Newsletter 17/07/2024
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Another 95 Ukrainians were returned from Russian captivity as a result of the exchange
Video: Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War
Video: Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War
European Commission approves first payment of EUR 4.2B under Ukraine Facility - von der Leyen
"The people of Ukraine are fighting an atrocious war. And at the same time they need functioning schools and hospitals, access to water and electricity, trains, roads and bridges to keep the country running. This is why our European Ukraine Facility continues to provide vital support to face all of these challenges. And despite all the hardship, Ukraine is taking forward key reforms for its recovery and to advance on its EU path. This paved the way for the Commission's green light of an additional payment of close to €4.2 billion to Ukraine," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Greece preparing to transfer 32 F-16 jets to Ukraine - media
According to sources that spoke to Al Jazeera, Greece's preferred formula for transferring the F-16 jets is to sell them back to the U.S., which would upgrade them and pass them on to Kyiv.
Zelensky on MH17 crash: Russian responsibility for it is inevitable
"It's been 10 years since the day when Russian killers shot down the MH17 passenger plane in the Ukrainian sky. The whole world saw then who came to wage war against Ukraine and that Russian evil is a threat not only to us. 298 people were killed, including 80 children. Citizens of a dozen countries from different parts of the world," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Russians bring doctors from Yakutia to temporarily occupied Donetsk region - National Resistance Center
"Russian doctors continue to arrive in the temporarily occupied territories of eastern Ukraine to conduct "medical examinations" of the local population, which the Russians use as a pretext for deportation. Due to the shortage of labor and the refusal of the locals to cooperate with the enemy, doctors arrive in the TOT on a rotating basis. This time, a batch of doctors arrived from Yakutia," reported by the National Resistance Center
War
Russians set up large number of firing points on beaches in Crimea - partisans
It is noted that the occupiers are constantly endangering the civilian population by placing military equipment and defensive structures in recreational areas, near civilian facilities, as well as among the homes of local residents in Crimea.
Ukraine testing drone integration into general Army system
On one of the training grounds of the Armed Forces, tests are being run of the complex use of uncrewed systems for their integration into the general system of combat units.
The Minister of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces designated the development of robotic complexes and their mass application as one of their priority tasks. It is about systemic solutions and changes. The realities of war dictate new requirements.
Crime
SBI approves suspicion notice for ex-interior minister Zakharchenko
Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has approved a suspicion notice for former Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko, who tried in 2022 to induce certain Ukrainian officials to commit treason.
Economy
Japan to provide $3.3B in loans to Ukraine from frozen Russian assets
Japan is arranging to shoulder $3.3 billion in loans to Ukraine as part of support to be provided by Group of Seven members utilizing interest from Russian sovereign assets frozen as part of their sanctions over Moscow's invasion of its neighbor.
Politics
Kyslytsya ridiculed Lavrov for quoting Orwell: Tovarishch lavrov, what animal are you?
Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, has sharply criticised Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for trying to support his speech at the Security Council with images from the work of English writer George Orwell.
According to Kyslytsya, Lavrov's "speechwriters" forgot to remind him that the writer was a critic of Stalin and was hostile to Stalinism. According to Orwell himself, the satirical work Animal Farm, to which Lavrov refers, "reflects the events that preceded the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union - the period when Russia lived under the rule of Joseph Stalin's communist ideology, which is so beloved in today's collective farm Russia, almost idolised," the envoy explained.
Each animal in the Animal Farm, he added, represented a certain class of Soviet (read: today's Russian) society: Boxer, the working horse, represented the working class and ideological Stakhanovists; Veniamin, the sceptical donkey, represented the intelligentsia, who understood everything but did nothing; evil dogs represented NKVD officers; silent sheep represented the masses of people; Squealer, the pig, represented the government-controlled media, etc.
"At the top of the pyramid is a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar named Napoleon (an allegory of Joseph Stalin), who gradually rewrote the Seven Commandments of Animalism (an allegoric reference to Communism), the main one of which began to sound like this: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Kyslytsya wrote.
"So, tovarishch lavrov, what animal are you?" he asked rhetorically.
MoD: MH17 tragedy made Netherlands realise scale of Russian aggression
Dutch Minister of Defence Ruben Brekelmans said that the MH17 tragedy made his country realise the scale of Russian aggression, as the Netherlands also became a country with a large number of victims due to the Kremlin's actions.
French MEP urges not to give in to Putin's minions
French MEP Valerie Hayer, head of the parliamentary group "Renew Europe", assured that the support for Ukraine by the new composition of the European Parliament will remain unwavering until Ukraine prevails in the war with Russia, stressing that Europe will not give in to "Putin's minions" who threaten European security.