Zelenskiy says staff of sacked officials have been ‘working against’ Ukraine
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy followed up on decrees in which he removed the State Security Service head and his Prosecutor General.
Reuters reports:
Zelenskiy said that more than 60 of their employees were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory.
He added that 651 criminal proceedings had been registered relating to high treason and collaboration by employees of prosecutor’s offices, pretrial investigation bodies and other law enforcement agencies.
“In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state,” he said.
He said that such crimes raised “very serious questions” for the relevant leaders, and added, “Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.”
Key events:
Soldiers from Russia’s Republic of Buryatia have faced threats from their commanders after they refused to be deployed to Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reports.
According to the outlet, soldiers said that deserters are taken to a military command post where there are detained in a garage for 3-4 four days. They are they taken to a detention center near the Russian-occupied territory of Luhansk.
One soldier told the Russian media outlet Mediazona that around 77 Buryatia refused to be sent to Ukraine.
A Russian attack on the Bakhmut district in the Donetsk obalst has injured six people, including 3 children, the Kyiv Independent reports.
On Sunday, Russian forces shelled the city of Soledar and the Yahidne village, according to the Donetsk oblast prosecutor’s office. The three injured children have shrapnel wounds, the office said.
Zelenskiy says staff of sacked officials have been ‘working against’ Ukraine
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy followed up on decrees in which he removed the State Security Service head and his Prosecutor General.
Reuters reports:
Zelenskiy said that more than 60 of their employees were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory.
He added that 651 criminal proceedings had been registered relating to high treason and collaboration by employees of prosecutor’s offices, pretrial investigation bodies and other law enforcement agencies.
“In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state,” he said.
He said that such crimes raised “very serious questions” for the relevant leaders, and added, “Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.”
Russian occupation authorities are planning to deport residents of Ukraine’s occupied south, according to the Association for the Reintegration of Crimea.
The association reports, “Any action that will be considered by the occupiers as a ‘violation’ will entail “forced expulsion from the territory of the Kherson region.”
It went on to add, “It is stated that the criminal ‘decision’ about this will be approved by the ‘military commandant’, with the execution of the ‘expulsion’ within 24 hours. A similar criminal ‘decree’ was announced by the occupiers in Melitopol.”
The association said that such evictions from the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhia will mean deportations to Russia through Crimea and Mariupol where residents will be used as “labor force and ‘cannon fodder’ to Crimea and Russia.
President Zelenskiy dismisses head of state security service and prosecutor general – report
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued an executive order dismissing the head of state security service and proesecutor general, according to the presidential office website.
The orders dismissing domestic security chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Zelenskiy, and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, who leads the effort to prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine, were published on the president’s official website.
Another decree has appointed deputy prosecutor general Oleksii Symonenko as acting prosecutor general.
According to Euromaidan, Bakanov was fired under Article 47 of the Disciplinary Statute of Ukraine’s Armed Forces which states, “Non-performance (improper performance) of official duties, which resulted in human casualties or other serious consequences or created a threat of such consequences.”
The Vinnytsia concert hall Officer’s House struck by Russian forces will not be completely demolished, only damaged structures will be dismantled, said regional authorities.
In a Telegram post, Vinnytsia regional governor Serhiy Borzov said, “After being hit by a missile, the building is in a state of emergency,” referring to the midday attack on Thursday that left at least 23 people dead and scores more hospitalized.
“After examination by specialists, a decision was made to dismantle the debris. We are not talking about the demolition of the entire facility, but about the dismantling of emergency structures where it is dangerous,” he added.
“The Officer’s House survived the Second World War. It endured this one too – it has already become a symbol of Vinnytsia’s resilience.”
Vinnytsia concert hall “Officers’ House” hit by Russia won’t be completely demolished, only damaged structures will be dismantled – oblast authorities
It “survived WWII, will endure this one too, it has already become a symbol of Vinnytsia’s resilience”https://t.co/UoGTrguvE3 pic.twitter.com/xUazsWtK7o
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) July 17, 2022
1,346 civilians have been found dead in the Kyiv oblast after the retreat of Russian forces, according to the region’s police chief.
In a new Kyiv Independent report, Andriy Nebytov is cited saying that about 300 individuals are still missing, adding that 700 of those killed were shot with small arms such as a handgun.
The head of Britain’s armed forces has dismissed as “wishful thinking” speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is suffering from ill-health or could be assassinated.
