Victory Chronicles-DAY 848

The European Union countries have agreed on a new package of sanctions against Russia. These sanctions are in response to Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine. The package includes measures to target Russia’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector and close loopholes in existing sanctions. 

The new measures include a ban on the transshipment of Russian LNG and holding EU operators liable for sanctions violations by their subsidiaries and partners in third countries. Officials from the 27 EU countries have been discussing these sanctions for over a month. 

It was reported earlier that Germany was slowing down the process by expanding measures requiring EU companies to ensure their customers cannot sell sanctioned goods to Russia.

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Ukraine’s air defense intercepted multiple missiles and drones during an enemy attack on the night of June 19-20. The enemy launched a total of 9 missiles and 27 attack drones. The missiles included 4 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles from strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea, 3 Iskander-M ballistic missiles from Russia’s Voronezh region, and 2 X-59 guided missiles from the Sea of Azov. The attack drones, identified as Shahed-131/136, were launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Russia. The attack targets were critical infrastructure facilities, particularly in eastern Ukraine, specifically the Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast. The Ukrainian Air Force, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups of the Armed Forces successfully repelled the air attack. Ukrainian air defense destroyed a total of 32 missiles and drones, including 4 cruise missiles, 1 guided missile, and all 27 attack UAVs. The Air Defense Forces were operating in several Oblasts, including Dnipropetrovs’k, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Kherson.

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A hostile shelling by Russian occupants in the northern part of Donetsk Oblast has resulted in the death of four people and the injury of four others. The head of the regional military-civilian administration, Vadym Filashkin, reported the incident on Facebook. The attack involved dropping a bomb on Kostyantynivka, killing one person and injuring another, as well as destroying one house and damaging three others. Later in the afternoon, the enemy launched a shelling of Rozkoshne in the Illinivske community using cluster munitions, which resulted in the deaths of three people and the injury of three others. Filashkin urged the residents of the Oblast to evacuate to safe areas and emphasized the dangers of staying in Donetsk Oblast.

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The National Police of Ukraine has released a video of the Taurus Battalion of the Liut Joint Assault Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine defending Chasiv Yar. “Despite round-the-clock enemy shelling and numerous assaults, the fighters do not allow the enemy to take advantageous positions and capture the city,” the National Police said in a statement.

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The Russian government is attempting to deflect responsibility for well-documented Russian violations of international law regarding Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children by accusing the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other security structures of committing “crimes” against children. Russian State Duma Deputy Chairperson and former Russian Commissioner on Children’s Rights Anna Kuznetsova presented a report developed by the Russian parliamentary investigative commission on “Kyiv’s crimes against children” during the plenary State Duma meeting on June 19, which made unfounded and absurd accusations against the Ukrainian government and military officials of crimes against children in occupied Ukraine.

Kuznetsova claimed that the parliamentary investigative commission developed this report in accordance with the Russian Constitution and the UN Security Council resolution of August 25, 1999, but blatantly overlooked the fact that Russia’s illegal invasion and occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine violates the UN Charter and that these territories are not subject to the Russian Constitution under international law. The report accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of wounding and killing children with artillery fire and in mining incidents since 2014 and accused the Ukrainian government of “kidnapping” children from Ukrainian-controlled territories in Donbas between 2014 and 2022 that Russia since illegally annexed in their entirety despite not occupying the entire region.

The report misrepresented the Ukrainian government’s evacuations of children from frontline or occupied settlements as the “kidnapping” of “about 65,000 children from the territories of Donbas and Novorossiya” since the beginning of 2022, in a blatant misrepresentation of international law. Ukraine, as the legal sovereign of the Ukrainian territories that Russia illegal occupies, has full rights to move its people away from frontline territories further to safety. Russia, as the occupying power, does not have the right to move a population it occupies away from their homes and into Russia, however. Ukraine’s evacuation of its citizens is a legitimate humanitarian endeavor, while Russia’s forced removal of Ukrainian citizens to Russia is illegal deportation.

