Weekly newsletter
This is a newsletter of exclusive materials of "Ukrinform" for a week
Photo of the week:
Мaterials and Interviews:
Legislation
Mykyta Poturaiev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy
We received a draft of the bill No. 8371 "On the protection of national and public security, human rights and freedoms in the area of activities of religious organizations" after it was approved by the committee. Its wording has not yet been published on the parliament's website. But we were not the only journalists who received this draft, and some have already begun to criticize it. This bill has been "pickling" in the bowels of the parliament for more than a year, and Ukrinform has already discussed it.
The draft of any law is almost always the object of criticism from different camps. Just like the current one, people with very different motivations and levels of awareness of the problem began to study it under a microscope and criticize it. In some ways, they are right. But the Ukrainian political experience shows that often seemingly "raw" laws were finally adopted when it was impossible to delay them. Take at least the Constitution with its "constitutional night," the law on book imports, or dubbing in Ukrainian.
We are discussing the next version of the law with Mykola Poturaiev, head of the parliamentary committee on humanitarian and information policy.
Ukraine-Poland Relations
Yuriy Shcherbak, writer, diplomat
Yuriy Shcherbak is a diplomat, former Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, and one of the most respected experts in international relations. He is also a writer, author of very popular novels, which some have referred to as geopolitics in comics, others as political dystopia, where the plot directly concerns Ukraine and its eternal enemy. Ukrinform met with Yuriy a week before the full-scale invasion in February 2022. He then prophetically said that Russia could attack from Belarus, trying to cut the Zhytomyr highway...
After some time, Yuriy Shcherbak moved to Poland, where he created the Ukrainian-Polish Information and Analytical Center "Independent Media Forum" and later wrote the book "Ukraine in the Embrace of Poland". This title sounds a bit strange today, doesn't it?
Our conversation with Yuriy is not only about Ukraine and Poland, but in general about what awaits us tomorrow and how we can resist and win.
Fact check
What foreign observers are assessing Putin's pseudo-elections in occupied Luhansk region?
How the participants in a Russian youth forum from Africa became 'international experts'
The Russian state news agency TASS released a video about "international experts" from African countries (Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Namibia) who assessed the "transparency" of the pseudo-elections of the Russian president in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region.
Disinformation
Ukrainian soldiers in Russian “elections,” or new works of enemy propaganda
How Russian propaganda promotes the “elections” of their president among Ukrainians.
Trying to split, disorient, and demoralize Ukrainians, Russian propaganda could not ignore the topic of the “elections” in Russia. One example of its development is a series of campaign videos aimed at the Ukrainian audience, which began to be distributed from February 2024.
War
Factors affecting battlefield situation
After two years of full-scale war, the Russians still have considerable firepower. And this despite the fact that their weapons reserves are quickly running out due to huge battlefield losses. Since the last meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in the Ramstein format (a little more than a month has passed since February 14), the Ukrainian Defense Forces have destroyed 12 Russian fighter-bombers, an A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft, more than 350 tanks and almost 1,000 armored fighting vehicles. However, despite huge battlefield losses, the Russians still have a significant advantage in terms of weapons and equipment thanks to the stockpiles of Soviet-made military equipment. Since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have annihilated more than 10,600 (!) artillery systems of the Russians. But this is less than half of their stocks.
Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk explains why it is difficult to expect significant changes on front lines without modern tools of war
Top Videos:
Tribute to heroes
The march on the occasion of Volunteer Day took place in Kyiv
On the occasion of the Day of the Ukrainian Volunteer, a march of patriotic youth passed through the streets of the capital. The participants of the march held a vigil on Independence Square and honored the memory of fallen Ukrainian defenders.
Terrorist attack
A huge hole in the middle of the road and broken windows are the consequences of a Russian missile attack on the capital
In the Shevchenkiv district of Kyiv, as a result of a Russian missile attack, a huge gap was formed in the middle of the road, and the windows of the surrounding houses were shattered by the blast wave.
Tradition of purification
In Zaporizhzhia, an effigy of Putin was ceremoniously burned on the bank of the Dnipro
"According to the old tradition, at the beginning of the year in the spring it is customary to burn all the negativity. Today, for all of Ukraine, its negative is the Russian Federation and its leader, Putin. By burning his effigy on a bonfire, we thus protest against him and purify ourselves with this fire for the future," said the organizer of the event, Zaporizhia artist and local resident Oleksandr Shkalikov.
News that may affect events in the country:
Economy
War forces Ukraine to accelerate energy efficiency efforts – Fareniuk
“The war is forcing us to significantly accelerate, move forward much faster, adopt the best achievements and practices, and to implement them right now and in large volumes. We are facing huge challenges in terms of reducing energy consumption in both the housing and public sectors,” told Energy Efficiency Fund CEO Yehor Fareniuk.
War
Humeniuk: Russian railway, ‘alternative’ to Kerch Bridge - legitimate target for AFU
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's statement about the construction of a railway to occupied Crimea through Donbas shows that Russians are no longer confident about the Kerch Bridge. That railway will be a legitimate target for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
World
Austria ready to lead humanitarian coalition for Ukraine
The President of the Austrian National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, has announced his country's readiness to lead an international coalition to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Gender equality
At UN, Ukrainian delegation discusses gender policy in the context of recovery
The Ukrainian delegation at the regular session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is taking place in New York, raised the issue of involving women in Ukraine’s recovery process.
See you next Friday!