Agence France-Presse reports:
As the Conservative party chooses a successor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Admiral Tony Radakin also said Britain’s next leader should be aware that Russia poses “the biggest threat” to the UK and that its challenge would endure for decades.
“I think some of the comments that he’s not well or that actually surely somebody’s going to assassinate him or take him out, I think they’re wishful thinking,” the chief of the defence staff said of Putin, in a BBC television interview broadcast on Sunday.
“As military professionals we see a relatively stable regime in Russia. President Putin has been able to quash any opposition, we see a hierarchy that is invested in President Putin and so nobody at the top has got the motivation to challenge President Putin,” Radakin added.
“And that is bleak.”
Russia’s land forces may pose less of a threat now, after suffering setbacks in the war in Ukraine, the military chief said.
The invasion has killed or wounded 50,000 Russian soldiers and destroyed nearly 1,700 Russian tanks, as well as some 4,000 armoured fighting vehicles, he estimated.
“But Russia continues to be a nuclear power. It’s got cyber capabilities, it’s got space capabilities and it’s got particular programmes under water so it can threaten the underwater cables that allow the world’s information to transit around the whole globe.”
Ukraine will dominate military briefings for Johnson’s successor when he or she takes office on September 6, Radakin said.
“And then we have to remind the prime minister of the extraordinary responsibility they have with the UK as a nuclear power, and that is part of the initiation for a new British prime minister.”
Hello everyone, Maya Yang here. I will be taking over the blog for the next few hours and will be bringing you the latest updates. Stay tuned.
A British man who appears to be being held captive by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, has been shown in a video asking Boris Johnson for help.
John Harding, who is in his 50s and originally from Sunderland, is being interviewed by a Russian TV presenter in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). In the video he says he could face the death penalty.
It’s understood that he was captured in May when Ukrainian units he was fighting with at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol were forced to surrender, the BBC has reported.
The video says he was part of the Azov regiment. Harding has told friends he was fighting as part of the Ukrainian national guard.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: “We are supporting the family of a British national and are concerned by his detention.
“We condemn the exploitation of detainees for political purposes and have raised this with Russia. We are in constant contact with the government of Ukraine on their cases and are fully supportive of Ukraine in its efforts to get them released.”
Peter Beaumont
Mourners in central Ukraine have buried a four-year-old girl who was killed by a Russian missile strike in the city of Vinnytsia last week, as officials and analysts warned that Moscow’s operational pause of recent days had come to an end, signalling further death and pain to come.
Twenty-three people were killed in the attack, and one person is still missing.
The killing of Liza Dmitrieva, who had Down’s syndrome, as she was pushed in a stroller through a crowded square was reported around the globe, becoming a poignant symbol of the heavy civilian cost of Russia’s invasion.
Wearing a crown of white flowers, Liza was buried on Sunday, as an Orthodox priest burst into tears and told weeping relatives that “evil cannot win”.
Russian forces in Kherson, southern Ukraine, are changing their tactics and trying to “hide behind the civilian population”, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.
Operational Command south said Russian soldiers are deploying in “densely populated areas”, hoping Ukraine will not carry out strikes on regions where their own people are living.
It added that the Russian military continues periodic attacks on Zmiinyi Island, “trying to create the illusion of control of the island”.
“At night, a pair of Su-24 bombers struck the remnants of enemy equipment on the island again. We have no losses,” it said, via a video posted on its Facebook page.
Correspondents from Agence France-Presse (AFP) have spoken to a sushi restaurant owner in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, about how life is continuing despite the ongoing bombardment.
Working in a sushi restaurant in eastern Ukraine, Igor Besukh turns up the music to drown out the sound of air raid sirens as he prepares the next order.
But the music could not mask the deafening sound of a missile that struck central Kramatorsk on Friday, landing in the city’s Peace Square near the town hall, culture centre and the sushi bar where Besukh works.
The restaurant is one of the few still open in the city, only 20km (12 miles) from the frontline with Russian troops, in the industrial Donbas region that Russia is attempting to conquer.
When they heard the blast, the employees of “Woka”, a restaurant with red-lacquered walls and Asian designs, quickly moved to a shelter.
They re-emerged 20 minutes later to examine the damage. All the windows and doors were broken despite being boarded up with plywood panels.
They cleaned up the debris and continued preparing the orders waiting to be delivered.
There were no casualties following the strike that hit at around 8:00 pm but the impact shattered the windows of several buildings nearby.
