July 21, 2022

1. Putin’s predicament

Only “truly sovereign” states will succeed after “enormous” geopolitical transformations, the Russian leader claimed. A new epoch of world history is approaching and only “truly sovereign” states will be able to succeed in the changed environment, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on July 21.

Speaking at a business forum, he claimed that “truly revolutionary,” “enormous” changes would lead to the creation of a new, “harmonious, fairer and more community-focused and safe” world order. In this new epoch, “only truly sovereign states can ensure high growth dynamics,” he said.

By the term ‘sovereignty’ the Russian president means “freedom of national development, and thus of each person individually,” as well as “technological, cultural, intellectual, educational viability of the state” and a “responsible, active and nationally minded, nationally oriented civil society.”

Such a state, the President said, will serve as an example for others when it comes to “the standards and quality of people’s life, the protection of traditional values and high humanistic ideals.”

This kind of world is in sharp contrast to the Western-dominated unipolar world order, which, in Putin’s opinion, is “becoming a brake on the development of our civilization.”

He accused the West of being “racist and neo-colonial,” saying that its ideology “is becoming increasingly more like totalitarianism.” The president argued that despite attempts by Western elites to preserve the existing world order, the changes are “irreversible.”

Putin has been discussing the end of the “unipolar” world for a long time. In his famous 2007 Munich Security Conference speech, the Russian president said that “the unipolar world that had been proposed after the Cold War did not take place.” He explained that a world of “one master, one sovereign” is destructive not only for everyone within the system but also for the sovereign itself. He accused the US of neglecting the “basic principles of international law” and stressed that “unilateral and frequently illegitimate actions” had never solved any problems.

2.  Lavrov’s remarks made on July 20. 2022: full translation

In Report # 106 some highlights of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s interview to a number of Russian news agencies have been published. Here is a link to full transcript of his remarks posted in English [ https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1822901/].

3. Russia awaits IAEA’s reaction to Ukrainian attacks on NPP

Kiev regime's provocations against Ukraine's nuclear energy facilities continue unabated, threatening their safety.

Russia has sent an appeal to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the Ukrainian army’s attacks on the Zaporozhye NPP and is awaiting its reaction, Russian Foreign Ministry said at a briefing on July 21.

"We have already addressed the leadership of the IAEA’s Secretariat over this incident and are expecting the appropriate reaction on the part of the agency," the MFA announced.

According to the Ministry, the Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporozhye NPP confirm Kiev’s goal to create conditions for a nuclear catastrophe for all of Europe. "Ukraine continues provocations in order to create threats for nuclear facilities”.

On July 18, the Ukrainian armed forces attacked the premises of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant using a drone. Ukrainian nationalist formations actually used two kamikaze drones to attack facilities at the Zaporozhye NPP (one drone was destroyed on approach to the plant). It was only by sheer luck that this did not lead to damage to the plant's equipment and a man-made disaster. The strike was delivered several dozen meters away from the constructions that are critically important for the NPP’s security - storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel and a reactor cooling reservoir. Only by lucky coincidence this did not result in any damage to the plant’s equipment and a man-made catastrophe," Russian MFA emphasized.

The Foreign Ministry noted that on July 20, the Ukrainian army attacked that NPP using the drones again: namely four of them [see Report # 106 dated July 20].  During that strike 11 staffers of the NPP have been wounded, including four persons with heavy injuries.

It has been pointed out that such a catastrophe won’t be just a local problem. "The responsibility for the possible consequences of these actions by the Kiev regime rests both with Ukraine and with the states that provide military support to the criminal regime," Russian MFA noted.

Comment: the USA and all other NATO countries have denounced such Ukrainian dangerous acts

4. Humanitarian situation

Russian troops continue to record numerous facts of criminal actions by Kiev regime against civilians, as well as the use of medical infrastructure for military purposes by Ukrainian armed formations:

a) in Kostantinovka, Donetsk People's Republic, nationalists have equipped strongholds at Municipal Hospital No. 1 (O.Tikhogo Avenue), armoured vehicles and artillery have been placed in the surrounding area, and neo-Nazis are detaining staff and patients in the hospital under the pretext of alleged security, effectively using them as human shields;

b) in Zaliznoye, Donetsk People's Republic, militants of Aidar nationalist battalion have equipped barracks and firing points in a polyclinic building (Pioneer Avenue), the approaches to the facility are mined, but the local population is deliberately not informed about this;

c) in Toretsk (Tereshkova Street) and Druzhkovka (Donskoy Quarter Street), Donetsk People's Republic, AFU units are stationed in the buildings of medical preventive centres, weapons and ammunition depots are located, and armoured vehicles, artillery and MLRS are placed in the territories adjacent to the medical facilities;

d) in Nikolaev, AFU servicemen have equipped a stronghold in the building of a polyclinic (Pogranichnaya Street) and placed a large amount of military equipment in the immediate vicinity of the facility, without evacuating residents of nearby houses.

Despite repeated statements by the Russian Federation's Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, to date, all such facts remain ignored by the World Health Organisation and the world community.

5. Medvedev: Ukrainian troops should be pushed back not only from Donetsk, but further

Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman, said it was necessary to move the Ukrainian Armed Forces not only away from Donetsk, but also further. He made such statement during a meeting with displaced persons from Donbass and Ukraine in the Rostov Region, Interfax quoted him as saying.

“Not only from Donetsk, now it is wider. (…) Further away,” Medvedev said on a call for the AFU to move faster away from the DNR capital so that the shelling would stop.

The politician assured the displaced that all the tasks of the special operation to demilitarize and denationalize Ukraine would be fulfilled.

6. The UK to pump more arms into Ukraine

The shipment will include 1,600 anti-tank weapons and 50,000 artillery shells.

The UK will send Ukraine anti-tank weapons, drones, artillery guns and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Parliament on Thursday. Ukraine will receive more than 20 M109 and 26 L119 artillery guns, as well as counter-battery radar systems and more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition for its existing Soviet-era artillery systems.

The UK will also send 1,600 anti-tank weapons as well as drones, including hundreds of “loitering aerial munitions,” more commonly known as “suicide drones.”

The arms will be sent to Ukraine in the coming weeks, and Wallace’s announcement comes several weeks after outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged an additional £1 billion ($1.2bn) in military support to Vladimir Zelensky’s government. In total, the UK has spent £2.3 billion on weapons and training for Kiev’s military since Russia’s military operation in Ukraine began in February.

This money has already paid for nearly 7,000 NLAW, Javelin and other anti-tank missiles, 16,000 artillery rounds, six mobile anti-air missile launchers, as well as a number of M270 rocket artillery systems and 120 armored vehicles.

Comment: by supplying Ukraine with more arms the UK and other NATO countries will complicate the survival of Ukraine.

7. Developments on the battlefields

Despite these deliveries Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) continue to suffer considerable losses.

According to verified data, the high-precision attack launched by Russian Aerospace Forces on July 16 at a provisional base deployed by nationalists in Imperiya recreation centre located in Konstantinovka (Odessa region) has resulted in the elimination of over 600 militants, including up to 120 foreign mercenaries.

In addition, according to precised data, the attack launched on July 17 at a provisional base of a unit of AFU deployed at a vegetable warehouse in Nikolayev has resulted in the elimination of over 320 nationalists.

In view of considerable losses in the eastern part of Ukraine, residents of the western regions mobilised to the AFU refuse to be sent to Donbass. All the servicemen of 100th Territorial Defence Brigade located in Lutsk (Volyna Region) have refused to be involved in operations. AFU command disarmed the brigade, the initiators were arrested, the formation would be reformed.

Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery continue launching attacks at the military facilities in Ukraine.

The list of neutralised targets includes 9 command posts, including one of 59th Marines Brigade in Nikolayev where foreign mercenaries were deployed, as well as one of 14th Mechanised Brigade near Artyomovsk and the HQ of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kramatorsk.

6 missile, artillery armament and munitions depots have been destroyed near Konstantinovka, Fyodorovka (DPR), Maliyevka (Dnepropetrovsk Region) and Nikolayev.

The list of targets neutralised within the counter-battery warfare includes one Uragan MLRS battery and one Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer battery with a counter-battery warfare radar near Zarozhnoye (Kharkov Region), 8 Ukrainian Grad MRLS platoons near Zvanovka, Kirovo, Soledar, Krasnoye, Platonovka (DPR), Dobropolye (Zaporozhye Region) and Shirokoye (Nikolayev Region), 9 D-20 howitzer platoons and 7 D-30 cannon platoons near Seversk, Kirovo, Novomikhailovka, Konstantinovka, Klescheyevka, Georgiyevka (DPR), Novopavlovka, Vesyoloye (Zaporozhye Region), as well as Dobroye (Nikolayev Region).

Fighter aviation of Russian Aerospace Forces has shot down one Su-25 airplane of Ukrainian Air Force near Kramatorsk (DPR).

In addition, Russian air defence means have shot down 1 Mi-8 helicopter of Ukrainian Air Force near Pervomaiskoye (Nikolayev region), one well as 5 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Topolskoye, Dementiyevka, Peschanoye (Kharkov Region), Yenakiyevo and Makeyevka (DPR).

8 projectiles launched by Uragan MLRS near Chernobayevka, Kazachyi Lageri (Kherson Region) and Kamenka (Kharkov Region) have been intercepted.

Written by Vladimir P. Kozin