Today’s Headlines
by Dr. E. C. Olson, Mission Director
Due to the continued decrease in reporting on the conditions in Ukraine by American news bureaus, we’re now expanding this new service to our readers and Mission supporters:
Timely News Updates from the global leaders in news reporting and investigative journalism covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Due to the significant reduction in coverage of the Ukrainian War among the more popular news bureaus, we are stepping up our own coverage by bringing you timely reporting as taken from a network of international news bureaus, especially those that are more attuned to the everyday events occurring in Ukraine.
To begin with, the mere fact that we, a small American humanitarian organization, need to make a special concerted effort to deliver news from the Ukrainian war front is a tragic statement on the status of news reporting in general, and the status of “Ukraine crisis fatigue” as more and more American news bureaus (along with those from around the world) continue to lose interest in covering the atrocities happening day-after-day in Ukraine.
Tragically, but as was predicted, this lack of persistent news coverage of the Ukrainian war has led to a simultaneous decrease in humanitarian aid flowing out of America intended for Ukraine. We saw this firsthand as recent as two weeks ago when we were in Ukraine, where Ukrainian after Ukrainian asked us if America “had forgotten about Ukraine?”
In addition, this reduction in news reporting has also had a negative effect in America’s political theater, as timid American politicians are using this lacking reporting as not merely justification for reducing military aid to Ukraine, but some from the far-right are now using this – as hard as it is to believe – to bolster their support for Russia.
August 8th Headlines From:
The Guardian
Russia readies for southern offensive as alarm raised over shelling of nuclear plant
By Isobel Koshiw
Russia is strengthening its positions and numbers on Ukraine’s southern front to ready itself for a Ukrainian counteroffensive and is likely to be preparing the ground to attack, according to British and Ukrainian military authorities.
The assessment came as both sides traded blame for renewed shelling on Europe’s largest nuclear plant, with the UN nuclear watchdog raising grave concerns about the attack.
“Russian troops are almost certainly amassing in the south, either waiting for a Ukrainian counteroffensive or preparing to attack. Long convoys of Russian military trucks, tanks, artillery and other things continue to move from the Donbas to the south-west,” said the UK’s defence ministry, confirming early assertions by Ukraine’s deputy military intelligence chief.
According to a separate source with Ukraine’s military intelligence, Russian forces are creating fire damage along the frontlines in the occupied Kherson region to stop Ukrainian forces from pushing out of their positions, and adding more units to attack Mykolaiv and south Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as conducting aerial reconnaissance of the area with drones. In occupied Zaporizhzhia region, the Russians are actively attacking Ukrainian troops while bringing in new units to strengthen their numbers, according to the same source.
One of the major obstacles to Ukraine’s offensive in the south could be the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Europe’s largest, which was shelled on Saturday. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said it was a crime and “an act of terror”, saying the shelling was carried out by Russian forces. In a phone call on Sunday with the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, about the plant, Zelenskiy called for sanctions on Russia’s nuclear industry and nuclear fuel in response.
But the head of Zaporizhzhia’s occupying authorities, Evgeniy Balitskyi, said that Ukrainian forces were to blame and had “decided to put the whole of Europe on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe” by shelling the plant.
It was not possible on Saturday to independently determine which side was responsible for the attack on the power station.
Ukraine says Russia has turned the plant into a military base, making it extremely hard to target the Russian troops and equipment inside. According to the New York Times, Russia has been using the plant as cover from which to fire on Ukrainian forces since mid-July.
The Washington-based thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on 3 August that Russian forces were likely to be using the power plant to “play on western fears of a nuclear disaster in Ukraine in an effort to degrade western will to provide military support to a Ukrainian counteroffensive”. The ISW further said that Russia was “effectively using the plant as a nuclear shield to prevent Ukrainian strikes on Russian forces and equipment”.
Fox News
Ukraine-Russia War to ‘enter a new phase’ as armies move south to Kherson Oblast, Crimea
By Lawrence Richard
The war between Russia and Ukraine is “about to enter a new phase,” British intelligence officials said Saturday.
UK Defense Intelligence said in an intelligence report that Russian forces were “certainly amassing” in Southern Ukraine and that strategic fighting would now shift from the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine to the area between the Mykolaiv Oblast, Kherson, and the Crimean Peninsula, in the South.
“Russia’s war with Ukraine is about to enter a new phase, with the heaviest fighting shifting to a roughly 350km front line stretching southwest from near Zaporizhzhya to Kherson, paralleling the Dnieper River,” UK’s Defense Ministry said.
“Russian forces are almost certainly massing in the south in anticipation of Ukraine’s counter-offensive or in preparation for a possible assault,” the intelligence report added.
The UK Defense Ministry also detailed a major movement of Russian troops, tanks and support vehicles into the southern region.
“Long convoys of Russian military trucks, tanks, towed artillery and other weapons continue to move away from Ukraine’s Donbas region and are headed southwest. Equipment was also reported to be moving from Russian-occupied Melitopol, Berdiansk, Mariupol and from mainland Russia via the Kerch Bridge into Crimea,” the intelligence update said.
“Battalion tactical groups (BTG), which compromise between 800 and 1,000 troops, have been deployed to Crimea and would almost certainly be used to support Russian troops in the Kherson region,” the report added, noting another BTG would likely be joining these forces “in the coming days.”
Kyiv Post
Russians planning show trial in Mariupol of Ukrainian POWs
By Bohdan Nahaylo.
The Russian occupiers are planning to arrange a show trial of captured Ukrainian military in the occupied city of Mariupol, Donetsk region, in September this year, Mariupol City Council has said on the Telegram channel on Saturday.
At present, prison cages from reinforcing bars with a diameter of 20 mm are being assembled directly on the stage of the Mariupol Chamber Philharmonic.
“I am addressing the world community, the UN and the Red Cross to intervene in the situation so that the rules for the treatment of military prisoners work. We must do everything so that our defenders return to Ukraine alive and prevent a second Olenivka in Mariupol,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said.
Russian puppet official in Ukraine’s Kherson assassinated
By AFP.
An official with the Russian occupying authorities in Ukraine’s Kherson region has died after an assassination attempt, local Moscow-backed authorities said.
Vitaliy Gura, the deputy chief of the Kakhovka district, “died of his injuries”, local official Katerina Gubareva, said on Telegram.
Gura was attacked at home on Saturday morning and was gravely wounded by bullets, a source in the Russian-backed administration told TASS news agency.
Kakhovka is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Kherson city.
Several assassination attempts have been reported against officials in Ukrainian regions seized by Russia since the start of its military operation in Ukraine in February.
Russia has taken control of a large part of the Kherson region and part of nearby Zaporizhzhia in recent months, and has started to introduce the ruble as currency and to distribute Russian passports there.
A Ukrainian army counteroffensive has managed to claw back parts of the Kherson region, but has not yet managed to break through Russian defences to reach Kherson city.
Ukrayinska Pravda
1,060 Ukrainian towns and villages liberated from Russian occupiers – Zelenskyy
By KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated 1,060 Ukrainian towns and villages from Russian occupying forces since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine.
Source: Zelenskyy’s video address
Quote: “In total, 1,060 towns and villages have been liberated.”
Details: Zelenskyy has underscored that the “absolute majority” of the liberated towns and villages require significant restoration work; their territory has to be cleared of mines, and social infrastructure has to be rebuilt. The president thanked all of Ukraine’s partners who have joined the rebuilding and restoration efforts.
“One of the most important concerns for August and September is the implementation of our Fast Recovery Plan, which lays out what needs to be done in the territories liberated from the enemy to enable people to return to their normal lives and to prepare for the autumn and winter season,” Zelenskyy has said.
Earlier: On 18 July, President Zelenskyy said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated 1,028 towns and villages to date, while another 2,621 remain occupied by Russian forces.
