Ukraine Daily

Saturday, July 16

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Russia’s war against Ukraine

Rescuers clear the debris of a heavily damaged building in central Vinnytsia on July 15, 2022, a day after a Russian missile attack on the city. (Getty Images)

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More than 46 hectares of wheat burned due to Russian shelling in Kharkiv Oblast. Two hectares of barley were also razed to the ground in cities of Izium and Chuhuiv in the region, Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration reported.

Official: 30% of Russian missile strikes target military infrastructure, most hit civilian areas. According to the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, 70% of Russian missiles hit residential areas with no military objectives.

Russian media: Russian Ministry of Defense admits deliberately hitting Vinnytsia’s center. Russia boasted of the unfounded claim of targeting a meeting between representatives of Ukraine’s military and foreign arms suppliers. A Russian missile strike on Vinnytsia hit civilian infrastructure in the city’s center on July 14, killing at least 23 people and injuring 117. The number of casualties is growing.

Russian airstrike hits 2 schools in Kharkiv. According to rescuers, the facade of one of the buildings was damaged and tram tracks nearby were destroyed. The second rocket fell in the yard near another school. There were no casualties.

M270 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems arrive in Ukraine. These long-range missile launchers “will be good company for HIMARS on the battlefield,” said Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, referring to the new piece of artillery. The M270 can hit targets up to 80 kilometers away.

Yermak: Ukrainian pilots to be trained on F-15 and F-16 jets in US. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said the House approved $100 million in funding to train Ukrainian pilots to use U.S. aircraft as part of the National Defense Authorization Act it passed this week. It might take about three months to train the pilots to fly the F-15s and F-16s at a basic level.

CNN: Russians have visited Iran a few times in June to examine combat drones. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on July 15 that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with several hundred drones, including weapons-capable UAVs. According to Sullivan, a Russian delegation has visited an airfield in central Iran at least twice in June to examine weapons-capable drones.

Institute for the Study of War: Russia is likely resuming Donbas operations after operational pause. The U.S. think tank says in its latest report that it is very likely that Russia has began to advance westward after taking an operational pause upon capturing Sievierodonetsk. Russian forces began small scale assaults near Bakhmut and Sloviansk which were unsuccessful, but if the pause is over, the attacks will ramp up in the next 72 hours, the experts predict.

Read our exclusive stories

Of the more than 100 people who sought medical attention at the local hospital after Russian missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on July 14, Tetyana Drobotyn was looking for just one, her husband. The attack killed at least 23 people, including three children, according to the Vinnytsia City Council. Some 183 people were injured. Read our on the ground story here.

The human cost of Russia’s war

Report: Approximately 1,400 new graves appear in Mariupol cemetery since mid-May. The UK-based Center for Information Resilience (CIR) said, citing new satellite images, that new graves were added at the Mariupol Starokrymske cemetery between May 12 and June 29. Compared to the pre-war days, the report says that there are five times more new graves being dug each month.

Reznikov: Up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers were killed per day on frontlines in May. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told BBC Ukraine that Ukraine suffered the biggest combat losses in May, adding that between 300 to 400 soldiers were wounded at the time each day.

British aid worker Paul Urey dies in Russian captivity. Russian proxies claim that Urey, who was captured in April, died on July 10 as a result of “illness and stress.“

Russian military shells Sumy region, kills 1 civilian. Sumy Oblast Governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky said one civilian was killed and three more injured as a result of Russian shelling of residential areas.

Police: 4 bodies yet to be identified, 8 people still missing after Vinnytsia missile strike. Head of the National Police of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko reported that 19 of the 23 bodies have been identified, including a 4-year-old girl and two boys aged 7 and 8.

Governor: 3 killed, 15 wounded after Russian missiles hit Dnipro. According to Dnipro Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko, Russian missiles hit an industrial enterprise in Dnipro, as well as a crowded street near it. At least 3 people were killed, and 15 were injured.

International response

Canada expands sanctions against Russia. The Canadian government has expanded sanctions against Russia’s oil, gas, and other industries. The new measures also extend to computer, electronic and optical equipment products, and may affect pipelines’ production.

Embassy: Germany has provided Ukraine with 80 pickup trucks over the past 3 weeks. The German Embassy in Kyiv said that the delivery was intended for Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Bloomberg: EU falls behind promised aid to Ukraine. The 9 billion euros help promised by the EU two months ago has not arrived in Ukraine yet, as the bloc is confronting the prospect of severe economic pain, according to Bloomberg. The bloc has only managed to agree on a 1 billion euros initial tranche that covers a ninth of the promised sum.

In other news

Former PrivatBank top officials charged with embezzling over $2.8 million. According to officials, the day before the bank was nationalized in 2016, PrivatBank’s senior staff paid over $7.5 million of the bank’s money to companies linked to the bank. The funds were transferred in several tranches to two different companies. The roughly $2.8 million addressed in the case went to one of those companies.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Anna Muroniuk, Alexander Query, Asami Terajima, Anastasiia Lapatina, Oleksiy Sorokin, Olga Rudenko, Toma Istomina, Brad LaFoy, Sergiy Slipchenko, and Olena Goncharova.

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