Всім привіт! 🙋‍♀️ Хочу поїхати до Ужгороду зі своїм чоловіком (він іноземець). Наскільки зараз безпечно (для мене та для нього) ? (Говорю не тільки про ракетні обстрили, а загалом) З вересня 2022 не була в Україні.
Дякую

Read the full editorial here: https://kyivindependent.com/editorial-by-sacking-fedorov-zelensky-risks-turning-tide-of-war-back-in-russias-favor/

I’m an American and while I’ve been following the war not a lot of coverage here is given to Ukraine’s internal politics. Does anyone from the country think that public pressure will push Zelenskyy to undo this decision?

The number of homeless people in Ukraine is increasing, with internally displaced people, people with disabilities and older adults among those most affected. At the same time, Russia’s full-scale war has created a new vulnerable group: veterans who have lost their homes, Depaul Ukraine charity foundation presented the findings of its study during the Right to a Dignified Life conference, ZMINA reported.

Hello all,

Next month I am visiting Ukraine from Scotland to visit sites of cultural importance/interest to Ukraine. I'm visiting Lviv, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi, Odesa and Kyiv with a few days trips thrown in.

I plan on using my travel guides and history books about Ukraine to add a few more known attractions, but I thought I'd ask the people of this sub for some lesser-known sights/monuments/memorials that carry cultural significance. So far this is what I have in my itinerary:

LVIV

Faine Misto Festival

Old Town

Svyatogo Yura Cathedral

Church of St Andrew

Try some amazing coffee

Salo Museum

KAMIANETS-PODILSKYI

Castle

Museum of miniature castles

Khotyn Fortress

Panivetskyy Castle

ODESA

Prymorski Stairs

Odesa Opera Theatre

Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Fortress

Shabo Winery

Darth Vader Statue (why not)

Odesa Passage

Pryvoz Market

Chornomorets football game

KYIV

Pecharsk Lavra

Motherland Monument

St Sophia Cathedral

Maidan Nezalezhnosti

Golden Gate

Babi Yar Memorial

Kyiv Founders Monument

Holodmor Monument

Botanic Gardens

St Andrew's Church

Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium

House with Chimeras

Dine at Yevhen Klopotenko's restaurant

Throughout my trip I plan on visiting statues to writers such as Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko and Lesya Ukrainka, but please tell me any other statues/monuments that are of cultural importance.

Thanks so much for your help

If you'd like to support this project or get these updates in your inbox, please check my profile for the link to follow my Substack. 

My updates will always be free to read, whether you read them here or there.

Video of the week:

https://reddit.com/link/1uy5jr9/video/qrbmdvzxkldh1/player

• This video shows the results from the ongoing drone campaign against Russian cargo ships. Previously the strikes had occurred exclusively in the Sea of Azov, but now they've been extended into the Black Sea. Crimea is being systematically cut off from supply on both land and sea.

Maps:

Kupiansk last week:

Kupiansk this week:

• No changes here.

Lyman last week:

Lyman this week:

• No changes here either.

Kostiantynivka last week:

Kostiantynivka this week:

• Ukraine liberated small chunks of territory both east and west of Kostiantynivka, and also reduced the grey zone directly north of the town.

Ivanivka last week:

Ivanivka this week:

• Ukraine liberated a small piece of territory southeast of Velykomykhailivka, and also reduced an infiltration effort directly south of Novopavlivka.

Zaporizhzhia last week:

Zaporizhzhia this week:

• No changes here.

Events this week:

