News from Ukraine Bulletin 25

A pro-Ukrainian poster in the window of a home in Monterey, California, 18 December 2022. Photo by the Russian Reader

News from Ukraine Bulletin 25 (18 December 2022)

A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources

News from the territories occupied by Russia:

Russians abduct about 40 children from Luhansk Oblast to Russia  (Ukrainska Pravda, December 16th)

Russian invaders abduct Melitopol lecturer in new wave of terror (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 15th)

Unending torture of Crimean Tatar political prisoner for refusal to collaborate with Russia’s FSB  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 14th)

Children’s torture chambers found in liberated territories  (Ukrainska Pravda, December 14th)

Russians hold 232 residents of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in captivity  (Ukrainska Pravda, December 12th)

Russian invaders abduct Ukrainians in large numbers for grotesque ‘international terrorism trials’(Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 12th)

News from Ukraine – general:

3,000 miners trapped in mines after Russian missile strikes in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast  (Ukrainska Pravda, December 17th)

Number of child victims continues to rise: Russia has killed 450 Ukrainian children  (Ukrainska Pravda, December 17th)

Ukraine is fighting for freedom. That means protecting independent journalism  (Open Democracy, December 15th)

Law on the Media, Electoral Code, and Days of Silence as a Rudiment (Opora, December 14th)

Twenty percent of Ukraine’s population leave country because of war  (Ukrainska Pravda, December 14th)

Meet the Activists Arming Leftists on Ukraine’s Frontlines  (Novara Media, December 12th)

KVPU activities during #16daysofactivism  (Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine, December 12th)

“Had to crawl past severed arms and legs for a long time, can’t eat meat anymore”. How AFU fighters cope with PTSD  (The Insider, December 10th)

Analysis and comment:

No, privatisation should not be restarted after the war  (Spil’ne (Commons), December 14th)

The Left View on the Prospects of Peace Negotiations  (Sotsia’lnyi Rukh, December 12th)

Research of human rights abuses:

Russian propaganda media and ex-President guilty of direct incitement to genocide in Ukraine, report finds  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 13th)

Truncheons, stun guns, gas masks. A report from a Russian torture chamber in Izium  (Tribunal for Putin, December 13th)

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This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at https://ukraine-solidarity.org/. We are also on Twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.

To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com. To stop it, please reply with the word “STOP” in the subject field.  

News from Ukraine Bulletin 23

A Ukrainian flag on the fence of a home in Monterey, California, 14 November 2022. Photo by the Russian Reader

News from Ukraine Bulletin 23 (4 December 2022)

A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources

News from the territories occupied by Russia:

Russian occupiers hand out draft summons to residents queuing for water in occupied Makiivka  (Ukrainska Pravda, December 4th)

‘Pensioner from Makariv witnesses the death of his grandson’  (Tribunal for Putin, December 2nd)

The Russians “amused themselves”, destroying Izyum’s old buildings  (Tribunal for Putin, December 2nd)

Russians deliberately beat Ukrainian haemophiliac, threaten to rape his 17-year-old sister in front of her father  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 2nd)

Children trained to be ‘Putin’s faithful soldiers’ in Russian-occupied Crimea  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 2nd)

Russia sentences Crimean Solidarity activist to 17 years for defending political prisoners  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 1st)

Russians forcibly deport 37 local residents from Kinburn Spit  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 30th)

Russian occupiers in southern Ukraine interrogate children who fail to attend Russian schools  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 30th)

Evangelical deacon and his son found murdered near Nova Kakhovka after being abducted by the Russians  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, November 30th)

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced another Crimean Tatar activist – Marlen Mustafatev to 17 years in prison  (Lutfiye Zudiyeva on Twitter, November 30th)

Ukrainian poet and writer Volodymyr Vakulenko killed after being seized by Russian invaders (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, November 29th)

Russian invaders abduct two Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests from Berdiansk and accuse them of ‘terrorism’  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, November 29th)

