Reports: Kiev shelling DPR civilian areas and Russia; Russian forces clear mines, warns OPCW of possible chemical provocation by Kiev; and more

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From Strategic Stability

Report # 93. Lugansk People’s Republic is fully liberated by July 3rd

July 4, 2022

1. Russian Defense Minister reported to the President

On July 3rd Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin on the liberation of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), the Russian MoD announced.

The ministry added the Russian Armed Forces and the People’s Militia of the LPR have established full control over Lisichansk and a number of nearby settlements, the largest of which are Belogorovka, Novodruzhesk, Maloryazantsevo, and Belaya Gora.

On July 4th Sergey Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin some more details of this operation codenamed “Gorsky Cauldron” during their vis-à-vis meeting in the Kremlin.

During this operation that lasted two weeks Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) lost 5469 men, including 2218 KIA and 3251 WIA; 196 tanks and APC, 12 combat aircraft and one helicopter, 69 drones, 97 MRLS, 166 long-range field artillery and mortar systems. During a retreat from Lisichansk AFU have abandoned 39 capable tanks and APC, 11 artillery and mortar pieces, supplied by NATO nations to kill civilians in Donbass as well 48 ATW Javelin and NLAW, and 18 AAD Stinger.

AFU completely lost a chain of command and control system with three AFU Brigades and one Brigade of the Territorial Defense

In Donetsk People’s Republic 54th Mechanised Brigade of the AFU has lost over 60 percent of personnel and equipment near Maryinka during last several days. The rest of the personnel is demoralised and refuse to fulfil combat tasks.

President Zelensky gradually loosing popularity amongst Ukrainians publicly noted that the Russian artillery is capable of using tens of thousands of artillery shells in one section of the front, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces cannot afford.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said that he doesn’t see how NATO might change its stance on Kiev’s accession to the bloc in the near future. “Ukraine still pursues Euro-Atlantic integration, but I do not see the potential in the near future for NATO to change its position in a way the European Union did, and to take concrete steps to ensure Ukraine’s accession to the Alliance,” he told local media.

Is this a symbol of frustration?

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Report on the anti-NATO protests in Madrid, June 2022

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From United National Anti-War Coalition

Report on the anti-NATO protests in Madrid
by Joe Lombardo
28 June 2022

​During the days before the June 28 – 30 NATO Summit in Madrid, thousands rallied in the streets and meeting halls of the city in opposition to the NATO summit.  Protesters include people from the United States including Ann Wright, Paki Weiland of Code Pink and others, as well as myself and other members of UNAC.  People also came from many other countries around the world. Two meetings were held in Madrid to counter the NATO summit, one called the Peace Summit and the other the Counter Summit.  Both recognized the aggressive character of the US led NATO alliance.  The Peace Summit’s final resolution can be found here, and rough translation of the Counter Summit’s final resolution can be found here.

UNAC people attended both conferences and I spoke at the Counter Summit, which had the perspective of organizing an anti-imperialist movement and was organized mostly by Spanish, anti-imperialist organizations.  My talk can be found here.  [see below] UNAC also distributed a statement on NATO and Ukraine at the two meetings in both Spanish and English that can be found here and a flyer from the Sanctions Kill coalition with a bar code to a very important report on sanctions authored by members of the coalition. Spanish and English version of the flyer were distributed and the English version can be found here.

Following the alternative summits, thousands marched together in a common demonstration to protest the NATO summit. The demonstration was major news in Madrid and was in all the news stations and newspapers.  One paper dedicated its entire front page to the demonstration.  

The NATO summit is happening at the same time that the US/NATO proxy war against Russia is waging in Ukraine.  Therefore, it is important that the peace movement has shown a strong opposition to NATO at this time.  NATO is set to revise its orientation and to become more of a world-wide tool for US imperialism.  It is proposing a new alignment that will see it spread its aggression to Asia and around the world.  According to information that can be found on the NATO web site, they will project Russia and China as their main enemies.  This means that we will see further aggression against major military and nuclear powers that will put the entire world at risk.