• Street protests have begun in Ukraine against the firing of Defense Minister Fedorov. Fedorov was young, competent, and headstrong, and has been one of the major drivers behind the current period of relative drone superiority that Ukraine is enjoying. His firing is a confusing development. According to Ukrainian Pravda, sources in the Ukrainian Parliament said that Zelensky briefed them on the dismissal and was clearly dismayed by the entire thing. He said that there have been continuous clashes between Fedorov and Commander in Chief Syrskyi that have hindered the progress of the army. One MP quoted Zelensky as having said this: "They live in two different worlds. Mykhailo wants to digitalize everything and build the system around technology. The military simply want to be heard. They ask for one type of weapon to be procured, while he refuses and funds other areas instead. They simply stopped listening to each other. It became absurd. Syrskyi would come and say, 'Fedorov isn't providing anything for specific operations.' Then Fedorov would come and reply, 'We've provided everything, they're just using it incorrectly, in the wrong way and in the wrong places'. And it just kept going round in circles. Well, I cannot allow the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff to be fighting each other while the country is at war. Ideally, both should be replaced. But I cannot do that at the same time."
• Zelensky also claimed that Fedorov had failed to effectively manage necessary mobilization reforms. I was under the impression that the reforms had been proceeding at a steady pace, but there is great urgency about this now since many are highly suspicious that Putin will announce a general mobilization in the next few months that will bring significantly more manpower to the Russian army.
• Fedorov, meanwhile, gave a public press conference this morning where he criticized the decision to fire him and directly attacked Syrskyi for failing to push forward modernization in the Ukrainian Army.
• This whole thing stems from a deeper conflict between younger, more Westernized Ukrainians who want to adopt a system more like NATO and put a very strong emphasis on drone operations, and the older, more Soviet minded Ukrainians who focus more on traditional combined arms operations. People often say that Syrskyi is a Soviet minded officer and blame him for the ways in which the Ukrainian military has failed to fully modernize. While I think he's still been a fairly effective C-In-C, I also understand why people criticize him.
• This also comes as a unit directly linked to Syrskyi, the 425th Separate Assault Regiment "Skelia," has had its commanding officer dismissed amidst an investigation into widespread abuse and non-combat deaths in the unit. The abusive army mindset is very much a Soviet mindset, and it's incredibly important for Ukraine to leave that in the past. For decades the Soviet army and then the Russian army have been abuse and murder machines that subject their soldiers to mind bogglingly horrible things in order to desensitize them and create a state of complete submission. But this doesn't produce highly motivated and capable troops.
• Ukraine signed an important defense deal with France that includes the transfer of blueprints for the Storm Shadow cruise missile, which Ukraine has used very effectively so far. This continues a trend of Ukraine getting approval to build advanced Western weapons on its own territory. The deal also apparently includes 16 Rafale aircraft, something I hadn't seen anyone talk about before. This is a big deal since the Rafale is one of the most capable modern fighters and will be another platform for Ukraine to use the Meteor air-to-air missile one, which will completely change the calculus for Russian aircraft once it is introduced.

Oryx Vehicle Losses:

Russian losses:

• Total Russian vehicle losses: 23,837 (+31)
• Russian tank losses: 4,427 (+3)
• Russian IFV losses: 6,467 (+13)
• Russian SPG losses: 1,034 (+2)
• Russian SAM losses: 426 (+1)
• Russian naval losses: 35 (+0)
• Russian aircraft losses: 187 (+1)
• Russian helicopter losses: 179 (+0)

Ukrainian losses:

• Total Ukrainian vehicle losses: 11,690 (+7)
• Ukrainian tank losses: 1,443 (+3)
• Ukrainian IFV losses: 1,596 (+0)
• Ukrainian IMV losses: 1,960 (+0)
• Ukrainian SPG losses: 898 (+1)
• Ukrainian SAM losses: 178 (+0)
• Ukrainian aircraft losses: 119 (+0)

Very light vehicle losses on both sides this week. It's possible Oryx only did a partial update.

Claimed Russian casualties by Ukrainian MOD this week: 9,800 (+880). This is the highest weekly casualty number I've seen so far and comes as total Russian casualties for the month of June were claimed to be over 28,000.

As always, thank you for reading and for supporting Ukraine!

“Even if the war ends, we’ll still have a great deal of work,” Paziura said. “Identification is a hard, long process, and it won’t stop when the fighting does.”

I know this needs to be delicately washed and air dried outside so it’s all good but again I guess I just wanted to show this.

a non-Ukraine person wearing one. Just want options I suppose from this subreddit. If this gets taken down then oh well, I just wanna know if I’m not being “weird“ or so as I feel.

Also I got told this looked Jewish. Kinda upsetting or so I feel.

Bohdan Krotevych, Lt. Col (retired), former chief of staff of 12th brigade "Azov", and defender of Mariupol, posted this yesterday evening.

Translation:
"The President has announced that tomorrow he will speak with the commanders of combat brigades. Therefore, today I want to address the personnel of these brigades.

Tomorrow your commanders will have the opportunity to tell the truth about what is happening in the army, or to keep silent. You know far better than I do the price of such silence and understand what consequences it can lead to.

I recognize that not every officer is prepared to take on such responsibility. Some are concerned about themselves and their position. Some fear for their unit, understanding that after a frank assessment of the actions of the Commander-in-Chief, their people may be directed toward a failing sector or left without proper supplies.

At the same time, in unofficial conversations, the majority of commanders express their true attitude toward the situation. They speak about it among themselves, write in personal messages, even those who publicly posted complimentary posts.

Therefore, I appeal to the military personnel of combat brigades: help your commanders find the courage. Talk with them. Ask them tomorrow to say exactly what they actually think. What they say to you, to your fellow soldiers, and write in private messages.

What hangs in the balance is the existence of Ukraine. The Army remains the principal guarantee of our state's existence. Concealing the real state of affairs today creates a threat to the entire country.

You swore an oath to the Ukrainian people. Your commanders bear responsibility for you, for your lives, and for the combat readiness of their units. That is precisely why their honesty before the Supreme Commander-in-Chief is part of this responsibility.