Threatened and starved: Russian sergeant tortured Donbas veterans in Katiuzhanka  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 28th)

Lecturer beaten, ‘tried’ and imprisoned in Russian-occupied Crimea for a Ukrainian patriotic song  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, November 28th)

Forcing Ukrainians to take up arms against their country is a war crime.” How Russia is mobilizing Ukrainians in occupied territories  (The Insider, November 12th)

News from Ukraine – general:

Ukrainians on the front line face a winter without warmth or light (Open Democracy, December 1st)

Ukraine’s nurses face brutal winter as health austerity collides with war  (Open Democracy, November 29th)

Dark times. How Ukraine is surviving without light, water, and heat  (The Insider, November 28th)

32,000 civilian properties and 700 infrastructure facilities have been damaged by Russians  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 27th)

Analysis and comment:

Thread in response to my thread about tankies and the Holodomor  (Taras Bilous on Twitter, December 2nd)

Economic Policy of Ukraine  (Luke Cooper on PeaceRep, December 1st)

Solidarity vital to expel Russia  (The Chartist, November 29th)

Together in Trouble: Social Policy for Just Reconstruction in Ukraine  (Spil’ne (Commons), November 28th)

Learning At The Teachers  (The Pensive Quill, November 27th)

Research of human rights abuses:

Abducted and tortured by the Russians, Kherson’s survivors tell their stories (Open Democracy, December 1st)

Ukraine 5AM Coalition will discuss in The Hague the mechanisms of holding Russia accountable for war crimes  (Zmina, December 1st)

‘Every second felt like eternity’: Inside the torture chambers of Ukraine’s occupied northeast (The Independent, December 1st)

Damage to historical monuments and religious buildings (24 February to 15 November 2022, Kharkiv Region)  (Tribunal for Putin, November 30th)

An appeal for support from Open Democracy:

@opendemocracyru  needs your help  (Tom Rowley on Twitter, December 4th)

==

This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at https://ukraine-solidarity.org/. We are also on Twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com. To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.

News from Ukraine Bulletin 19

A Ukrainian flag flying from the balcony of the La Granja apartment building in Pacific Grove, California, 6 November 2022.
Photo by the Russian Reader

News from Ukraine Bulletin 19 (7 November 2022)

A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources

News from the territories occupied by Russia:

Occupiers transfer their refuseniks to another underground detention camp, undress them and threaten their lives (Ukrainska Pravda, November 5th)

‘Dad, you have five days before they adopt us’ How a Mariupol father survived a Russian POW camp and traveled to Moscow to save his kids  (Meduza, November 4th)

Kherson residents describe reign of terror under Russian rule  (The Financial Times, November 4th)

Russian FSB attaches electric currents to genitals to force abducted Ukrainian to sign multiple ‘confessions’  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, November 4th)

Bodies of locals shot during Russian occupation are found in liberated Kherson Oblast (Ukrainska Pravda, November 4th)

Some villages in Kherson Oblast completely destroyed; authorities help with essential needs  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 4th)

Residents of occupied territories refuse to take Russian passports  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 4th)

Bodies of 868 civilians found in liberated cities and villages  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 3rd)

Russians take all ambulances, buses and fire engines from Kherson  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 3rd)

Russian Red Cross steals property from Ukrainian Red Cross in Crimea  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 3rd)

Raped pregnant woman: police expose two more invaders who tortured people in Kyiv Oblast  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 3rd) 

Russian FSB ‘find’ explosives because they couldn’t force abducted Ukrainian civic journalist to ‘confess’ to treason  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, November 2nd)

My 6-year-old girl’s hair turned grey. The story of a family from Mariupol who spent a month in a bomb shelter with 50 people  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 2nd)

Occupiers robbed the Havdzynskyi picture gallery in Nova Kakhovka  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 2nd)

Russians increase looting in occupied territories  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 2nd)

Interactive Map and Assessment: Verified Ukrainian Partisan Attacks Against Russian Occupation Forces  (Institute for the Study of War, November 1st)

Russian occupation regime deports 300 children from Russian-controlled territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast (Ukrainska Pravda, November 1st)

Russian invaders install terror methods of censorship in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, November 1st)

Young Crimean sentenced to 3 years after ‘confession’ almost certainly extracted through torture  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 31st)

News from Ukraine – general:

20% of Ukraine’s nature reserves and 3 million hectares of forests affected by war  (Ukrainska Pravda, November 6th)

Donetsk region was cut off electricity due to targeted shelling by Russian forces  (Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine, November 4th)

NGPU local union provides aid to defenders of Ukraine (Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine, 4 November)

Ukrainian families’ fury at silence over Russia-held POWs  (Open Democracy, November 1st)

Analysis and comment:

Ukrainian socialist Denys Pilash: ‘Russia will only negotiate if it suffers some defeats’  (Green Left Australia, November 3rd)

The right to resist invasion  (Labour Net, November 1st)

Research of human rights abuses:

How Russian soldiers ran a cleansing operation in Bucha (SF Gate, 4 November)

Crime Scene Bucha: how Russian soldiers ran a cleansing operation in a Ukrainian city (Associated Press Youtube channel, 4 November)

==

This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at https://ukraine-solidarity.org/. We are also on Twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.

To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com. To stop it, please reply with the word “STOP” in the subject field.  

News from Ukraine Bulletin 15

News from Ukraine Bulletin 15 (9 October 2022)

A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources

News from the territories occupied by Russia:

Invaders want to take children and elderly people out of Kherson Oblast  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 8th)

Russia sentences three Ukrainian Jehovah’s Witnesses to six years for ‘threatening state security’ by discussing the Bible  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 7th)

Volodymyr Sakada, Yevhen Zhukov, and Volodymyr Maladyka have been sentenced to six years in prison by a Russian occupation in Sevastopol for being Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Photo: Lutfiye Zudiyeva, Graty. Courtesy of Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group

Bodies of more tortured victims and Russian torture chambers found in liberated parts of Kharkiv oblast  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 7th)

Mass grave found in liberated Lyman  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 7th)

Two more bodies with traces of torture discovered in Kharkiv region  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 6th)

Over 1.6 million Ukrainians deported to Russia – Zelenskyy (Ukrainska Pravda, October 6th)

Russian atrocities at Bucha may be nothing to those that will be found when Kherson is liberated  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 5th)

Mass graves of civilians found in liberated Lyman  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 5th)

Two bodies tortured by Russian special forces found in liberated Kharkiv Oblast  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 5th)

Russian torture chamber discovered in district police department in Kharkiv Oblast  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 4th)

Russia refuses to return Ukrainian children taken from Kharkiv oblast  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 4th)

Another torture chamber set up by Russians discovered in Kharkiv Oblast  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 3rd)

News from Ukraine – general:

Russia strikes high-rise buildings in Zaporizhzhia with rockets, people trapped under rubble  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 6th)

Open wounds of the Russian-Ukrainian war: Ukrainian victims will share their stories in Milan  (Zmina, October 5th)

13 children killed in Russian attack on civilian convoy in Kharkiv oblast  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 3rd)

How Ukraine’s metal industry is powering this city’s fight against Russia (Open Democracy, September 24th)

Donations worth millions fail to reach Ukraine – sparking calls for change  (Open Democracy, September 20th)

Analysis and comment:

Walking a Tightrope on Ukraine: How India Is Balancing Ties to Russia & United States  (Democracy Now, October 6th)

“Leftists” outside Ukraine are used to listening only to people from Moscow: Interview with anarcho-syndicalists in Eastern Ukraine  (Freedom News, October 4th)

“The minimum task is to restore, without losses, all the civil, political, and social rights that we had before the war.” Interview with Serhii Guz  (LeftEast, October 4th)

