Ukraine Update Sept 4-10

Hi everyone,

Hope you enjoy your weekend. Some news from Ukraine

It has been calm in Kheron in the recent days. Russians are conducting fake elections in occuied territories. This is another Russian attempt to legalize its brutal invasion and occupation of the lands of another country. We have seen it for many times ealier, including Crimea where fake referendum served as “justification” for the Kremlin to simply steal the peninsula. Here is an interesting video where colonel Igor Girkin, now arrested by Russian FSB, tells that he simply used militia to make people “recognize” the land as Russian. Such so-called “elections” at gunpoint cannot be recognized by the international community.

Ukrainian light infantry has advanced to positions beyond anti-tank ditches and dragon’s teeth anti-tank obstacles that comprise the current Russian defensive layer ahead of the Ukrainian advance in western Zaporizhia region, and Ukrainian forces likely intend to hold those positions, ISW analyzed. Geolocated footage published on September 4 indicates that Ukrainian forces advanced to tree-line positions that are east of the Russian anti-tank ditches and dragon’s teeth obstacles that are a part of a tri-layered defense immediately west of Verbove (18km southeast of Orikhiv).

Ukraine has been reporting about advances for the last week. But today Gen Mark Milley said that colder conditions would make it much harder for Ukraine to manoeuvre.

He admitted the offensive had gone more slowly than expected and said that Ukraine has little more than 30 days left of fighting before the weather hinders its counter-offensive.

Big news came about Elon Musk switching off Starlinks to stop a Ukrainian attack on Crimea last year after talking to Vladimir Putin. He did this as he was afraid Putin would start WWIII. Musk said he created Starlinks not to be involved in wars. The story comes from Walter Isaacson here.

I will add that Elon Musk wanted to be the mediator between Zelenskyy and Putin at the beginning of war. After talking to Zelenskyy for the first time he called to Kremlin to arrange a conversation with Putin. And he was initially promised that Putin would talk to him. When the date was arranged for that talk, Musk asked for one more call with Zelenskyy and got it. This conversation was never made public. But Putin rescheduled and then declined his phone call with Musk. It was March 2022, a few days before the first humanitarian corridors were opened. Musk asked his contacts in the Kremlin to open them. So did many other global players, politicians and organizations. I don’t know if Musk managed to talk to Putin later.

The US wants to send $1B of seized Russian assets to Ukraine. These are assets that the United States has found and seized in other countries over a year and a half, US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said. "We detained planes in Switzerland and the Middle East. We arrested smugglers in Italy, Germany, and Latvia. We also brought charges for money laundering in Great Britain. Thus, we showed that there is nowhere to hide," she said. The Monaco office manages the KleptoCapture task force, a division of the Ministry of Justice created in March 2022 to enforce sanctions against Russian oligarchs and find their hidden assets worldwide. KleptoCapture not only looks for Kremlin henchmen who hide assets but also those who help oligarchs avoid sanctions. "To banks, to the aviation industry, to insurance companies, to everyone who will withdraw Russian assets, this is a sign and a warning: be careful who you do business with because we are watching," Monaco said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an announcement during his visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, saying the US would transfer to Ukraine $5.4 million in assets that once belonged to Russia's powerful oligarchs. "For the first time, we are transferring to Ukraine assets confiscated from Russian oligarchs under sanctions, which will now be used to support Ukrainian military veterans."

According to the US Secretary of State, "those who contributed to Putin's aggressive war must pay for it."

This aid will go to help Ukrainian veterans. We should uderstand the difference between private assets and state assets. There is still no mechanism to take assets from Russian state to cover damages in Ukraine.  

US also announced new military aid package with depleted uranium munitions.

I see that Russia keeps attacking Ukraine on a large scale, yesterday over 20 Russian/Iranian drones attacked Kyiv injuring 4 people, over 100 houses in Kyiv region were damaged. The drones were coming from different directions, so many of my friends had a sleepless night.

Thank you for reading,

Iuliia Mendel

#StandWithUkraine