WAR HIGHLIGHTS
Above: Ukrainian State Emergency Services workers fight fires on an oil tank following a night of shelling in Mykolaiv. Photo via VOA
- According to UK Defense Intelligence, Ukraine struck and destroyed an ammunition train in southern Kherson oblast, likely leaving the enemy without a rail link to Crimea for the time being. The orcs will repair the line but will be continuously vulnerable to Ukrainian’s deft use of its growing stock of longer-range artillery.
- Ukrainian armed forces hit military targets in occupied Kherson including troop positions, weapons and equipment depots and, of course, Chornobayivka air base for perhaps the twentieth time.
- In Zaporizhzhya Oblast, the UN warned that the russian administration of the Enerhodar nuclear power plant is “out of control”. According to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi, “Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated. What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.”
- As the enemy rains artillery on civilians in Donbas, the mandatory evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents of Donetsk Oblast continues by rail and road. Besides a lack of water and power, the enemy is constantly shelling settlements in Donetsk. The National Police of Ukraine reported 24 strikes on Tuesday in Donetsk Oblast.
- “The occupiers fired at the settlements of Avdiivka, Bakhmut, Krasnohorivka, Marinka, New York, Karlivka, Maksymilianivka, and Pisky. Russian troops fired at the civilian population using aircraft, rocket launchers, artillery, Grad and Uragan MLRS, and tanks. There are dead and wounded,” the report said.
RUSSIA LIES: kREMLIN TURNS DOWN TURBINE
Above: Chart via New York Times
- After all the hoopla over getting its serviced turbine back in order to resume normal gas flow levels to Germany, russia now says it doesn’t want the turbine back. Last month, the Ukrainian World Congress was party to a suit meant to halt the waiving of sanctions to return a turbine repaired in Canada to Gazprom via Germany. The turbine was ultimately sent to Germany where it has stayed ever since.
- German Chancellor Olf Scholz stood next to the turbine at a press conference in Mulheim an der Ruhr, explaining to reporters, “It is obvious that nothing, nothing at all stands in the way of the further transport of this turbine and its installation in Russia. It can be transported and used at any time. There is no technical reason whatsoever for the reduction of gas supplies.”
RUSSIA IS A TERRORIST STATE
Above: Boy rides his scooter in Sumy Oblast. Photo via Oman Observer
- Latvia’s foreign affairs committee declared russia a state sponsor of terrorism. The committee will ask the parliament to pass the announcement at the next meeting. At the conclusion of the committee meeting, members called upon the EU to shut down russian tourism and stop issuing entry visas to russians and Belarusians.
- Despite calls from the US congress and Ukraine, the Biden Administration is resistant to designating Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. For one thing, the designation will punish US allies that do business with Russia, thereby weakening global cohesion. Additionally, it leaves the US with nowhere to go on the battered road to diplomacy with the aggressor country. State Secretary Antony Blinken thinks that most of the harm is already being done by existing sanctions.
- In the end, it may not be up to the State Department. A group of representatives in the US House filed a bill that, if signed into law, would add Russia to the terror sponsor list without state department involvement.
BOYCOTT RUSSIA: G7 PUSHES PRICE CAPS ON RU OIL
Above: Euromaydan supporters get warm around a barrel fire in 2013. The Western world is struggling to balance its dependence on fossil fuels with public security ahead of the start of heating season. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
- The G7 is looking to impose an oil price cap on russian oil in exchange for continued provision of services and technologies that are essential to russia’s oil export business. Hamstrung by their own dependence on fossil fuels, G7 is looking for a way to decrease Western financing of russia’s war on Ukraine through gas and oil purchases from the aggressor.
- In a statement released by Britain, G7 foreign ministers said they were considering “a comprehensive prohibition of all services that enable transportation of Russian seaborne crude oil and petroleum products globally, unless the oil is purchased at or below a price to be agreed in consultation with international partners.”
- Russia has already stated it will not obey the cap and will ship to nations that don’t support the price ceiling. Key oil consumers China and India have stepped up imports of discounted Russian barrels to record levels.
BOYCOTT RUSSIANS: RU TOURISTS FLOODING FINLAND
Above: Lappeenranta is the biggest city in southeast Finland and a major shopping and vacation destination for russians with Schengen visas. Photo via InSailing
- The Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are among countries that have stopped issuing tourist visas for russians. The EU country with by far the longest border with russia – Finland – is debating the move.
- As reported by Euronews, “Russia relaxed its COVID-related border restrictions mid-July, meaning for the first time since before the pandemic, Russians with Schengen visas can now legally cross the border by bus or car, even though they’re banned from traveling to the EU in planes and trains.”
- Since the breakup of the russo-soviet union, Finland has been a gateway for russian shoppers and holiday makers entering democratic Europe. Historically, russians have been Finland’s largest source of tourism earnings. Curtailing visas would deal an economic blow to the country’s tourism industry, particularly in border towns that have whole tourism industries dependent on russian tourists.
- In the first three weeks of July, Finland granted over ten thousand new russian tourist visas on top of the tens of thousands of long-term visas already issued. About 200,000 Russians entered Finland in July, nearly a fourth of pre-covid levels.
- Finland remains the only Schengen country to routinely grant tourist visas to russians. Some people say all russians should be banned from EU travel as long as their country wages a war of terror on a Euroepan neighbor, while others say it is unfair to target an entire nationality.
