WAR IN UKRAINE: September 5, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 194
Speaking to how the Ukrainian military launched a counteroffensive in the south in the western Kherson region, British military intelligence said Saturday that Ukraine’s advance on three fronts was likely to have “achieved a degree of tactical surprise; exploiting poor logistics, administration and leadership in the Russian armed forces.”
The Biden administration on Friday asked Congress for $13.7 billion in additional aid for Ukraine. As part of the Ukraine funding request, $7.2 billion would be used to give new weapons and military equipment to the country, replenish U.S. stockpiles and provide other defense-related support, administration officials said. An additional $4.5 billion would support the Ukrainian government, and $2 billion would be used to offset effects on energy supplies from Russia’s invasion - NYT
A Russian-installed official in the southern city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhya nuclear-power plant is located, told Russian media on September 4 that there had been no new shelling in the area, although fears of a possible environmental catastrophe remain high - RFE/RL
Georgia will build a kindergarten in war-torn Bucha, say its mayor, Anatolii Fedoruk. The kindergarten for 120 children will be designed by architects and engineers from Georgia. The construction works are planned to be financed by Georgian citizens.
General Staff: Russian railway firm seeks to recruit 10,000 of its workers for war in Ukraine. Employees of state railroad monopoly Russian Railways are expected to sign short-term contracts for six months and get $5,100 per month. A document on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's alleged plan to recruit volunteers at major companies was published by Alexei Tabalov, a Russian human rights lawyer - Kyiv Independent
Meanwhile, there are multiple reports by independent Russian media outlets and rights activists that Russian security officials and private military companies are actively recruiting inmates to fight in Ukraine following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the neighboring country on February 24. Relatives of inmates told the independent news site IStories in July that prisoners were being recruited to join the notorious Vagner private paramilitary group, believed to be led by Putin’s close associate, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. The recruitment of prisoners appears to be part of a broader Russian campaign to find more men to bolster its troop numbers in Ukraine, which have sustained heavy casualties amid stronger-than-expected resistance from Kyiv’s forces since the Kremlin’s invasion. “The numerous stories of relatives and media publications, unfortunately, has not made the situation better,” Vladimir Osechkin, head of the rights group Gulagu.net, which monitors the treatment of Russian prisoners, told North.Realities. The report follows another by the Telegraph documenting the recruitment of homeless men to fight in Ukraine. The Nochlezhka charity said officials had targeted its homeless shelters in a central district of the city. “(A recruiter) offered to hand out leaflets explaining that men were to be called to serve under contracts,” the Rotunda news service quoted an unnamed source at Nochlezhka as saying. “The duty officer did not allow the leaflets to be handed out.”
Ukrainians in Eastern Germany are facing widespread targeted harassment. Activists at Vitsche, an association of young Ukrainians in Germany, say they have faced rape threats, FSB style break-ins and masked men ringing doorbells at 3am. Activists say since the invasion in February, there had been an increase in the harassment of Ukrainian activists and supporters. More in this Euronews report here
Chief Chinese deputy Li Zhanshu will visit Russia next week, reports Xinhua. He will be the highest-ranking representative of the Chinese authorities to visit the Russian Federation since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine. It is also reported that he will take part in the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF). Li Zhanshu will visit Russia as part of a tour, during which the representative of the People's Republic of China will also be received in Mongolia, Nepal and South Korea.
Required reading…
‘No longer only conductors’: Ukraine’s rail workers play key war role
Scores of Ukrainian evacuees from the embattled city of Lysychansk board an evacuation train to safer cities to the west, from the train station in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, June 24, 2022. Russian invasion forces are focused on capturing the industrial Donbas region of Ukraine, after a failed attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, in late February. Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor
Before February, Ukrainian Railways was better known for its halting bureaucracy than bringing people to safety. Since then, the company has evacuated 4 million people from the country’s south, east, and center, and brought another half a million into neighboring countries. Its cars deliver military equipment and diplomats, ship goods amid the Black Sea blockade, and have carried some 100,000 tons of humanitarian aid.
Ukrainian Railways’ success in the last five months is a moment where the crisis didn’t win. Facing artillery attacks, altered routes, and enemy occupation of 20% of its network, the country’s train system has adapted, kept running.
Among the unsung heroes are the railway attendants who man each car. “We are no longer only conductors,” says one. “We sometimes have to be friends, psychologists, even parents for children.”
Read more in the Christian Science Monitor feature here