WAR IN UKRAINE: July 6, 2022
People walk through the damage caused to the central market in Slovyansk, Ukraine, on July 6. (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 133
Ukrainian officials are urging the remaining residents in the Donetsk region to evacuate to safer areas, as Russian forces inch closer to the eastern territories. “Russia has turned the entire Donetsk region into a hot spot where it is dangerous to remain for civilians,” the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko said, commenting on a missile strike in Toretsk on Wednesday. “I call on everyone to evacuate. Evacuation saves lives,” he added - CNN. Separately, UK defence intelligence said there was a "realistic possibility" the battle for Slovyansk would be the next key contest in the struggle for the eastern region of Ukraine.
For those left behind in newly-occupied territories, they face a very bleak future under the Russians. According to an independent Belarus news outlet, a man in the occupied Kherson region was detained by Russians for wearing a bracelet. He was beaten and thrown into a cell. Upon his release several days later, he told his friend: "I could hear women screaming all day there, the screaming doesn't stop".
Russia’s capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, triggering the fall of the entire Luhansk province, was hailed as a victory by Vladimir Putin. But it is a symbolic more than a strategic one, say military experts. The Russian president is still a long way from his objective of “liberating” the whole of the Donbas region, of which Luhansk is one half. Read the Financial Times article here
The Ukraine Recovery Conference ended yesterday in Switzerland but some say it was held too early and that the immediate focus needs to be on boosting weapons supplies to Ukraine. My take: can business confidence return quickly? - I don’t think so. Tourism is among the sectors very badly hit. Ukraine’s inability to close or skies to Russian missiles pretty much means no region of the country is safe. The conference ignored entirely the widespread damage done to the media sector. Because the ad market collapsed and because many oligarchs are no longer supporting the channels they once owned, expect the collapse of tv, radio and newspapers entities in the coming months. Business anywhere needs a vibrant media sector to survive and thrive. And it goes without saying that Ukraine needs a strong media sector to maintain checks and balances on those in power and to fend off Russian disinformation.
Ukrainian public servants smuggled nearly $5 million in cash abroad, the Kyiv Independent reported today. The National Agency on Corruption Prevention identified public servants who with their family members took abroad nearly $5 million and 100,000 euros in cash, without providing the origin of those assets. The authorities have reportedly opened investigations into illegal enrichment and money laundering.
Erdogan says Ukraine, Russia close on grain deal. “Negotiations are going ahead so that this grain, and sunflower oil, everything can reach the world," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a joint press conference in Ankara with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Politico reports. Draghi said that Turkey had "a central role" in the plan. "That role is to guarantee the security of ships, and ensure that the ships don’t carry arms,” Draghi added. Meanwhile, Ukraine asks Turkey to investigate 3 Russian ships over grain theft. According to Reuters, back on June 13, the Prosecutor General’s Office asked Turkey’s Justice Ministry to probe three ships traveling from Russian-occupied Crimea in April and May. Kyiv says the grain they transported was stolen from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia - Kyiv Independent
A Ukrainian medic is being described as a hero after having survived Russian captivity. Watch the CNN story here
Ukrainian farmers begin the July harvest knowing there may be nowhere to store their grain or export it, as Russia’s naval blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports enters its fifth month. According to Ukraine's estimates, 22 million tons of grain already stockpiled across the country remain in their silos. By fall, that number may reach 60 million. Read the full Kyiv Independent story here
Essential Reading…
Vladimir Putin believes that he can say whether or not Ukraine exists. God has told him that Ukrainian souls are Russian. History revealed to him that Ukraine strives towards "unity" with Russia. The very language that he speaks empowers him to invade any country where it is spoken. And so Ukraine must be attacked, and anyone who thinks or speaks of Ukraine must be killed, deported, or humiliated.
By way of these deep misunderstandings, Putin has unintentionally placed the Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian nation at the center of world history, for everyone to see. Matters are murkier in his Russia. Everyone is looking at it, or perhaps rather for it. What sort of nation asserts itself by way of scripted public formations of the letter Z? In what kind of state does a single individual makes existential decisions for the whole country on the basis of eccentric articles of faith about another one?
Read the full Timothy Snyder article here