Ukraine
● Presidential decree on dissolving the parliament has entered into force, starting with the election campaign from 28 of August. The elections will be held according to the old elections law with closed lists of candidates. The pro-presidential political party «Solidarnist», now renamed into «Poroshenko block», held its congress in preparations for the elections. Defectors from other parties have been seen among the convention participants. Experts do admit possibility of former members Party of Regions to appear in the elections list of the Poroshenko Block Attending the event, President Poroshenko urged all democratic parties campaign in the elections as a joint team.
● Ukrainian Hryvnya once again strongly weakened: 13.89 UAH/1$ (-23 cop), 18.32 UAH/1€ (-10 cop), 3.84 UAH/10 RUR (-6 cop). Catastrophic devaluation have been avoided due to NBU interventions and negotiations бы the NBU Head Gontareva with bankers. During the day quotes were reaching 14.3-14.8 UAH/$ and landed at 13.5-14.0 UAH/$.
Kyiv
● Seven intensive care hospitals are to be created on the basis of the existing health institutions in Kiev.
War in Ukraine
● Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs Shkiryak announced in his TV interview that Russian troops have invaded Ukraine.
● Heavy fights with Russian regular army units are ongoing in the south of Donets’k region in Novoazovs’k district, in Illovays’k, Starobesheve and Amvrosyivka. Russian military are attempting to encircle Ukrainian troops, setting operational headquarters on Ukrainian territory and performing shelling of border Ukrainian areas with heavy artillery. Ukrainian army left Novoazovs’k, which is 40 km from Mariupol, a temporary center of State Authorities within the Donets’k region. Ukrainian army conducts offensive operations throughout the Luhansk region. Heavy positional battles with terrorists, recently reinforced from Russia, are ongoing in Luhans’k, Donets’k and Makyivka. Number of pieces of equipment, coming from across the border to Ukraine, is in the hundreds. The number of mercenaries and regular troops involved in the war with Ukraine – thousands. Convoys cross Ukrainian border on a daily basis under Russian flag and don’t hide their insignia. According to the member of the presidential advisory council of Russian Federation Kryvenko, messages from parents of military, supposedly participating in war in Ukraine, are coming from all around the country.
International
● To promote information on Russian aggression, users of Ukrainian Internet made the #RussiaInvadedUkraine a top leader hashtag on Twitter.
● Despite preliminary agreements between presidents Poroshenko and Putin on hostages release, a court in the Russian city of Voronezh has prolonged detention of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko until 30 of October and sent her to the forced psychiatric expertise in Moscow. Nadiya Savchenko was captured by LPR terrorists in Luhansk region and illegally transferred to the Russian territory.
● US Department of State speaker Psaki informed during the briefing, that Russia directly invaded Ukraine. During bilateral talks, European leaders stressed that pressure on Russian Federation should be intensified due to the Russian aggression in Donbass. German Chancellor Merkel during telephone talks demanded from President Putin to explain presence of Russian troops on Ukrainian territory and immediately deescalate the situation. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden called events in Donbass a Russian war against Ukraine.
● Switzerland followed the EU and introduced sanctions against ларгест Russian banks, «Dobrolet» airlines, military concern «Almaz-Antey», as well as against а list of persons, related to the annexation of Crimea and financing of terrorists in Ukraine.
Trends
● Ukraine, unlike its international partners, hasn’t imposed any sanctions against Russia in response to annexation of Crimea, direct military intervention and support for terrorists in the Donbass. Nor it officially acknowledged direct Russian aggression or declared a martial law. This leads to the absence of a massive military and financial support from Europe and the United States for Ukrainian military.
Digests & Analytics Ukraine for Information Resistance