Victory Chronicles
-DAY 526

Russians have killed at least 10,749 civilians in Ukraine

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has confirmed data on 10,749 civilians killed and 15,599 wounded by Russian forces since the beginning of the full-scale war. This was reported by Yurii Belousov, Head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed during the Armed Conflict at the Prosecutor General’s Office.

“We have confirmation of 10,749 killed and 15,599 wounded civilians. Of this number, 499 of the dead were children, and 1,090 more children were injured. We understand that these figures are just the tip of the iceberg. When we liberate our territories, the numbers will increase significantly, possibly tenfold,” said Yurii Belousov. Belousov suggested that in Mariupol alone “there will be tens of thousands of dead”.He also added that law enforcement officers would try to identify all the victims of the invaders. However, it will not be easy, considering that “the Russians could have reburied and taken away, and we will not find the bodies.”

At the same time, the Prosecutor General’s Office representative added that thanks to Ukraine’s partners, the body identification system has “improved significantly”, and the number of laboratories and the ability to analyze DNA are incomparable to what was available in Ukraine before.

Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters

Latest news

• State Emergency Service of Ukraine: Russian forces attack firefighters extinguishing fire in Kherson, wounding 4 people
• Reuters: Russia strikes Ukraine’s Danube port, driving up global grain prices
• Ukraine’s Air Force destroys 22 drones overnight, including 15 Shaheds and 7 reconnaissance UAVs
• UK intelligence: Offensives in the south of Ukraine are slowed by undergrowth 
• General Staff: Russia loses another 620 Russians and destroys 7 Russian tanks and 35 UAVs

Symbolic number of the Day - 35

35 detention centers in liberated Kherson Oblast where Russians tortured and raped Ukrainians. This was reported by CNN and Reuters, referring to the report prepared by the Mobile Justice Team of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA) for Ukraine: “The report reveals an analysis of an initial pool of 320 cases of detention in Kherson, across more than 35 identified detention centers.” Almost half of the Ukrainians held there by the Russians were subjected to wide-scale torture, including sexual violence: “Of those victims, at least 43% explicitly mentioned practices of torture in the detention centers, citing sexual violence as a common tactic imposed on them by Russian guards, on both male and female prisoners, with preliminary results showing military personnel were most likely to experience torture in the detention centers”. 

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images

War in Pictures

The Russian army shelled a church in the center of the city of Kherson this morning. Three passengers on a trolley bus passing the cathedral at the time of the Russian attack were wounded. They were taken to hospital by ambulance. A 39-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man are being provided medical assistance and examined. A 74-year-old man sustained severe chest wounds and a closed internal head injury, and doctors are fighting to save his life.

Video of the Day

The damaged tank that the occupiers left on the battlefield was destroyed due to the professional actions of the UAV operator of the 53rd separate mechanized brigade, reported AFU StratCom. 

ISW report

A dispute among prominent voices in the Russian information space highlights the Kremlin’s sensitivity to Russian reporting about setbacks in Crimea in particular and possibly in Ukraine in general and has further exposed fault lines within the milblogger community. 

A pro-war milblogger accused other prominent pro-war milbloggers who have been critical of the Russian conduct of the war on August 2 of being “imbeciles” who support “provocative publications” and the “frantic criticism of the [Russian Ministry of Defense]” because the milbloggers posted images reportedly showing the aftermath of recent Ukrainian strikes near Sevastopol and on the Chonhar Bridge, which some sources suggested would irresponsibly spread panic.

A notorious Kremlin-backed pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger additionally accused one of the critical milbloggers under attack of stealing crowdsourced collection funds meant for Russian forces. Both these specific critiques drew significant attention from other pro-war Russian commentators, many of whom supported the critical channels being attacked for reporting on the Crimea strikes.

One milblogger noted that the crux of the issue lies with the fact that these two channels post pictures of purported Ukrainian strikes on Crimea but emphasized that the original images came from Ukrainian Telegram channels. Another prominent milblogger claimed that the dispute over posting images of strikes in Crimea became so intense that it attracted the attention of the Crimean Federal Security Service (FSB) branch and Crimean occupation head Sergey Aksyonov, likely because these entities are interested in preventing panic in Crimea.

War Heroes

On July 31, 2023, Odesa police officer Yurii Kovash was killed while performing an official task in Kherson. Russian troops fired on him with artillery when he was in one of the city’s districts. The law enforcement officer’s life was cut short by the explosion of several shells. He is 40 years old forever. 

Yuriy Kovash is a native of the town of Balta, Odesa Oblast. He served in law enforcement for 17 years and worked in various units, including patrol police, a special police battalion, and criminal police. For the past few years, he has worked as a detective in the criminal police sector of Police Department No. 4 of the Odesa District Police Department No. 1.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, the operative, as part of a consolidated detachment of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa Oblast, performed official tasks related to countering the occupiers and crime in the liberated part of Kherson Oblast and maintained law and order. Yurii Kovash is remembered as professional and kind. 

“The senior police lieutenant will forever remain a son of Ukraine faithful to his police and civic duty,” wrote his colleagues from the Odesa Oblast Police. Yuriy Kovash is survived by his parents and son.

Photo: suspilne.media