The report also accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Western “private military companies,” and the Ukrainian government of medical experimentation on children in occupied Ukraine, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and “the deliberate creation of a threat to the lives of children” among other unfounded accusations. The report recommended that the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) initiate the process of recognizing the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), and the Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) as “terrorist organizations.”

This report is likely part of an ongoing Kremlin effort to deflect domestic and international attention away from Russian violations of international law perpetrated against Ukrainian children, including mass forced deportations from occupied territories to Russia. The Russian State Duma unanimously supported the report on June 19, and Chairperson of the Russian Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko tasked the Russian government with translating this report into different languages and disseminating it across different international organizations and countries — including countries that are unfriendly to Russia.

Matviyenko made a revealing remark that Kyiv’s “attempt to accuse Russia of allegedly removing children looks especially cynical,” inadvertently revealing that the purpose of this unsubstantiated and false report is to confuse the international community about Russia’s violations against Ukrainian children and people.

The Russian State Duma notably created the Russian parliamentary investigative commission in June 2023 shortly after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin-appointed Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on March 17, 2023, for illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.

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Sergeant Hryhorii Ihnatov, with the call sign Kazakh, died on October 23, 2023, in a battle with the enemy near the village of Pershotravneve, Kupiansk district, Kharkiv Oblast. On November 18, the defender would have turned 48 years old.

Hryhorii Hryhorovych was born in Kazakhstan. When he was a child, he moved with his family to the city of Obukhiv in Kyiv Oblast. He grew up there, graduated from school No. 3, and then started working. He was a construction worker, engaged in security activities, worked in the field of patrolling, and eventually started his own business.

Since 2015, the man has dedicated his life to military service and the defense of Ukraine. He volunteered for the National Guard of Ukraine and later joined the Donbas separate assault battalion. He held the defense and liberated the city of Mariupol. In 2016, he joined the 25th separate motorized infantry battalion ” Kyivska Rus” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He took part in the battles at the Svitlodarsk bulge and received his first injury. Having survived a complicated operation and undergone severe rehabilitation, he continued his military career. He joined the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where he faced a full-scale war. Hryhorii was a combat vehicle commander and a squad leader. In May 2022, he was wounded for the second time near Bakhmut, and for the third time in February 2023 near Soledar.

Hryhorii was a courageous and brave warrior, so he was repeatedly awarded honorable awards, including: “ATO Participant”, “Combatant”, “For the Defense of Mariupol”, “25th Battalion Kyivan Rus”, “Duty Performed with Honor”, “Dignity and Honor”, “For Participation in the Anti-Terrorist Operation”, “For the Defense of the Motherland”, “To the Defender of the Fatherland”, “For Sacrifice and Love for Ukraine”, “Greatness of the Motherland in Your Great Deeds”, “War Veteran”. Shortly before his death, he was nominated for the Order “For Courage” III degree for saving the lives of his wounded fellow fighters, but did not have a chance to receive it.

“Hryhorii was the bravest man. With three wounds and countless contusions, he did not give up, but defended us for 8 years and gave his life for our peace! He is a Hero and deserves to be known by the whole country, the whole world!” said his sister Kateryna Tonitsa. The Hero was buried in Obukhiv. Hryhorii is survived by his mother Olha Hryhorivna, sister Kateryna and son David.

*Hryhorii’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

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• Romania to send Patriot air defense system to Ukraine
• DIU on the May 30 operation: one Magura drone hit four Russian Tunets (Tuna) boats
• FT: US to halt deliveries of Patriot interceptor missiles to other countries to prioritize Ukraine supply.
• South Korea to reconsider ban on weapons sales to Ukraine
• Finland will not improve political relations with Russia while its war in Ukraine rages on
• British Ministry of Defense: Russia will be forced to keep its aviation farther from the front due to successful strikes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces