WAR IN UKRAINE: July 9, 2022
Ukrainian artillery fire a round during a military exercise near Mariupol on Sept. 22, 2015 (SERGEY VOLSKIY/AFP)
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 138
In eastern Ukraine, there were reports of shelling by both sides, reports BBC. The governor of Luhansk said Russian forces had indiscriminately bombarded populated areas, while separatist authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said that they evacuated some residents from the town of Shakhtarsk after shelling by Ukrainian troops.
The United States says it will send Ukraine more long-range multiple-launch rocket systems and new precision artillery shells as part of a new $400 million arms package.
Russia has handed down what is believed to be the first full jail term to somebody for criticising the war in Ukraine. Alexei Gorinov, a Moscow councillor, was jailed for seven years after he was filmed speaking out against the invasion in a city council meeting. Under the post-invasion law, anyone who spreads "fake news" about the military faces up to 15 years in jail - BBC
The US has reportedly identified 18 filtration camps set up by Russia to detain and forcibly deport Ukrainian civilians to Russia.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his administration would maintain its neutral stance on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, adding that he hoped there would be a ceasefire. The stance has flabbergasted observers, however China and Russia have been pressuring their recipients of vaccines and cash to vote in the UN and other fora according to their own, self centered agendas.
Required Reading..
‘Dad, that’s it. She’s dead’: Another day of loss in Ukraine
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — She had gone out to feed the cats when the shelling began.
It was afternoon, a residential neighborhood, a time to get errands done. But there is nothing routine about life near the front line in Ukraine.
Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city and a short drive from the Russian border, lives with the low thunder of distant artillery and the sickening booms of shells exploding much closer to home.
Natalia Kolesnik, like other residents, learned to live with the risks. Then, in a grassy courtyard on a hot and sweaty Thursday, the shelling caught her.
She was one of three bodies on the littered ground.
One body appeared unrecognizable. A second, with a torn yellow dress and a blue slipper blown off, lay beside a splintered wooden bench. Next to it, there was a box of half-eaten fruit, cherries and apples, speckled with blood.
Inside a purse left on the bench, a mobile phone rang.
Kolesnik was nearby.
Her husband, Viktor, arrived in shock. He didn’t want to let her go. He stroked her head.
“Dad, that’s it,” his son Olexander said, watching as first responders waited to close the body bag. “She is dead. Get up.”
“Don’t you understand?” his father asked.
“What don’t I understand?” the son said. “This is my mother. Dad, please. Dad, please.”