Victory Chronicles-DAY 826

Sweden has pledged its largest military aid package to Ukraine, costing SEK 13.3 billion (about  $1.3 bln). The package aims to enhance Ukraine’s air defense capabilities and meet its pressing needs. Ukraine will receive ASC-890 airborne surveillance and control aircraft as part of the package, providing advanced capabilities to combat air and sea targets. 

Sweden will also supply 302 armored personnel carriers to support the development of new brigades in the Ukrainian army. Additionally, the package includes RB 99-AMRAAM missiles, artillery ammunition, resources for equipment maintenance, fuel refueling trucks, financial support for coalitions of forces, and funds for rapid equipment procurement. 

Furthermore, Sweden will strengthen Ukraine’s combat operations management by providing satellite communications systems terminals. This will significantly bolster Ukraine’s defense capabilities and support its ongoing efforts to protect its sovereignty.

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According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russia has suffered significant losses in soldiers and military vehicles. In just one day, Russia lost 1,300 soldiers, 8 tanks, and 37 artillery systems. These losses are part of a larger estimate of Russian combat losses from February 24, 2022, to May 29, 2024. The losses include 505,100 troops, 7,700 tanks, 14,891 armored combat vehicles, 13,066 artillery systems, and other military equipment. 

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The Public Affairs Service of the 4th Separate Tank Brigade has released a photo report on assault training. “Practicing assault operations and capturing an enemy dugout is perhaps the most dangerous type of combat. That is why the fighters train in conditions close to real ones to improve their skills and be psychologically prepared,” the press service said. 

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A video of the work of the National Guard’s Bureviy Operational Brigade has been posted online. A Condor aerial reconnaissance unit of the Bureviy Brigade destroyed a Russian T-80 tank in the Liman sector. “The road for this enemy crew was difficult because the tank was hit by fire from defense forces. And as a result, the FPV drone of the Guards unit killed it with a direct hit,” the Ukrinform news agency said in a video description.

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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)’s Committee on Culture supported a resolution that recognizes Russia’s deliberate erasure of Ukrainian culture as an element of Russia’s genocidal campaign in occupied Ukraine, consistent with ISW’s longstanding assessment that Russia is pursuing a broad occupation strategy premised on eradicating Ukraine’s national identity and independence. 

PACE Committee on Culture Chairperson and Ukrainian Servant of the People Representative Yevheniia Kravchuk stated on May 28 that the PACE Culture Committee unanimously supported her resolution on “Countering the Destruction of Cultural Identity in War and Peace,” which the Committee will vote on in June 2024 and notably recognizes that Russia uses “cultural purges” as a tool of war in Ukraine that indicate “specific genocidal intent to destroy the Ukrainian nation by destroying Ukrainian identity and culture.” 

Kravchuk emphasized that the resolution affirms that Russia’s cultural genocide in Ukraine is part of the wider genocidal campaign that Russia is pursuing against the Ukrainian people. If PACE’s Culture Committee adopts the resolution in June 2024, it would represent an important international recognition of cultural genocide as a constituent element of a wider genocidal policy. International legal procedure has not yet created an official legal definition for cultural genocide, and it is not formally defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The Genocide Convention, however, defines genocidal acts as those that intend to destroy “in whole or in part” a specific group, and Russia’s pursuit of cultural genocide in Ukraine is explicitly intended to destroy the Ukrainian nation and people “in whole or in part. ISW has reported at length on Russian efforts to destroy Ukrainian cultural, linguistic, and historic heritage in occupied Ukraine and completely supplant it with Russian cultural conceptions.

Russia’s cultural genocide in Ukraine cannot be viewed in isolation from its wider genocidal policy in Ukraine, as it is a fundamental component of Russia’s efforts to completely subsume and subjugate Ukraine and its people.

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Roman Tsipan, a 29-year-old fighter, died on December 28, 2023, in a battle with the occupiers near the village of Robotyno, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. During an enemy artillery attack, he was buried under ground, and his fellow fighters couldn’t dig him out in time. The fighter suffocated.

Roman Yuriyovych was born and lived in the city of Berezne, Rivne Oblast. He graduated from the 10th grade of the Berezne Mykola Bukhovych Gymnasium. In 2009-2011, he studied at the Berezne boarding school of sports profile. In 2015, he received a degree in physical education at the Western Ukrainian College “Polissia”. He served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the next two years. Since his youth, he has been fond of sports, was engaged in weightlifting, received the title of master of sports, and was a member of the national team of Rivne Oblast at the Ukrainian Championship. He worked at a local fitness club.

The man defended the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine in March 2022. He served in the 109th separate territorial defense brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He fought in the Zaporizhzhia direction.

“He was the kindest, most loyal and true friend, he loved life. We were planning to live together, to start a family…” said the deceased’s beloved Tetyana Bortnik.

“Everyone remembers him as a friendly, kind, lively and positive young man always ready to help. Teachers and professors recall that Roman was a well-behaved and capable student, an active student,” the Bereznovo community added.

Roman was buried with full military honors in the city cemetery in the Lukavets tract on the Walk of Fame of his hometown. The defender is survived by his mother, sister, brother, girlfriend, other relatives, friends and fighters-in-arms.

*Roman’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

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• Lithuania to provide radars for German initiative on air defence for Ukraine
• Ukraine’s Air Force may receive AEW&C aircraft from Sweden, significantly boosting Ukraine’s aerial capabilities
• Ukraine’s General Staff: Russians have partial success on Pokrovsk front
• Ukraine has signed a bilateral security agreement with Portugal
• 11,200 people evacuated from three districts of Kharkiv Oblast