Victory Chronicles
-DAY 155

WAR HIGHLIGHTS

Above: Seen in Minsk this morning, “Speaking is dangerous, but silence is impossible!”  Photo via Hanna Liubakova

• The enemy sent missiles into Kyiv oblast for the first time in weeks. Residents reported sirens and explosions north of Kyiv city.  Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba spoke on his Facebook page, “Today, on the Statehood Day, the enemy launched more than 20 missiles across Ukraine. Five arrivals in the Vyshgorod district took place in the Kiev region. Two more rockets were shot down by air defense forces.”  Ukrainian intelligence detected more than 25 missiles in an hour sent to Kyiv and Chernihiv, launched from Belarus.

• russians have apparently  taken the Vuhlehirsk coal-powered power plant near Svitlodarsk, Donetsk Oblast, after many days of local fighting. If true, this would be the first enemy gain of significance since it took a pause earlier in the month.  It is thought that Wagner private mercenaries are spearheading the assault.

• Poor Antonivsky Bridge was hit with Ukrainian missiles again last night.  Ukraine’s systemic attacks on major routes in and out of Kherson is a prelude to a campaign to retake the orc-occupied city.

RUSSIA IS A TERRORIST STATE

Above: Mural in Belgrade celebrates russian Wagner Group, one of putin’s favorite terrorist resources.  The private group was founded in 2014 by a putin pal and fan of Hitler who named the group after German composer Richard Wagner. Photo via ABC.net.AU

• US Senate on July 28 unanimously approved a resolution calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Russia state sponsor of terrorism. The resolution calls out Russia for its actions in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine and its support for the Wagner Group private mercenary army.  A similar measure has been introduced in the US House of Representatives as a means of pushing the State Department to make the designation.

• The US State Department’s designation of a country as a state sponsor of terrorism imposes a broad and strict set of unilateral sanctions in trade, economic assistance, diplomacy and visa regimes.  Just as importantly, the designation is strong discouragement to other countries to do business with state sponsors of terrorism.  Current designees include Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria.

BOYCOTT RUSSIA AND RUSSIANS

Above: Hotel occupancy in Sevastopol is about 40 percent of capacity.  Photo via New84Media

• The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is preparing proposals to the European Union to stop issuing visas to Russian citizens, according to Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu. “But it’s really funny that Russian citizens are now traveling en masse across Russia’s western border — through Finland, Latvia, Lithuania — to visit the Louvre in the summer, while children are being killed in Ukraine. This is certainly morally wrong,” stated Mr Reinsalu.

• With few international flights available to Russians, choices for vacations abroad are limited.  Turkey still has flights and is reportedly packed with russians.  Tourists can only arrive in Crimea by land transportation across the Kerch Bridge which is plagued with traffic jams characterized as “catastrophic”. Vacationers must share the bridge with lorries packed with troops and artillery.

• German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder went to Moscow, likely to speak with the tiny kremlin dictator about German gas pains.  Mr Schroeder told reporters he was on holiday, but his wife told reporters he was negotiating energy supplies.  Mr Scheoder is quite familiar with Moscow and the Kremlin.  He was elected Chairman of the Board for russia’s Rosneft oil monopoly in 2017 and only recently resigned when it was learned he could be tied up in sanctions.

RUSSIAN LIES

Above:  Ilya Yashin (right) with Boris Nemtsov before his murder in view of the Kremlin in 2015.  Photo via BBC

• “Russian state media does not represent an alternative point of view and has nothing to do with media freedom. It’s state propaganda with a single aim of distorting reality, ruining democracies, and destroying the freedom of speech. Don’t try to shout it down, just shut it down.” – Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba

• BBC’s Russian bureau interviewed Ilya Yashin, one of few opposition politicians who remained in Russia after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  Mr Yashin was arrested in July and charged with breaking kremlin laws against speaking the truth when he posted information on YouTube about russian atrocities in Bucha.

• BBC asked Mr Yashin what could change russia’s course now that its tiny dictator has crushed civil society, freedom of speech and political opposition.  “As I said, the most important thing is to deprive Putin of legitimacy, that is, the feeling of his mass support. Common ground should be the understanding that the president has driven Russia into a dead end, doomed her to poverty and deprived her of the future,” stated Mr Yashin.