Only a few months after the US/NATO defeat in Afghanistan, they choose to conduct another war, this time with Russia, a major nuclear power. They hoped to fill the coffers of the military industrial complex by providing weapons to fight a major war in Europe.  The US also hoped to break the strong trade relationship between Europe and Russia and Europe and China to allow US companies to fill the gap.  They also hoped that the strong sanctions applied against Russia would cause the Russian economy to collapse, causing a crisis in the country that might lead to collapse of the governement, and allow for a more US/NATO compliant government in Russia. Possibly this would foreshadow a breakup of Russia and allow the US and its NATO allies to more easily dominate it.  With a defeated Russia they hoped to be able to further surround China – which is challenging US hegemony around the world – and be in a better position to eventually defeat China, economically and militarily. 

But their plan is failing as Russia is winning the war in Ukraine. Instead of having its economy fail, it is the Western economies that are in trouble with both recession and inflation, while the ruble is rising against the dollar, the Russian economy is growing, and the Russian people are showing strong support for their country’s fight against the US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine.

But despite this reality, the NATO summit is set to double down and move forward with its aggression towards Russia and China.  This will affect every person on the planet in a negative way and so we must continue to build our movement to bring about a world of peace not war and to oppose the US/NATO aggression around the world.

No to NATO expansion!
No to NATO!
No weapons to Ukraine!
No to war!
Hands off China!

Note:  After the protests, members of UNAC attended a meeting of the No to NATO group where plans were started for future work including webinars, more focus on the climate crisis and a commitment to organize for the next NATO summit, which appears to be planned for 2023 in Lithuania.

Joe Lombardo’s talk to the NATO counter-summit in Madrid 2022

The United States is the main imperialist power in the world.  NATO is its partner in crime.  The US has its military in around 170 countries. It has about 20 times the number of foreign military bases as all other countries combined, and it has a military budget close to that of the rest of the world combined. The United States dominates the world, politically, economically, and militarily.  Any country that does not go along with its demands becomes a target of its propaganda, its military, its sanctions and its many regime-change organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and others.  It has created numerous coups, military actions, and wars to further its goals.

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Declaration of Madrid Counter-Summit, June 2022 — No to NATO, Bases Out!

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From the Northeast Peace and Justice Action Coalition

DECLARATION OF THE COUNTER-SUMMIT NO NATO, BASES OUT, MADRID 2022

The Coordination of No to NATO, Bases Out Platforms, constituted by the signatory organisations of the Call for Mobilisation Against the NATO Summit in Madrid, called on citizens to hold the No to NATO, Bases Out Counter-Summit, Madrid 2022 as a response to the NATO Summit of Heads of State and Government.

Gathered in the city of Madrid on 24 and 25 June 2022, those attending this Counter-Summit DECLARE:

This NATO Summit in Madrid must be considered as a historic event that will mark the beginning of a new world order and the beginning of a warmongering period that will involve most of the planet. It is a crucial event in the present conjuncture of imperialism, reflecting the present stage of the class struggle.

The system in which we live, capitalism, is in the throes of a crisis which has been defined by its own institutions as structural, systemic and long-term. NATO and the rest of the Western war structures, especially the US military bases, are key players in this reconfiguration of the world order.

At a time when there is an awareness of the decline of US world hegemony, the US is organising itself to dominate the world and will defend its privileges in every possible way, including all kinds of war and aggression.

There is no blueprint for the new phase towards which we are moving, but the major international economic institutions and NATO itself have already announced the lines of action to deal with the problems that have already been identified: financialization, debt, creative destruction, technological revolution, social control and warmongering expansion against everything that hinders this capitalist reorganisation. This process will take place outside and inside its own borders. It is the definitive launching of the World War, a global, arbitrary, unpunished war of aggression, by any means and on any scale, aimed at eliminating any expression of resistance to imperialist expansion.

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Ukraine Parliament Passes New Laws To Purge Russian Culture

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From Anti-War.com

June 19, 2022
by Kyle Anzalone

Ukraine’s Parliament passed two bills that will restrict Russian music and books. If President Volodymyr Zelensky signs the legislation, it will be a significant step forward in Kiev’s attempt to purge the Russian culture.

The first bill will place heavy restrictions on any author who held Russian citizenship after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The law will ban the printing of books by Russian citizens, forbid importing the commercial import of any book printed in Russia, Belarus, or “occupied Ukrainian territory,” and requires special permission to import any book in Russian.

