that up to 8,000 Wagner fighters could be accommodated in Belarus. Poland shares a 418-kilometer border with the Russian ally - RFE/RL
More than 100 cultural objects were destroyed in Kherson Oblast after explosion of Kakhovka HPP – Suspilne Kherson In particular, the houses of self-taught artist Polina Raiko and writer Ostap Vyshnia were destroyed by 80%. The so-called "Stone Embroideries", Oleshky Sich, Tyahyn Fortress, and others were also damaged.