“It was a loud noise. We didn’t expect it, of course. I was scared,” says the 23-year-old chef with tattoo-covered arms.
Coming back to work the next day was not easy, he admits, however “war is war, but lunch must be served on time”, he says, quoting a popular saying with a smile.
Today so far …
- Russian missiles hit an industrial and infrastructure facility in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding centre in the estuary of the Southern Bug river. Oleksandr Senkevych, the city’s mayor, said there was no immediate information about casualties.
- The European Union is to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of using the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.
- Russia has lost more than 30% of its land combat effectiveness, says Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff for the UK, and 50,000 Russian soldiers have either died or been injured in this conflict.
- All eight crew members who died onboard a cargo aircraft transporting munitions that crashed and exploded in a ball of flames in northern Greece were Ukrainian.
- Today was the funeral for one of the three children killed in a Russian missile attack last week in Vinnytsia. In total, 24 people were killed in the attack and more than 200 wounded, including the four-year-old girl’s mother.
- Today marked the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard. With the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, this year’s anniversary has hit the international community even harder. Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, despite the findings of an international investigation that found witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight. Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, issued a strong statement calling for international action against Russia.
- Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military official, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”. Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed at least 40 people in the past three days.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted on his official Instagram account some poignant statements about the state of conflict in his country today, alongside some photos of the Ukrainian military:
“This is a war in Ukraine that Russia started, that Russia continues and that Russia does not want to end,” Zelenskiy wrote. “Ukraine defends its own land, its sovereignty, its territory. Ukraine is fighting for peace. This is a cruel paradox of the 21st century, and for us this is reality.”
An Orthodox priest burst into tears when it came time to bury four-year-old Liza, but told her weeping friends and family that “evil cannot win”. Her father, Artem Dmytriev, tears flowing down his face, cradled her still figure, taking care not to disturb her crown of white flowers.
The Associated Press has a report from the funeral of Liza, one of the three children killed in a Russian missile attack last week in Vinnytsia, whose photos have gone viral as the latest images from the brutal war in Ukraine to horrify the world. In total, 24 people were killed and more than 200 wounded, including Liza’s mother, who remained in an intensive care unit in a grave condition. The family didn’t tell her that her daughter was being buried on Sunday, fearing it could affect her condition.
“Look, my flower! Look how many people came to you,” Liza’s grandmother, Larysa Dmytryshyna, said, caressing Liza as she lay in an open coffin with flowers and teddy bears in Vinnytsia’s 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral. “Your mommy didn’t even see how beautiful you are today.”
When the war started, Liza’s family fled Kyiv for Vinnytsia, a city 270km (167 miles) to the south-west, which until Thursday was considered relatively safe.
Shortly before the attack, her mother had posted a video on social media showing Liza in a denim jacket and white pants, straining to reach the handlebars to push her own stroller, happily toddling through Vinnytsia. The next image of Liza shared with the world was one shared by Ukraine’s emergency services showing her lifeless body on the ground next to her blood-stained stroller.
“It’s suffering and despair. There is no forgiveness for them,” said Ilona, a family friend.
Ukraine prosecutor general: Russia must be recognised as a terrorist state
On the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard, Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, issued a strong statement calling for international action against Russia.
Though Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, the findings of an international investigation found multiple witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight.
“Russia must be recognised as a terrorist state,” Venediktova wrote on Twitter. “For eight years, we have had terrible evidence of this. The last five months were the peak of Russian terror – 23,000 war crimes committed against civilians, including international journalists showing the truth about Russian war crimes.”
8 years since the tragic shootdown of the #МН17 flight. 298 victims. The four accused are being tried in The Hague. The next technical court session, in which the sentencing hearing may be calendared, is scheduled for Sep 29, 2022. The possible dates are Nov 17 and Dec 15. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/MF4T5x0ju9
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) July 17, 2022
The international investigation team of 🇺🇦, 🇳🇱, 🇧🇪, 🇦🇺 & 🇲🇾 is still searching for answers. Inter alia, to determine the crew of the Buk missile system, rf officials who gave orders & the responsible for providing aid to the “DPR” and “LPR” terrorist organizations. 2/3
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) July 17, 2022
russia must be recognized as a terrorist state. For 8 years, we have had terrible evidence of this. The last 5 months were the peak of russian terror — 23,000 war crimes committed against civilians, including international journalists showing the truth about #RussianWarCrimes 3/3
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) July 17, 2022