In the future, books in Ukraine can only be published in Ukrainian and official European Union languages. Russian is not one of the EU’s official 24 languages. Books in other languages can only be printed in the original language or translated into one of the 25 allowable languages.

The law provides an exemption for Russian authors who renounce their Russian passports and obtain Ukrainian citizenship. The bills make up the latest steps in the process of “derussification.”

The second law bars the playing of any Russian music on media or on public transportation. The legislation also increases quotas for Ukrainian language music and speech on television and radio.

Indications are Zelensky will sign the bills into law. Ukraine’s Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko – a member of Zelensky’s Servent of the People party – welcomed the bills. “The laws are designed to help Ukrainian authors share quality content with the widest possible audience, which after the Russian invasion do not accept any Russian creative product on a physical level,” he said.

The bills are not Kiev’s first effort to stifle the Russian culture in Ukraine. After the 2014 coup in Ukraine, the US-backed government passed several restrictions on the Russian language. In 2018, a movie starring Zelensky – Love in the Big City 2 – was banned because it was produced in Russian.

As president, Zelensky has advanced the culture war. After the Russian invasion, Zelensky removed members of parliament from parties that were deemed “pro-Russian.” He also nationalized Ukraine’s media, giving him further control over the narrative in Ukraine.

Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.

Links in article at
https://news.antiwar.com/2022/06/19/ukraine-parliament-passes-new-laws-seeking-to-purge-russian-culture/

Ukraine — The War Within The War: The Fight Over Land and Genetically Engineered Agriculture

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From CovertAction Magazine

by Mitchel Cohen
May 31, 2022

Source https://orientalreview.org/2015/04/06/land-grab-in-ukraine-is-monsantos-backdoor-to-the-eu/
Soon we shall be covered by wheat.
Did you say, wheat?Wheat, wheat.– from Woody Allen’s “Love and Death”[1]

Ten months before Russian troops poured into Ukraine, that country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill into law authorizing the private sale of farmland, reversing a moratorium that had been in place since 2001.

An earlier administration in Ukraine had instituted the moratorium in order to halt further privatization of The Commons and small farms, which were being bought up by oligarchs and concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. As documented in a series of critical reports over ten years by the Oakland Institute based in California, the moratorium on land sales in Ukraine aimed to prevent the acquisition and consolidation of farmland in the hands of the domestic oligarch class and foreign corporations.

The marketization of farmland is part of a series of policy “reforms” that the International Monetary Fund stipulated as a precondition enabling Ukraine to receive $8 billion in loans from the IMF.[2]

Even amid the pandemic there has been “wide-ranging opposition from the Ukrainian public to reversing that ban, with over 64 percent of the people opposed to the creation of a land market, according to an April 2021 poll.”[3]

Additionally, the IMF loan conditions required that Ukraine must also reverse its ban on genetically engineered crops, and enable private corporations like Monsanto to plant its GMO seeds and spray the fields with Monsanto’s Roundup. In that way, Monsanto hopes to break the boycott by a number of countries in Europe of its genetically engineered corn and soy.

[Source: interecophil.wordpress.com]

It is the thesis of this essay that agricultural competition over land use between the U.S. and Russia—two gigantic capitalist countries with the most powerful nuclear arsenals in the world—is a neglected but important force driving the war in Ukraine.

The U.S. government has for the last decade wrestled with Russia over who controls the energy pipelines through Ukraine into Europe, and in what currency costs for that so-called “natural” gas and oil are to be paid. At the same time, the war’s disruption of Ukraine’s wheat harvest and the historic droughts hitting the U.S.’s “wheat belt” have driven the cost of bread around the world through the roof. United Nations officials are making dire predictions concerning the world’s supply of grain.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, world food commodity prices made a significant leap in March 2022 to reach their highest levels ever, rising 12.6% in that month alone as war in the Black Sea region shocked the markets dependent on staple grains and vegetable oils.[4] Global wheat prices rose by 19.7%, vegetable oil by 23.2%, and grains 20.4%. In Tunisia and in other countries, cooking oil, semolina, and rice have all but disappeared from grocery stores, and flour shortages have led to a run on bakeries.[5]

In the Middle East, millions who already spend more than a third of their income on food, are being hit hardest by the war’s impact on the global food supply. Yet UN agencies have begun to divert sacks of grain that had been earmarked for other war zones to the Ukraine, leaving the people of Yemen and refugees from many areas in desperation.[6]

In peaceful times Ukraine harvests 80 million metric tons (MMT) of grain—a category that includes wheat, corn, barley, rice and millet. Between them Russia and Ukraine supply more than 25% of the world’s wheat. Russia recently overtook the U.S. and Canada to become the leading wheat-exporting country in the world; Ukraine is the world’s 6th largest exporter of wheat.

