Victory Chronicles-DAY 866

According to Ukrainian field commanders, attacks on Russian supply routes have hindered the advance of Russian forces in the northeastern part of the Kharkiv region. 

Intercepted radio and telephone conversations, as well as interrogations of Russian prisoners of war, reveal the desperate state of the Russian ground forces, with personnel losses and a decline in momentum. 

In one intercepted radio conversation, a Russian soldier instructs another soldier to inform incoming troops about severe food and water shortages. Intercepted messages also indicate that Russia is attempting to establish enough supply routes to meet the basic needs of its troops. 

Additionally, a Russian soldier, speaking to his parents, reveals that his unit near the Ukrainian village of Liptsi has suffered casualties and is running out of food.

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On July 8, a Russian missile strike in Ukraine resulted in the death of 42 people, including four children. The attack targeted the Okhmatdyt Children’s Medical Center, where patients from all over Ukraine were being treated. Two adults, a doctor, and a visitor to the medical center were killed, while 30 others, including 10 children, were injured.

A rescue operation involving over 700 police officers, as well as special forces and city residents, was launched to save those trapped in the rubble and document the crime. Another residential apartment building in the Shevchenkivskyi district was also hit by Russian terrorists, killing 12 residents, including four children, and injuring 25 others. Additionally, a rocket attack in the Dniprovsky district resulted in the deaths of nine people and injuries to eight. Artillery shelling also affected the cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih. The rescue operations are ongoing.

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In the Kherson region, there were 30 fires caused by enemy shelling in a single day. The occupiers continued to shell the suburbs of Kherson, with the Beryslav district being targeted as well. Among the fires, 22 were extinguished in private households, including residential buildings, outbuildings, an apartment building, and a garage. Additionally, rescuers collaborated with local fire brigades to put out 8 fires in open areas, covering a combined area of 7 hectares. 

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Rescuers in Kyiv have discovered the bodies of three more women in the rubble of a house in the Shevchenkivskyi district, bringing the total number of victims at that location to twelve. 

In addition, the body of another person was recovered, raising the overall death toll in Kyiv to 32 as a result of the Russian attack. Earlier reports stated that three women’s bodies had been found, making a total of eleven deaths in that building. The head of the KCIA, Serhiy Popko, later clarified that as of 12:15 a.m., a total of 31 people had been killed and 117 injured in Kyiv due to the missile attack. During the nighttime rescue operations, the body of a boy was also found in the Shevchenkivskyi district.

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Russian officials and information space actors are attempting to deflect responsibility for the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital strike by making false claims about the missiles involved and the state of the hospital — all contrary to available evidence. The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation warned on July 9 that various Russian propaganda sources are amplifying a wide variety of information operations deflecting blame for the strike away from Russia, including false claims that Ukraine was using part or all of the hospital to treat wounded Ukrainian soldiers, that Ukraine was storing missiles at the hospital, and that Ukrainian air defense missiles and not a Russian missile hit the hospital. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) claimed that available footage “clearly confirms” that falling Ukrainian air defense missiles damaged civilian objects within Kyiv City, likely referring to the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital and not to another medical facility within the city that Ukrainian officials acknowledged was damaged by falling missile debris.

Russian sources widely circulated the footage and image of the missile in the second before it hit the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, and some milbloggers even published misleading posts falsely claiming that it was a Ukrainian air defense missile and not an attacking Russian Kh-101 missile. 

The trajectory of the missile in the video and the visible turbojet engine under its hull match the frame of a Russian Kh-101 and do not support claims that it was an air defense interceptor, nor does the missile appear damaged by air defense interceptors. The Ukrainian SBU also reported that the serial numbers of the missile components match those of other Russian Kh-101s launched at Ukraine.

Some Russian milbloggers claimed that Russian forces were attempting to strike the Artem machine building plant roughly 1.6 kilometers north of the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, but other Russian missiles actually hit the Artem Plant during the strike.

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Kostiantyn Hrytsenko, with the call sign Zmiy, died in a Kryvyi Rih hospital on August 30, 2023, as a result of cardiac arrest. A few months earlier, he was injured during an artillery attack in the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast. The defender was 43 years old.

Kostiantyn was born in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro Oblast. After high school, he entered the local professional college of the National Aviation University. He worked as a guard commander at Kryvyi Rih Penal Colony No. 80, a controller at the Southern Mining and Processing Plant and at the Sanservice utility company. He also had a team that repaired and insulated houses. He was interested in welding.

In 2014, the man was called up for military service. He served as a division commander of the 17th Separate Tank Brigade named after Kostiantyn Pestushko. He took part in the ATO and suffered concussions. Later he was transferred to the 54th separate mechanized brigade, and in 2016 he signed a contract with the 10th separate mountain assault brigade “Edelweiss”, where he was promoted to the position of intelligence sergeant.

During the full-scale war, Kostyantyn was the chief sergeant of the engineer platoon of the 17th separate tank brigade named after Kostyantyn Pestushko. He took part in the liberation of Kherson, performed tasks near Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, and in Kharkiv Oblast. He was awarded a commemorative breastplate of the Ukrainian Military Intelligence, medals “To the Defender of Homeland” and “ATO Participant”.

“My husband’s life is a story of devotion to his native land and struggle for principles that should impress with the strength of spirit and devotion to his comrades. He was a man you could trust with your life,” wrote Valentyna’s wife.

The defender was buried on the Walk of Fame at the Vsebratske Cemetery in Kryvyi Rih. Kostiantyn is survived by his mother, wife and two sons.

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

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• U.S. Officials say Russia Is unlikely to take much more Ukrainian territory
• Ukraine’s Security Service and Defence Intelligence attack military facilities in three Russian oblasts
• CNN: Draft NATO communique describes Ukraine’s path to NATO as irreversible
• German Defense Ministry seeks over $4 billion in additional military aid for Kyiv
• SSU has new evidence: Russia hit Okhmatdyt with Kh-101 missile
• Germany reports on sending Patriot and Leopard 1 ammunition to Ukraine