Day 209: Ahead of UN Summit, Ukraine Reports Gains

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Facts

  • Ahead of the leaders' meeting at the 77th session of the UN's General Assembly on Tuesday – which will be opened with remarks from its Sec. General António Guterres – Ukraine reported further gains in the northeastern Kharkiv region. On Monday, its forces claimed to have crossed the Oskil River and said they now controlled its eastern bank.
  • Ukrainian forces also claimed to have recaptured the village of Bilohorivka near Lysychansk in the neighboring region of Luhansk on Monday – a small yet symbolic gain that shows Russia no longer controls the entire region. Ukraine also said it retook control of the 'ghost village' Bohorodychne in the Donetsk region on Tuesday.
  • Meanwhile, a Ukrainian attack on the city of Donetsk killed at least 13 civilians, separatist officials from the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said on Monday. Local officials reported an additional five civilians killed and 16 injured in Ukrainian attacks elsewhere in the Donetsk region.
  • Ukraine also appeared to attack Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region as well as the Crimean city of Sevastopol, where gunfire and explosions were reported during the night.
  • Russian attacks were also recorded in the regions of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy in the northeast as well as Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk in the south. Ukrainian officials said a total of seven civilians had been killed – with four Kherson and one in each of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia.
  • Elsewhere, the IT Army of Ukraine, reportedly an ad-hoc group of government officials and citizen hackers, claimed to have hacked the Russian mercenary group Wagner PMC - alleging that all of its personnel records were obtained. Wagner has fought alongside Russian troops in the invasion and, last week, an organizer was reportedly seen in a Russian prison recruiting fighters for the war in Ukraine.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Guardian, Dan, Pravda, and Ukrinform.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by PBS NewsHour. This invasion is an egregious violation of international law. Putin's ultimate aim is to restore the Soviet empire, even if it takes massive bloodshed and false pretexts such as calling the 2014 Ukrainian revolution after an election a "coup". This unprovoked attack is the latest chapter in Putin's Orwellian attempt to rewrite history.
  • Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by National Security Archive. NATO and the US have ignored Russia's security concerns by breaking its promise not to expand eastward in return for German reunification. These concerns are legitimate and taking them seriously would have avoided the Ukraine tragedy.

Predictions