But this year, Ukraine’s harvest will likely reach less than half the norm. “A single MMT of wheat…is enough to feed every person in Europe for about two days, or the entire population of Africa for about a day and a half.…A country like the UK could only make it up by having everyone stop eating for three years. That’s the thing about tonnes of grain: a million here and a million there and pretty soon you’ve got a real issue on your plate.”[7]

People in France or Italy were never expecting to have any Ukrainian wheat shipped to them at all; but they are now competing against Egyptians and Moroccans, who are now suddenly looking for new sources of bread.[8]

The grains are not only used for bread and flour, but also for alcohol, fuel, and for feeding animals.[9] With more than half the tonnage grown in Ukraine last year never intended to be used for direct human consumption, shortages will impact other parts of the economy too.[10]

The Communist Party of Greece points out that “the military conflict in Ukraine is the result of the sharpening of competition between the two warring camps, primarily focused on spheres of influence, market shares, raw materials, energy plans and transport routes; competition which can no longer be resolved by diplomatic-political means and fragile compromises.”[11]

How much of the predicted food system collapse is a result of the war’s disruption of grain harvests, and—a question few in the U.S. mainstream media are asking—how much are skyrocketing food prices caused by plain old capitalist rivalry between two of the main grain-exporting countries of the world?

Competing systems for growing crops

U.S. agriculture relies on two main inputs: migrant farm labor and the monocropping of genetically engineered corn, soy, and other crops designed to tolerate—and thus be saturated with—Monsanto’s cancer-causing herbicide Roundup. The government’s regulatory process is broken, if it ever worked properly at all: Corporations such as Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta, Novartis, BASF and the other pesticide and pharmaceutical manufacturers are allowed to mask the truth about the dangers of their products.

They are facilitated in this by the complicity of federal (and global) regulatory agencies, allowing them to intentionally thwart the Precautionary Principle. Where the introduction of a new product or process whose ultimate effects are disputed or unknown, that product or process should be rejected. We need to support the development of international movements opposing the subservience of government agencies to the giant corporations.[12]

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New York Times repudiates drive for ‘decisive military victory’ in Ukraine, calls for peace negotiations

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From Anti-War.com

By John Walsh
May 23, 2022

Ukraine must negotiate based on a “realistic assessment” and “limits” to U.S./NATO commitment, says NYT

On May 11 The New York Times ran an article documenting that all was not going well for the U.S. in Ukraine, and a companion opinion piece hinting that a shift in direction might be in order.

Then on May 19, the editorial board, the full Magisterium of the Times, moved from hints to a clarion call for a change in direction, declaring that “total victory” over Russia is not possible and that Ukraine will have to negotiate a peace in a way that reflects a “realistic assessment” and the “limits” of U.S. commitment.  

The Times serves as one the main shapers of public opinion for the elite and so its pronouncements are not to be taken lightly.

US Limits

The editorial contains the following key passages:

“In March, this board argued that the message from the United States and its allies to Ukrainians and Russians alike must be: No matter how long it takes, Ukraine will be free. …”

“That goal cannot shift, but in the end, it is still not in America’s best interest to plunge into an all-out war with Russia, even if a negotiated peace may require Ukraine to make some hard decisions.” 

And, to ensure that there is no ambiguity, it went on: “A decisive military victory for Ukraine over Russia, in which Ukraine regains all the territory Russia has seized since 2014, is not a realistic goal. … Russia remains too strong…”

To make certain that President Joe Biden and the Ukrainians understand what they should do, it adds:

“… Mr. Biden should also make clear to President Volodymyr Zelensky and his people that there is a limit to how far the United States and NATO will go to confront Russia, and limits to the arms, money and political support they can muster. It is imperative that the Ukrainian government’s decisions be based on a realistic assessment of its means and how much more destruction Ukraine can sustain.”

As Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky read those words, he must surely have begun to sweat.  The voice of his masters was telling him that he and Ukraine will have to make some sacrifices for the U.S. to save face.  As he contemplates his options, his thoughts must surely run back to February 2014, and the U.S.-backed Maidan coup that culminated in the hasty exit of President Viktor Yanukovych from his office, his country and almost from this earth.

Too dangerous

In the eyes of the Times editorial writers, the war has become a U.S. proxy war against Russia using Ukrainians as cannon fodder – and it is careening out of control:  “The current moment is a messy one in this conflict, which may explain President Biden and his cabinet’s reluctance to put down clear goal posts. “The United States and NATO are already deeply involved, militarily and economically. Unrealistic expectations could draw them ever deeper into a costly, drawn-out war …

“Recent bellicose statements from Washington — President Biden’s assertion that Mr. Putin ‘cannot remain in power,’ Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s comment that Russia must be ‘weakened’ and the pledge by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, that the United States would support Ukraine ‘until victory is won’ — may be rousing proclamations of support, but they do not bring negotiations any closer.”

While the Times dismisses these “rousing proclamations,” it is all too clear that for the neocons in charge of U.S. foreign policy, the goal has always been a proxy war to bring down Russia. This has not become a proxy war; it has always been a proxy war.

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The Fantasy of Fanaticism, by Scott Ritter

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From Consortium News
by Scott Ritter
June 25, 2022

For a moment in time, it looked as if reality had managed to finally carve its way through the dense fog of propaganda-driven misinformation that had dominated Western media coverage of Russia’s “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.

In a stunning admission, Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former senior adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and Intelligence Services, noted that the optimism that existed in Ukraine following Russia’s decision to terminate “Phase One” of the SMO (a major military feint toward Kiev), and begin “Phase Two” (the liberation of the Donbass), was no longer warranted. “The strategies and tactics of the Russians are completely different right now,” Danylyuk noted. “They are being much more successful. They have more resources than us and they are not in a rush.”

“There’s much less space for optimism right now,” Danylyuk concluded.

In short, Russia was winning.

Danylyuk’s conclusions were not derived from some esoteric analysis drawn from Sun Tzu or Clausewitz, but rather basic military math. In a war that had become increasingly dominated by the role of artillery, Russia simply was able to bring to bear on the battlefield more firepower than Ukraine.

Ukraine started the current conflict with an artillery inventory that included 540 122mm self-propelled artillery guns, 200 towed 122mm howitzers, 200 122mm multiple-rocket launch systems, 53 152mm self-propelled guns, 310 towed 152mm howitzers, and 96 203mm self-propelled guns, for approximately 1,200 artillery and 200 MLRS systems.

For the past 100-plus days, Russia has been relentlessly targeting both Ukraine’s artillery pieces and their associated ammunition storage facilities. By June 14, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that it had destroyed “521 installation of multiple launch rocket systems” and “1947 field artillery guns and mortars.”

Even if the Russian numbers are inflated (as is usually the case when it comes to wartime battle damage assessments), the bottom line is that Ukraine has suffered significant losses among the very weapons systems — artillery — which are needed most in countering the Russian invasion.

But even if Ukraine’s arsenal of Soviet-era 122mm and 152mm artillery pieces were still combat-worthy, the reality is that, according to Danylyuk, Ukraine has almost completely run out of ammunition for these systems and the stocks of ammunition sourced from the former Soviet-bloc Eastern European countries that used the same family of weapons have been depleted.

Ukraine is left doling out what is left of its former Soviet ammunition while trying to absorb modern Western 155mm artillery systems, such as the Caesar self-propelled gun from France and the U.S.-made M777 howitzer.

But the reduced capability means that Ukraine is only able to fire some 4,000-to-5,000 artillery rounds per day, while Russia responds with more than 50,000. This 10-fold disparity in firepower has proven to be one of the most decisive factors when it comes to the war in Ukraine, enabling Russia to destroy Ukrainian defensive positions with minimal risk to its own ground forces.

Casualties

This has led to a second level of military math imbalances, that being casualties.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior aid to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, recently estimated that Ukraine was losing between 100 and 200 soldiers a day on the frontlines with Russia, and another 500 or so wounded. These are unsustainable losses, brought on by the ongoing disparity in combat capability between Russia and Ukraine symbolized, but not limited to, artillery.

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Report: Ukraine Armed Forces losses “considerable”; false flag attack planned by Kiev for Odessa using actors, foreign media, and UNICEF

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From Strategic Stability

Report # 92. AFU suffer considerable losses on all fronts
July 2, 2022

1. Situation on the battlefields

Russian Defence Ministry reported on July 2nd about the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine. It claimed that the enemy suffers considerable losses on all fronts. Lisichansk has been captured.

Three battalions from 10th Mountain Assault and 72nd Mechanised Brigades have lost over 50% of their personnel near Verkhnekamenka and Zolotaryovka just in the past 24 hours.

Russian Aerospace Forces have launched a high-precision attack at provisional base of 1st Battalion from 30th Mechanised Brigade. The attack has resulted in the elimination of up to 120 Ukrainian servicemen and about 15 units of military equipment.

In addition, Russian aviation has neutralised a provisional armament and military equipment storage base of 10th Mountain Assault Brigade deployed at the territory of a tractor plant in Kharkov. The attack has resulted in the elimination of up to 30 servicemen and 10 units of armoured and motor vehicles.

Russian Federation Armed Forces continue launching attacks at other military facilities located in Ukraine.

High-precision attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces have resulted in the elimination of 5 command posts of the AFU near Artyomovsk and Chasov Yar (the DPR), Pervomayskoye, Zelyony Gay and Barmashovo (Nikolayev Region), 3 munitions depots near Shevchenkovo and Novogrigorovka (Zaporozhye Region), as well as AFU manpower and military equipment in 32 areas.

Within the counter-battery warfare, high-precision attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces have resulted in the neutralisation of 4 MLRS platoons near Novoluganskoye, Zhelannoye, Berdychi and Vozdvizhenka from where the AFU had been shelling the settlements of the DPR.

Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery have neutralised: 39 AFU command posts, 2 munitions depots near Nikolayev, as well as manpower and military equipment in 302 areas.

Russian air defence systems have shot down 1 MiG-29 of the Ukrainian Air Force near Yavkino (Nikolayev Region).

19 Ukrainian UAVs have been shot down near Voskresenovka, Glinskoye, Pitomnik, Zhovtnevoye, Rubezhnoye, Petrovka (Kharkov region), Rabotino, Novodanilovka (Zaporozhye region), Petrovskoye, Popasnaya, Kremennaya (the LPR), Snezhnoye, Vysokoye, Yasinovataya, Donetsk, Makeyevka, Dokuchayevsk, Komsomolskoye (the DPR).

4 projectiles launched by MLRS have been intercepted near Yasinovataya, Mineralnoye (the DPR) and Chernobayevka (Kherson Region).

In total, 227 airplanes and 134 helicopters, 1,430 unmanned aerial vehicles, 353 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,886 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 702 combat vehicles equipped with multiple rocket-launching systems, 3,073 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 3,954 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

2. Humanitarian situation

Russian troops continue to carefully record the facts of the inhumane treatment of civilians and use of residential buildings, educational institutions, cultural buildings and other social infrastructure facilities for military purposes by Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU):

1) in Zaporozhye, in the Children’s Art Palace (Zaporozhskaya Square), nationalists have deployed a strongpoint, an armament and munitions depot, as well as firing and sniper positions along the perimeter of the institution and at the upper floors of nearest residential buildings;

2) in Kramatorsk, the DPR, in the residence of technological vocational school (Uralskaya Street) and in the gymnasium №1 (Arkhangelskaya Street), militants of Ukrainian nationalist groups have deployed barracks, as well as armoured equipment and large-calibre artillery at Yubileyny park;

3) in Kramatorsk, in the school №35 (Yubileynaya Street), in the private residential buildings (Aktyubinskaya Street), servicemen of the AFU, foreign mercenaries and militants of Azov nationalist group have deployed strongpoints, sniper positions, armoured and mortar firing positions, while local residents remain forcibly detained in the basements and used as a human shield;

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NATO summit urges Ukraine to keep fighting; updates on Ukraine situation

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From Strategic Stability
June 29, 2022

Report #91

1. NATO is urging Kiev to continue war with Russia, Belgian Prime Minister said

Fighting against Russia with Western help is the only way forward for Ukraine, NATO members told President Volodymyr Zelensky, Alexander De Croo, the Belgian Prime Minister said on June 29 in Madrid.

