May 20 Buonasera Mag
Donbas, EU on food security, Russian war crimes, WaPo database, UK aid
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Here are some other stories we’re following…
President Zelensky: in a late-night video address president Zelensky said that the Donbas region in the east of his country has been completely destroyed.
Ukraine's National Guard have released a video which it said shows the destruction of a bridge connecting Severodonetsk to Rubizhne in the Luhansk region.
Russian forces in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region have pushed forward and taken some ground, according to information in the latest Ukrainian military briefing.The Ukrainian military says the Russian army is advancing in the areas of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.
General Prosecutor of Pechersk District Court grants request to arrest former Ukrainian President Yanukovych. The court in Kyiv granted the request over accusations he smuggled 20 people into Russia from Donetsk Oblast in 2014 in three Russian Armed Forces helicopters.
At a first meeting with the occupying pro-Russian collaborators in Kherson, Russian-appointed governor Volodymyr Saldo has said Kherson will “soon become part” of the Russian Federation.
ISW: Russian and proxy occupation authorities in Mariupol reportedly struggled to establish administrative control of the city on May 19.
Unidentified Russians attack military commissariats in Russia with Molotov cocktails. Attacks in three Moscow Oblast settlements over the last five weeks are likely in protest of covert mobilization.
More than one million Ukrainian refugees have returned home after being "frustrated with the growing discomfort, the growing struggle with different systems around the European Union", Ukraine's ambassador to the UK has said.
RIA Novosti: diplomat Nebenzia has stated that the Russian Federation has justified suspicions that Ukrainian grain is pumped into Western countries grants- this is paying for weapons received. (They’re stealing the grain, but they don’t want you to know that.)
Ukrainian FM Kuleba thanked Egypt on Twitter on May 19 for refusing a Russian ship the Ukrainian Embassy in Egypt alleged was transporting grain stolen from Ukraine.
Russia's Gazprom informs Finland that it will suspend natural gas exports tomorrow. Russia has already stopped gas exports to Bulgaria and Poland.
EU countries’ underground gas storages should be filled to at least 80 percent of capacity before the next winter and to 90 percent before the following winter, according to a new law agreed by Council and Parliament.
Politico EU: just a reminder that Italy’s parliamentary committee for security last week opened a probe into disinformation, in response to widespread concerns that Italian news outlets are being used to spread a pro-Putin line. Feature here from Hannah Roberts in Rome.
Politico Berlin: “Putin still believes that he can bomb his way to a dictated peace. But he is wrong just as he has been wrong about the resolve of the Ukrainians and the unity of our alliances,” said Scholz. “There will be no dictated peace, because Ukrainians will not accept it, and neither will we.”
The German Defence Ministry spokesman said Germany is also facilitating the supply of additional artillery from the Czech Republic to Ukraine.
Foreign ministers from the 46-nation Council of Europe meet in Turin today to discuss Ukraine war, as Italy hands over the presidency to Ireland.
Russian propaganda- new spin
Why Ukrainian forces so successful?
Russian senator Frants Klintsevich has claimed his country’s slow progress in Ukraine is because Moscow's forces are fighting soldiers "with exactly the same mentality as ours". He called Ukraine's military "one of the strongest and best-trained armies" and said "we're fighting against Russian soldiers and officers" BBC’s Russian monitor Francis Scarr reports.
Russia: experts at gaslighting
They are not liberators: they are executioners.
The NYT has unveiled new video evidence to show how Russian paratroopers executed 8 Ukrainian men in Bucha.
Philip Oltermann, Putin’s daughter flew to Munich ‘more than 50 times’ in two years, leaks reveal
[Putin’s] own daughter’s enthusiasm for sojourns to western Europe at least matches that of the oligarch “scum and traitors” he has decried, a joint investigation by independent Russian media outlet iStories and German magazine Der Spiegel suggests.
The looming food crisis
Samuel Ramani: “The Russian Foreign Ministry says Russia will only open Ukraine's Black Sea ports if sanctions on Russia are lifted. Devastating food insecurity resulting from the Ukraine war is set to continue.”
At the UN Security Council meeting, Secretary of State Blinken retorted by stating that "The Russian Federation claims falsely that the international community's sanctions are to blame for worsening the global food crisis. Sanctions aren't blocking Black Sea ports, trapping ships filled with food, and destroying Ukrainian roads and railways - Russia is".
Before the war, Ukraine was looking at yet another record harvest this year and record levels to export to the global south in particular from Odessa but shipments cannot transit through the port and Russia is also stealing grain from occupied territories. It is estimated that Ukraine may harvest up to 50 percent less this year.
The EU development ministers are meeting today to discuss the looming food crisis. They are aware of Russia’s deadly strategy of mining corn fields in Ukraine, and other measures that amount to a scorched earth strategy in Ukraine.
It’s all going according to plan…
NATO reaching out to Russians
The endless string of lies about НАТО from the Russian authorities has become a familiar part of the discourse and information space. Myths must be dispelled. We will dot the ? "and" !
Ukrainian professors in the trenches
Myhailo Spodarets, professor at the National Karazin University in Kharkiv, continues his lectures via video conference in a basement where he’s sheltering. The next time I hear from my own students that they can’t stay for the entire lesson because they’ll ‘miss their bus home’, I’ll show them this picture and those of many determined Ukrainian fighters.
WaPo Database of 235 videos exposes the horrors of war in Ukraine
Citizens, public officials and soldiers have posted videos every day of Russia's war in Ukraine. The Washington Post has verified and catalogued more than 200 videos from the war in Ukraine into a searchable database that will be updated.
This database is amazing. Go have a look!
The UK Stands with Ukraine- database and up-dates
The UK and our allies condemn the Russian government’s unprovoked and premeditated invasion of Ukraine. We stand with Ukraine.
The government of the UK provides a website with up-dates on legislation regarding new sanctions and funds that have been allocated to help Ukraine. If you wish to make a donation and you’re living in the UK, the website directs you to varified organisations.
Reaching out to Vadym and his family
We salute Rotislav Krivorucko (1989-2022), who has fallen in battle near Toshkivka, Lugansk. He was a dear cousin to our friend Vadym.
After graduating from the agricultural institute near his home, Rotislav dedicated his working life to farming. After February 24, he was intent on sowing the fields of grain near his home, and managed to protect them for the harvest that is to come.
When he received the call to arms, he didn’t hesitate, and joined his compatriots near Kharkiv. On May 11 his regiment was hit by Russian grad missiles and many in his regiment died. On May 19, the family and community laid Rotislav to rest near his home.
Slava Ukraini…Glory to the heroes.
We’re signing off…thanks for reading…
Mo & Scott