Current War Situation in Ukraine
Heavy shelling of Ukrainian positions in the southeast is continuing, particularly in the partially captured Donbas region (which consists of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts). Unfortunately, Ukrainian forces needed to retreat from Lysychansk (one of the key cities of the Luhansk oblast) to save both civilians’ and soldiers’ lives and not to be surrounded. Russian forces occupied the city of Lysychansk, thus controlling almost the entire region of Luhansk oblast.
Russians have pushed ahead to Sloviansk from the southeast of Izyum and continued their offensive southeast toward Siversk and west to Lysychansk (The Institute for the Study of War). Moreover, occupiers are severely bombing and shelling Ukrainian cities that they can reach with artillery. However, having got HIMARS systems, Ukraine has begun successfully destroying russian storage of ammunition. That’s why their artillery shelling has significantly decreased. In spite of this, they are using missiles. Unfortunately, in recent days, the russians have actively demonstrated their terrorist intentions and committed a number of crimes. They have destroyed numerous civilian objects with a lot of losses. In the picture below you can see the shelled orphanage “Winds of Hope” in Slovyansk.
On July 9, russians attacked Chasiv Yar (Donetsk oblast). They hit the apartment building. 48 people were killed.
On July 12, there was a massive rocket attack on Mykolaiv (28 strikes!). Medical facilities and residential buildings were hit. 5 civilians were killed.
On July 14 in Mykolaiv, russians hit a hotel, shopping center, two educational institutions, and other social facilities. The occupiers fired 9 rockets into the city.
On July 14 missiles struck civilian buildings, a medical center, and a cultural center in Vinnytsia (central Ukraine). 7 rockets were fired into the city. 26 people were killed, including 3 children, 82 people were hospitalized, and 183 were injured. A lot of people were just burned to death in their cars parked around these objects. Almost half a hundred buildings were damaged. Vinnytsia city does not have any military objects, which is the proof that russians are doing it deliberately to civilian cities.
Educational genocide is part of general genocide. On July 15, the occupiers fired 10 rockets at the 2 biggest universities in Mykolaiv. As a result, 4 people were injured. 18 trolleybuses were damaged. As for now, almost 1.9 thousand educational institutions in Ukraine have been damaged, and 215 have been completely destroyed (Ministry of Education). It is important to remember that russia has always destroyed the Ukrainian intelligentsia and language, executing Ukrainian writers and activists during the time of Soviet power. Moreover,in the occupied territories, russian troops are searching for books written in Ukrainian in schools and libraries and burn them.
The HIMARS systems were used very effectively against the warehouses of the ammunition, russian barracks, and the decision-making military points in the occupied territory of Ukraine. When russians occupy the land, they use railway roads to deliver the ammunition and new military equipment there. Since they bring a lot of ammunition, they put everything in warehouses. Here are maps (before and after) in which you can see how successfully HIMARS systems destroyed these warehouses in occupied territory in a matter of days. Therefore, we can say that HIMARS changed the dynamics of the war. They have been in use for about two weeks and had over 50 target hits. As a result, at least 20 russian depots of artillery ammunition have been destroyed (Defense Express).
Good success was Snake Island, which is located in the Black Sea. Ukrainians have forced russian troops to leave this island and settled the Ukrainian flag there.
The losses of the russian army from 24.02 to 25.07: personnel – about 39.700 persons were liquidated; tanks ‒ 1.730; APV ‒ 3.950; artillery systems – 876, MLRS – 257; anti-aircraft warfare systems – 116; aircraft – 222,helicopters – 188; vehicles and fuel tanks – 2.832; boats, cutters – 15; UAV operational-tactical level – 719; special equipment – 73; cruise missiles – 174.
The losses of the Ukrainian army are currently not disclosed. The reason is that if these losses are publicly available, the enemy will see them and understand the potential of the Ukrainian army.