Help your commanders take this step. Help them speak the truth. The future of Ukraine depends on their courage and your position."

Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine, gave a press briefing today. This is really important, it covers the concept for winning the war, the problems in the military, and the leadership conflicts at the top. Suspilne carried it live, you can watch with english subtitles on youtube. I'm putting some of the key excerpts below (my own translation) with timestamps.

Strategy

14:52 "And overall our task ... is to maximally stop the advance of the enemy, to make it so as to force the enemy to stop. We called this doctrine the "Air-Land Economy". To maximally intercept cruise missiles, drones, ballistic missiles. To stop the advance of the enemy on the battlefield. And to make it so that Russia cannot finance the war."

23:07 "I hope that this will be the basis of the drone-assault units, in the sense that the technologies fight and we lose drones, not people, and then the infantry moves in. Because we need to fight for every person. We simply won't be able to do the same amount by mobilization as the Russians do. We need to hit asymmetry. Everything that works for us relates to technology and asymmetry."

Problems

18:12 "The problem of supply is cardinal, because over the last five months we purchased more drones than in the entire previous year, and yet most units did not feel this, because the distribution of the resource happens manually, in manual mode. So, the loyal one received, the disloyal did not receive."

20:21 "We built, for the first time, such a system of real-time analysis of losses on the battlefield. We began to receive daily reports on losses, but the decision of whom to support and whom not to support, whom to reinforce and whom not to reinforce, is not made on the basis of data. They are made on the basis of loyalty, and you cannot develop a system based on this."

Conflict with Syrskyi

28:17 "When the president said that he does not plan to change Syrskyi - this is his decision as Supreme Commander-in-Chief. And I fully agreed with this decision and said: "Then I will learn to work with him, because after all, we serve the Ukrainian people, and not some other, and not someone else." And that's why one has to work. But we ran into the fact that all the initiatives we propose, they began to be blocked. And Syrskyi, given all the problems we talked about today, is not ready to personally, to your face, openly talk about problems. He is ready to go personally to meetings, to weave intrigues, to think that someone ordered some campaign in the media, and not [to acknowledge] that the problem is in the actions that are taking place. And this led - this led to the fact that in effect he set an ultimatum, yes, as you and I know. And instead of figuring out how to asymmetrically defeat Russia - which is the task of the Commander-in-Chief - he figured out how to split the country where you and I are today. And in this there is a big problem, because I, by my character, don't, like, go to complain about the problems that exist. There is analytics, I came, [and said]: "Here, if we want to win, we need to do this." But I did not set conditions, like "either me or Syrskyi." I said: "Then we'll be defeating Russia with this Commander-in-Chief." Because actually Syrskyi in '22 saved our country. He, among other things, conducted the Kyiv operation ..."

(Let me know if you catch any other interesting parts of the video I should add here - just post the timestamps in a comment)

source: https://bsky.app/profile/kateinkharkiv.bsky.social/post/3mqroyl73s22i

On July 15, Ukrainians mark the Day of Ukrainian Statehood — a day that reminds us that our struggle for freedom and our own state has lasted not for years, but for centuries. Ukrainian statehood traces its origins back to the Kyivan Rus’, Prince Volodymyr the Great, and the Baptism of the Kyivan Rus’. It continues today in the independent state we are defending from russian aggression. It is no coincidence that this holiday coincides with the Day of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus’ and the commemoration of Prince Volodymyr — one of the key state-builders in our history. Ukraine was made to be independent. Ukraine was born to be free. And no russia — no empire, no occupation, no attempt to erase our history — will ever be able to take that away. We were free. We remain free. And Ukraine will be free. 🇺🇦

The Black Sea has some stunning views these days.

Take a look🙂‍

Featuring:

⚓️ 6 oil tankers — hit

⚓️ 1 cargo ship — hit

⚓️ 1 tugboat — hit

The Tankercide continues💚

Soldier Yuriy Panasenko, callsign Tikhyi, fell in battle against the occupiers near the city of Kreminna in Luhanshkchyna on July 3, 2023. He was 36 years old.

Yuriy was born on December 28, 1986, in the city of Novoukrainka, Kirovohrad Oblast. He studied at the local secondary school No. 7. Later, he obtained a profession as a tractor driver at the Novoukrainka vocational school No. 40. He got married and moved to the village of Novomykolaivka in his native oblast. He worked as a driller at the Kapustynske granite quarry. In his free time, he loved fishing and repairing machinery.

In March 2023, the man was drafted into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in the 95th Separate Air Assault Brigade. He held the position of machine gunner.

"My husband was a very brave, kind, and sincere person," said Olena Panasenko.

The paratrooper was buried at the Alley of Heroes in the cemetery in his native Novoukrainka.

At home, his parents, wife, and daughter were waiting for him.