The bad news:
1. Today near the village of Novobakhmutivka [Donetsk Oblast], a railway bridge passing over the Sloviansk–Donetsk–Mariupol highway was blown up. It exploded in the moment a freight train passed over the bridge.
To this should be added the fact that, according to the RNBO [National Security and Defense Council], in Sloviansk over the past 24 hours alone, military engineers neutralized 700 mines.
Fleeing [from Sloviansk], the rats are leaving dung heaps to remember them buy. They don’t stop shitting, even after utterly losing their “fortress”–in the likes of Sloviansk. So should we feel sorry for the handful of burning flesh that is left of them along the road from Sloviansk to Donetsk, where they scurried under the blows of the ATO forces? It’s a rhetorical question.
2. Insurgents in a Luhansk raion [district] actively use armored vehicles, hanging Ukrainian flags over them. They are shelling civilian houses.
Why it is being done is self-explanatory. Here, outreach work with the local population is of the utmost importance.
It is work with an eye to the future. The battle for the hearts and minds of the residents of eastern Ukraine has just begun.
Yes, today Putin showed the face of his “Russian world” to the people of Donbas, in the form of violence and killings at the hands of the Kremlin mercenaries. But even by freeing Donbas from this abomination we still will not win the war. We will have total victory when the last uncle Vasya–the plumber in some little Makiivka–understands that it’s better to build a free country with his own hands than to envy a chunk of fat in the bowls of serfs under a foreign dictator.
3. That part of Europe, which continues to fuss over Putin, never ceases to amaze. Today, the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier persistently “advised” the contact group of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE to start negotiations with the separatists. As in, using military means will not solve anything.
I don’t know for what purpose Mr. Steinmeier consumes so unreasonable an amount of cheap schnapps. Only the blind fail to see that negotiations with the terrorists in Donbas don’t make any sense; a bitter experience of this is left. And we see that just by military means alone this problem is successfully solved.
But no, here is another European bureaucrat who starts a song in the old tune of the Kremlin. To be honest, it’s getting tired.
The good news:
1. In the liberated settlements, the residents meet the ATO forces with genuine joy. This is understandable, [since] people have become frazzled from the complete mayhem of murderers and rapists who loudly call themselves “militias” of some “DNR” and “LNR” [Donetsk, and Luhansk, People’s Republics].
But the security forces bring not only liberation from the bloody Putin regime. Their priority task is the restoration of peaceful life. Humanitarian aid is [the assistance] that is provided first of all.
I liked an incident in Sloviansk, when a couple of terrorists disguised as local residents joined the queue for humanitarian aid in the hopes of getting a portion of the sausages. The locals gave them up to police.
I understand that aside from the assistance of the locals, there’s an important factor in the capture of the little hiding insurgents. The latter, devouring the food handed out by Ukrainian soldiers, did not stop muttering “[we] won’t forget, [we] won’t forgive.” And that’s what got them captured.
2. The SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] have no more claims against Russian banks in Ukraine. According to the Head of the SBU, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, banks immediately close any accounts used in delivering money to terrorists at the SBU’s request.
It’s just wonderful. The SBU is now left to answer a few small questions regarding other aspects of the ATO. For example, why, immediately after the operation became de facto headed by the military, and SBU officials departed from its leadership, has the “drain” of information from ATO headquarters to terrorists abruptly fallen? And the success of the operation has increased dramatically.
However, the SBU “strategist” who was left out of the action, will not rest at the ATO headquarters. According to our information, he continues to actively lead the “personnel policy” for the ATO. He keeps sending letters to other agencies with instructions as to whom should be seconded to the headquarters of the ATO. This is all very strange.
Hopefully, Mr. Nalyvaichenko will deal with these oddities just as effectively as he did with the Russian banks.
3. The famous American boxer Mike Tyson has expressed support for Ukraine. In New York, during a film presentation about himself, walking down the red carpet, Mike loudly told Russian reporters: “Get out of Ukraine!” [Ed. Note: The incident discussed actually happened during the Tribeca Film Festival this April. For some reason, this article went viral in the social media today, on July 7.]
Mike, we forgive not only Holyfield’s ear, but all your other sins for this support. There are still nice people on the red carpet in New York.
Dmitry Tymchuk, Coordinator, Information Resistance
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine