From RIA.ru

Special operation, August 7: Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant

…On Sunday night, the Ukrainian military fired from the Uragan MLRS at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Energodar . Fragments and a rocket engine fell no more than 400 meters from the operating power unit of the station. When approaching the power units, the rocket managed to open up and release fragmentation submunitions. The area of ​​the dry storage of spent nuclear fuel and the post of automated control of the radiation situation turned out to be in the affected area. Striking elements damaged the administrative buildings and the adjacent territory of the storage facility.

Kiev ‘s strikes on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, in the event of damage to the power unit, threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents of Ukraine, foreign Europe , and  Asia , RIA Novosti was told in the administration of Energodar.The interlocutor of the agency stressed that the wind rose in this region is directed mainly to the north-west, and in the event of a man-made disaster, the cities of Nikopol, Zaporozhye , Krivoy Rog , as well as most of the western regions of Ukraine, will be in the radius of radiation damage first of all.The head of the 

IAEA ,  Rafael Grossi , earlier expressed concern over the shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. According to him, military actions that put the safety of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in jeopardy are “completely unacceptable and must be prevented at any cost.” Grossi stressed that he was ready to lead the mission of IAEA experts on safety, protection and safeguards at nuclear power plants. Since the beginning of the special operation, Ukrainian troops have made attempts to attack the territory of the nuclear power plant several times. As a result of several artillery attacks, a fire broke out on the spot, two power lines were cut off, which are necessary for the operation of power units. At the nuclear power plant, part of the equipment of power unit No. 3 was de-energized, and the generated power of power unit No. 4 was reduced.The leadership of the IAEA is aware of the risks associated with the shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by Ukrainian troops, but does not take real measures to stop them, said the head of the administration of the Zaporizhzhya region  Yevhen Balitsky .

https://ria.ru/20220807/spetsoperatsiya-1807905136.html

From Strategic Stability

Report # 118. Amnesty International: Kiev violates too many laws

August 7, 2022

1. What are they?

On August 4, the international human rights organization Amnesty International published a report on Ukraine’s violation of the laws of warfare and international humanitarian law, in which it said that the Ukrainian military is deploying military equipment and weapons in schools, hospitals and residential areas, turning them into military strongholds. Secretary General of the organization Agnes Callamard emphasized: “We have documented that the Armed Forces of Ukraine put civilians in a risky position and violated the laws of war during actions in crowded places.”

The report also noted the absence of any actions by Kiev to organize the evacuation of civilians from the areas where combat operations are underway. The conclusions set out in the document are based on data obtained during visits by human rights defenders to settlements in the south-east of Ukraine, namely Kharkiv Region and Odessa.

Amnesty International has a lot of weight in the international arena and has proven itself by publishing impartial and reliable reports, the content of which is taken into account even by the governments of European states. For drawing attention to human rights violations and activities aimed at no compliance with international standards, the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as the UN Prize in the field of human rights.

On July 29, Amnesty International leaders sent a letter to the Government of Ukraine listing numerous Ukrainian cities and villages where described violations were documented and provided GPS coordinates of 24 places, including schools and hospitals, where Ukrainian soldiers were stationed. Amnesty International waited for the answer by August 3^rd, 2022. But there was no response from Kiev at all. On the contrary, on the day of the publication of the report, almost all Ukrainian officials hastened to make unfounded denials. The voiced statements, filled only with slogans about the inadmissibility of criticizing the “victim” and the need to concentrate efforts on the accusations of the “aggressor”, completely lacked any facts.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kuleba on his Facebook page saw in “such behavior” a kind of “false equivalence”. Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine Podolyak on Twitter branded Amnesty International disgrace for “participating in the Russian disinformation and propaganda campaign.” The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov in an interview with a journalist of the American media organization “Politico” accused the drafters of the report, in his opinion, aimed at undermining his personal authority in the “loss of adequacy”. President of Ukraine Zelensky also found no weighty arguments and regarded the report as an attempt to “shift responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.”

The head of Amnesty International in Ukraine Oksana Pokalchuk, who was forced to leave her post on August 5, said on social networks that the data used was obtained not from the branch she heads, but from international researchers. A Facebook post written to her confirmed that the arguments of the Ukrainian office, “which was not involved in the preparation or writing of the publication text,” were not based on an analysis of the reliability of the data used, but were reduced only to “the inadmissibility of such material.”