The Office of the President has developed a $17.5 billion Fast Recovery Plan, which aims to restore Ukraine’s “social” [i.e., its civil and community – ed.] infrastructure. The plan was presented during a conference in Lugano on 5 July.
The Washington Post
Rocket attacks at Zaporizhzhia power plant raise fears of ‘nuclear catastrophe’
By John Hudson and Jennifer Hassan
Ukraine’s nuclear power firm warned Sunday that rocket attacks on the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant risked a “nuclear disaster” as the governments of Russia and Ukraine traded blame for the explosions at the facility.
For days, experts have warned that intensive fighting around the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine posed a grave threat, but purported strikes on Saturday near the plant’s spent-fuel storage facility prompted even more alarm.
“This is particularly dangerous because these buildings are not built with the same kind of reinforced concrete that the reactor containment building is,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. “These places were not designed as fortresses against external missile or artillery strikes.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged a “stronger response from the international community” following the attacks and said that he had spoken with Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, to seek further sanctions on Moscow’s nuclear industry. He accused the Kremlin of conducting “nuclear terror.”
The Russian-installed local government of Enerhodar, where the plant is located, accused Ukraine of hitting the facility using a 220mm Uragan multiple rocket launcher system.
“The administrative buildings and the adjacent territory of the storage facility were damaged,” it said in a statement given to Interfax news.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said the situation presented a dire threat to public health and the environment in Ukraine and far beyond its borders.
On Sunday, he demanded that he be allowed to visit the site with a team of nuclear experts. “We can put together a safety, security and safeguards mission and deliver the indispensable assistance and impartial assessment that is needed,” he said in a statement.
But the likelihood of an immediate visit appeared remote as fighting intensifies in the contested area.
Reuters
Factbox: Five facts about Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
Reuters Staff Reporting – Francois Murphy, Editing by Frank Jack Damiel and Daniel Wallie
The Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine is a focus of attention in the war after Kyiv accused Russia of shelling the plant again and damaging radiation sensors. The plant, in Russian-controlled territory, was also shelled on Friday. Moscow blames Ukrainian forces for the strikes.
Below are five facts about Europe’s largest nuclear facility.
* Zaporizhzhia is the largest of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants, which together provide about half the country’s electricity.
* Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine was the first time war has broken out in a country with such a large and established nuclear power programme, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.
* Zaporizhzhia’s six units each have a net capacity of 950 Megawatts electric, or a total of 5.7 Gigawatts electric, according to an IAEA database. The first unit was connected to the grid in 1984, and the last in 1995.
* The plant is of strategic importance to Russia because it is only about 200 km (125 miles) from Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. The plant was captured by Russian forces in the opening stage of the war but it is still run by its Ukrainian technicians.
* Shells hit a high-voltage power line at the facility on Friday, prompting its operators to disconnect a reactor despite no radioactive leak being detected.
Ukrinform
Ukraine’s Armed Forces repulse enemy troops in four directions, neutralize recon group in Bakhmut direction
By Ukrinform Staff Reporting
The Armed Forces of Ukraine repulsed the enemy assaults in the South Buh, Kramatorsk, Bakhmut, and Sloviansk directions, and neutralized an enemy reconnaissance group in the Bakhmut direction.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in its latest report, as of 18:00, August 7, published on Facebook.
According to the General Staff, Russian troops are concentrating their efforts on establishing full control over the territories of eastern Ukraine, holding the captured districts of Kherson and parts of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Mykolaiv regions, as well as creating favorable conditions for resuming offensive operations in certain directions and blocking Ukraine’s maritime communications in the Black Sea.
The situation has not undergone significant changes in the Volyn, Polissia and Siverskyi directions. According to the General Staff, the enemy conducted aerial reconnaissance and shelled the areas near Hai and Hremiach in Chernihiv region and Novi Vyrky and Mykolaivka in Sumy region with barrel and rocket artillery.
In the Kharkiv direction, Russian troops inflicted fire damage along the line of contact and launched airstrikes near Pryshyb, Verkhniy Saltiv and Rtyshchivka. They also conducted air reconnaissance with UAVs.