“We make it very clear that this war can only be won on the battlefield and we should continue to support President Zelensky and the Ukrainian population as much as possible to be able to win the war on the battlefield,” Belgian Prime Minister told journalists on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid.

In a new NATO Strategic Concept stamped at the NATO Summit in Madrid at the end of June, the transatlantic alliance neglected the fact that it is Ukraine who actually started three wars of aggression against Donbass in 2014-2022, but not the Russian Federation. In another document called Madrid Summit Declaration 30 NATO member-states promised to accelerate the delivery of non-lethal defence equipment to aggressive Ukrainian regime, improve its’s cyber defences and resilience, and support modernising its defence sector in its transition to strengthen long-term interoperability. In this phrase there is a clear-cut distortion dealt with transfer of “non-lethal defence equipment” to that ultra-nationalist regime. It reality, HATO began to deliver lethal offensive arms and ammunition toKiev a long time ago and is delivering them still. The phrase “to strengthen long-term interoperability” usually refers to a member of NATO.

Via a video link addressed to NATO summit on June 28 Ukrainian President Zelensky has urged the US-led NATO bloc to ramp up support of his country amid the ongoing conflict with Russia, claiming that Kiev’s defeat would result in a “delayed” war between Moscow and the whole West. The country needs both direct military and financial aid, Zelensky stated, adding that some $5 billion a month was needed to cover its budget deficit.

He has already spent nearly $ 7.0 donated his patron the USA from February 24 for gaining no victory and loosing nearly 150,000 troops on the battlefields. Will he be able to return such huge amount of money? Highly unlikely.

Despite this fact, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the NATO summit in Madrid outlined the North Atlantic Alliance’s position on military assistance for Ukraine. He said that Ukraine should be given so many weapons that it would be able to defend itself. And that means NATO will raise the stakes in the Ukrainian crisis. “The message is: we will continue to do this, we will do it intensively as long as it is necessary so that Ukraine can defend itself”, – the chancellor was quoted as saying.

It will be a tragic parallel: during WWII German “Tiger” tanks stormed Donbass, and today another types of German “Leopard” tanks are going to do the same aggressive job, killing innocent people in the same area. Seemingly, contemporary Berlin has NOT gained positive lessons from the past.

2. Kiev once again circulated fake news

Ukrainian President Zelensky is not satisfied with the absence of fake news from his General Staff and special services who staged two major lies of strategic importance – corpses intentionally delivered to Bucha and shelling a railway station in Kramatorsk controlled by Ukrainians by ballistic missile Tochka-U fired from the city also controlled by the Ukrainian side that time.

On June 27, in Kremenchug (Poltava Region), Russian Aerospace Forces launched a high-precision air attack at hangars with armament and munitions delivered by USA and European countries at Kremenchug road machinery plant called Kredmash [also named as Dormash].

Russian MoD official spokesman Lt-General Igor Konashenko said that high-precision attack has resulted in the neutralisation of the West-manufactured armament and munitions concentrated at the storage area at Dormash that was meant to be delivered to Ukrainian group of troops in Donbass. Detonation of the storaged munitions caused a fire in a non-functioning shopping centre named “Amstor” located 150 m away to the facilities of the plant.

The same information was articulated on June 28 at the UN Security Council (UNSC) by Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russian representative to the UN told the Security Council on meeting Russia does not target civilians in Ukraine and did not strike a shopping center in Kremenchug. He added that the mall caught fire due to an explosion of Western-supplied weapons and ammunition, stored at the nearby factory and intended to be used in shelling civilians in the Donbass.

“In reality, there was no strike on the mall,” Polyanskiy told the council, as Russia targeted a storage facility at the Kredmash factory. The weapons and ammunition stored there were bound for the front, where Ukrainian artillery has been bombarding the civilians of Donbass, for many years, to no objection from the UN, he added. “The Russian strike stopped that.”

Polyanskiy pointed out that Ukrainian media clearly shows images of intact merchandise inside the Amstor shopping center, and windows of nearby residential buildings that had not shattered. The fire was caused by explosions of the Western-supplied ammunition at Kredmash, he said.

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