In turn, American human rights activist Ajamu Baraka said that Amnesty International had exposed “the lies of President of Ukraine V. Zelensky, who suppressed the obvious facts of war crimes of Ukrainian troops.” In addition, readers of the British edition of the Daily Mail were shocked by the data provided in the report. In the comments they left, they noted that the Ukrainian authorities purposefully lead their people to slaughter and accused V. Zelensky of destroying the country under the guise of allegedly helping citizens of Ukraine. Visitors to the website of the French newspaper Le Figaro also accused the head of Ukraine of a lack of desire to resolve the crisis and noted the validity of the statements of the authors of the report.

Posted by Global Research

By Eva Bartlett

Ukraine fired missiles containing petal mines in Donetsk. They littered the streets, parks, everywhere — they’re small-sized, neutral in color, they’re easy to miss.

Careful, look down as you walk through the streets of Donetsk

Video at https://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-deploying-petal-mines-against-donetsk-civilians/5788957

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years).

From Strategic Stability

Report # 115. Humanitarian policy of Russia and Ukraine: striking difference

August 3, 2022

On August 3^rd, 2022 Colonel General Alexander Fomin, Deputy Defence Minister, Russian MoD, addressed foreign military attachés accredited in Moscow. His statement was dealt with the humanitarian aspects of the Special Military Operation or SMO.

In particular, he briefed the foreign military diplomats on the efforts being made by the Russian Federation to observe the norms of international humanitarian law with regard to prisoners of war.

“Since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Federation has taken comprehensive measures to comply with international humanitarian law.

The relevant instructions to Russian servicemen were given by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Alexander Fomin stated that the MoD work is based on the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the Manual on International Humanitarian Law for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, approved by order of the Russian Minister of Defence. The manual is a supplement to the statutory instruments and includes the main provisions of international humanitarian law, as well as recommendations for its application in the preparation for and during combat operations.

Painstaking efforts are being made to treat the detained Ukrainians in accordance with international humanitarian law, especially the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Close contacts have been established with the relevant United Nations agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide humanitarian assistance to the population living in the territories liberated from the Ukrainian Nazis and also to work with prisoners of war.

On a regular weekly basis, meetings are held with representatives of international organizations, primarily the UNO and the ICRC, to discuss the most pressing humanitarian issues on the Ukrainian direction. More than 40 such meetings have been held since February 2022.

In accordance with Article 122 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Russian Ministry of Defence formed a Reference Bureau for Prisoners of War in February this year. The Bureau transmits information on Ukrainian prisoners of war held by the Russian side to the ICRC.

Pursuant to Article 126 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, ICRC visits to places of detention are organised.

All detainees are treated in strict compliance with international humanitarian law: they are provided with decent living conditions, food standards in line with those of the Russian Armed Forces, and all necessary medical care, including complex high-tech operations using modern equipment.

In addition, in accordance with Article 71 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, all detainees are allowed to contact their relatives in Ukraine. Detainees make international phone calls and write letters to their home countries.

More than 1,500 such letters have been forwarded to Ukraine thanks to the ICRC’s assistance.

Together with the UN and the ICRC, operations were successfully conducted in April-May 2022 to evacuate civilians from Azovstal plant and to withdraw AFU troops and “Azov” regiment fighters from this facility.

More than 3,000 people left Azovstal, including more than 2,400 servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces and fighters from nationalist formations.

The operations were purely humanitarian in nature. Staff of international organisations confirmed the strict observance of international humanitarian law in their conduct.

From Strategic Stability

Report # 105. Kiev destroys huge areas of grain field crops in Donbass

July 19, 2022

1. Humanitarian situation

On one hand, Russia, and other members of the Russian Federation as well as DPR, LPR, pay specific attention to improvement of the humanitarian situation in DPR and LPR, and many areas in Ukraine. Unfortunately, on the other, Kiev disregards humanitarian issue in many respects.

Russian MoD continues to record numerous facts of criminal actions by Kiev regime against civilians, as well as the use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes by Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU):

a) in Kharkov, AFU units are stationed on the territory of school No 8 (Saltovskoye Highway) artillery and MLRS positions have been deployed, without intentionally evacuating local residents from nearby houses;

b) in Pavlograd, Dnepropetrovsk Region, a nationalist stronghold has been deployed in school No 6 (Heroes of Ukraine Street), with ammunition depots in the basement;

c) in Dobropol’e, Donetsk People’s Republic, soldiers of Ukrainian armed formations have equipped strongholds and ammunition depots on the lower and upper floors of apartment buildings (Solnechnyi Quarter Street); they have placed MLRS and armoured vehicles in yards; residents are not allowed to leave their flats; people are actually used by nationalists as human shield.