In the Sloviansk direction, enemy shelling was recorded near Dovhenke, Velyka Komyshuvakha, Sulyhivka, Ridne, Bohorodychne, and Krasnopillia. In the vicinity of Virnopillia, the invaders tried to conduct an assault, but Ukrainian defenders repelled the assault and forced the invaders to retreat.
The Ukrainian forces prevented enemy’s attempt to conduct reconnaissance in fighting near Bohorodychne and Dolyna. The occupiers suffered losses and retreated.
In the Kramatorsk direction, Russian troops used tanks, barrel and rocket artillery to shell the districts of Kramatorsk, Siversk, Verkhniokamianske, Hryhorivka, Raihorodok, and Zvanivka. An airstrike near Spirne was recorded.
In the Bakhmut direction, enemy shelling of military and civilian infrastructure in the Bakhmut, Soledar, Kostyantynivka, Yakovlivka, Pokrovsky, Vershyn, Kodema and Bakhmutsky districts was recorded. Near Bakhmut, Soledar and Zaitseve, the enemy used aviation.
Russian troops conducted offensive and assault operations in the areas of Bakhmut, Zaitseve, Yakovlivka, and Vershyna but had not success and retreated. Battles continue near Kodema.
In the Avdiivka direction, the invaders fired artillery and tanks in the areas of Avdiivka, Pisky, Shevchenko, Netailove, Nevelske, Krasnohorivka, and New York. Enemy airstrikes were recorded near Avdiivka, Maryinka, Kamianka, and Volodymyrivka.
Russian forces tried to break through the defense of the Armed Forces in the directions of Krasnohorivka, Avdiivka, Pisky and Maryinka. Battles continue.
In the Novopavlivske and Zaporizhzhia directions, shelling is ongoing along the contact line. The enemy launched airstrikes in the areas of Mykilske, Vesele, Novodanylivka, Mali Shcherbaki, Novosilka and Velyka Novosilka.
In the South Buh direction, the invaders are concentrating their main efforts on preventing the advance of Ukrainian troops, maintaining a high intensity of reconnaissance with unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Russians fired from barrel, rocket artillery and tanks along the entire contact line, launched airstrikes in the Andriivka, Bilohirka, Novomykolaivka, Oleksandrivka, Myrne, Velike Artakove, and Tavriyske areas.
The enemy attempted offensive operations near Blahodatne but had no success and retreated.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ukrainian risks her life to rescue wild animals from war
By Hanna Arhirova
CHUBYNSKE, Ukraine (AP) — Natalia Popova has found a new purpose in life: Rescuing wild animals and pets from the devastation wrought by the war in Ukraine.
“They are my life,” says the 50-year-old, stroking a light-furred lioness like a kitten. From inside an enclosure, the animal rejoices at the attention, lying on her back and stretching her paws up toward her caretaker.
Popova, in cooperation with the animal protection group UA Animals, has already saved more than 300 animals from the war; 200 of them went abroad and 100 found new homes in western Ukraine, which is considered safer. Many of them were wild animals who were kept as pets at private homes before their owners fled Russian shelling and missiles.
Popova’s shelter in the Kyiv region village of Chubynske now houses 133 animals. It’s a broad menagerie, including 13 lions, a leopard, a tiger, three deer, wolves, foxes, raccoons and roe deer, as well as domesticated animals like horses, donkeys, goats, rabbits, dogs, cats and birds.
The animals awaiting evacuation to Poland were rescued from hot spots such as eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, which see daily bombardments and active fighting. The Ukrainian soldiers who let Popova know when animals near the front lines need help joke that she has many lives, like a cat.
“No one wants to go there. Everyone is afraid. I am also scared, but I go anyway,” she said.
Often she is trembling in the car on her way to rescue another wild animal.
“I feel very sorry for them. I can imagine the stress animals are under because of the war, and no one can help them,” Popova said.