Furthermore, despite the threat of a food crisis and disregarding the well-being of their own people, the Kiev authorities are carrying out further provocations at agricultural facilities to accuse the Russian military of allegedly indiscriminate strikes against civilian targets and threatening Ukraine’s food security:

a) in Kalinovka, Bakhmut district of Donetsk People’s Republic, neo-Nazis have deployed artillery and MLRS at a grain storage facility, from which they systematically shell positions of the Russian Armed Forces, provoking them to return fire;

b) in Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kharkov and Kherson regions, AFU servicemen together with fighters from nationalist battalions are purposefully torching fields with crops using helicopters and artillery. According to official data collected in Donbass, Kiev artificially creating the issue of ‘Ukrainian grain blocked for export’, set fire on huge areas of grain vegetation in the areas belonging to Donbass. 200,000 tonnes of grain belonging to Donbass have been deliberately burned by AFU. Ukrainian hypocrisy and barbarism.

These and other similar provocations by the Ukrainian authorities are taking place against a backdrop of ongoing hysteria by so called civilised West and their false accusations against the Russian Federation of artificially creating a food crisis in the world. Russian MoD warned in advance that fabricated material about alleged “Russian atrocities” is soon to be spread widely through the Western and Ukrainian media.

Such actions by Kiev once again demonstrate an inhuman attitude towards the fate of the Ukrainian citizens and show a complete disregard for all norms of morality and international humanitarian law.

Despite Russian repeated statements, these and other such facts, which flagrantly violate international humanitarian law, continue to go unheeded by the international community and international organisations.

Russia once again called on the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations to stop turning a blind eye to the blatant crimes committed by Kiev authorities against their own people, to influence official Kiev and to take effective measures to prevent AFU from using civilian and medical infrastructure for military purposes.

2. Navigation in the Black Sea is still blocked by Kiev

Still 70 foreign vessels from 16 countries remain blocked by Kiev in six Ukrainian sea ports, namely in Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhniy in northern part of the Black Sea.

These figures have not changed since May 25^th, 2022 (see Report # 69).

The threat of shelling and high mine danger posed by official Kiev prevents vessels from entering the high seas unhindered.

As a result of the measures taken by the Russian Navy, the mine threat in the waters of the port of Mariupol has been eliminated and measures are being taken to restore the port infrastructure.

From Strategic Stability

Report # 104. Medvedev: Ukraine may confront with the Doomsday

July 18, 2022

1. Ex-President Medvedev reminded Ukraine of the Doomsday

Some top-ranking Ukrainian politicians are trying to threaten the Russian Federation, meaning an attack on the Crimea, including the Crimean Bridge, but if something like this happens, then judgment day will come for them all, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with veterans in Volgograd.

“Individual exalted, bloody clowns who pop up there from time to time with some statements are also trying to threaten us, meaning the attack on Crimea and so on. In this regard, I want to say that it is quite obvious that they understand the consequences of such statements. And the consequences are obvious that if something like this happens, for all of them there, the Day of Judgment [Doomsday] will come at once. Very fast and heavy. It will be very difficult to take cover,” Medvedev stressed.

“In some ways they envy us, our capabilities, in some ways, they probably fear us, but the most important thing for them is that conceptual task that does not change from year to year and passes from one government to another,” Medvedev concluded.

2. Lavrov: Germany and France ‘killed’ Minsk agreements

Berlin and Paris torpedoed the 2015 ceasefire deal for Donbass by shielding Kiev’s non-compliance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in an article published in Izvestia newspaper [the full text is posted at the MFA website: «Staged incidents as the Western approach to doing politics»; July 18, 2022// https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1822333/%5D.

Russia, Germany and France brokered the 2015 Minsk agreements between Ukraine and Donbass, which were designed to put an end to hostilities. But according to Lavrov, Berlin and Paris failed to ensure Kiev’s compliance.

The Russian Foreign Minister noted that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko admitted the Minsk agreements meant nothing for Kiev, and Ukraine used them only to buy time. Lavrov said: “If anyone doubted that the Minsk Package was anything but yet another fake, Petr Poroshenko dispelled this myth by saying on June 17, 2022: “The Minsk Agreements did not mean anything to us, and we had no intention to carry them out… our goal was to remove the threat we faced… and win time in order to restore economic growth and rebuild the armed forces. We achieved this goal. Mission accomplished for the Minsk Agreements.”