One Ukrainian Democratic Socialist’s Opinion On The War  (The Real News, September 20th)

It’s Russia and Europe That Have a Problem With Ukraine (Green European Journal, September 7th)

Research of human rights abuses:

Who attacked the Mykolaiv Region Administration building?  (Tribunal for Putin, October 8th)

Establishment of a tribunal on Russian aggression against Ukraine: High level of responsibility as a safeguard against new conflicts in Europe  (Opora, October 5th)

Solidarity actions:

Solidarity With Trade Unions In Ukraine  (LabourNet TV, October 2nd)

Support Ukrainian unions (Solidarity Collectives, 29 September)


This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at https://ukraine-solidarity.org/. We are also on Twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.

To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com. To stop it, please reply with the word “STOP” in the subject field.  

Ukraine Information Group (News from Ukraine Bulletin)

Press Release

Ukraine Information Group launched

London, 3 October 2022

A group of labour movement activists has launched a unique service to English language readers: up to date information about Ukraine, based primarily on independent Ukrainian voices from the front line and first-hand testimony from Russian-held territory.  

The Ukraine Information Group produces a weekly Bulletin, highlighting material translated by Ukrainian civil society organisations who wish to get their message about, particularly about the areas occupied by Russia.

To receive the Bulletin by e-mail, let us know at 2022ukrainesolidarity[at]gmail.com. The Bulletin is also put out on Twitter and stored online here.

The Group aims, working in the labour movement and civil society organisations, to strengthen solidarity with the Ukrainian people resisting Russian military aggression. 

Its aims state: “Conscious of the ‘propaganda war’ waged on all sides, we aim to make accessible reporting and analysis by voices independent of the state.”  The Group focuses on the Russian-occupied areas because (1) the situation there throws light on Russia’s imperialist war aims and methods of rule, and (2) there are limited sources of reliable information from those areas.”

The Group started in March, with calls by elected local government representatives to support their counterparts in Ukraine who were being intimidated with kidnappings and other violence in areas occupied by the Russian army. Appeals were organised in the UK and in Switzerland.

In July 2022 the Group held two online discussions with Ukrainian civil society activists about the situation in the Russian-occupied areas, attended by supporters from across Europe. Links to recordings are here.

The Ukraine Information Group is hostile, as a matter of principle, to Russia’s imperialist assault on Ukraine. But, on the other hand, it does not automatically give unconditional or unquestioning support to the Kyiv government. The UIG stands in the tradition of socialist internationalism and seeks to work in particular with like-minded progressive organisations throughout Europe.

Convenor Simon Pirani, honorary professor at the University of Durham, said: “With the Russian announcement of annexations we have gone past another dangerous turning point. To do anything here in the UK to support Ukrainian resistance, reliable information and informed analysis is a prerequisite.”

Supporter John Palmer, former Political Director of the European Policy Centre and Europe editor at the Guardian, said: “We are committed to supporting Ukraine’s demands on the United Kingdom and the European Union for greater and continuing military, economic and social support, but we will judge NATO’s military support specifically on whether it is designed to strengthen Ukraine’s struggle against the occupiers rather than pursuing a wider NATO/Russia geo-political military confrontation which could risk the use of nuclear weapons.”        

Supporter Mike Phipps, who writes for the Labour Hub website, said: “We’re not in competition with other organisations that are doing excellent work in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Our aim is to play a specific role – bringing to a wider audience news and analysis from Ukrainian sources that can help people in the UK understand the dynamics of the situation.”

To get in touch with the Group, e-mail 2022ukrainesolidarity[at]gmail.com. Follow on Twitter @UkraineIG


Pacific Grove, California, 17 June 2022. Photo by the Russian Reader

News from Ukraine Bulletin 14 (2 October 2022)

A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources

News from the territories occupied by Russia:

Ukraine war: Tortured for refusing to teach in Russian  (BBC News, October 1st)

Russian occupation means 14-year sentences for being Ukrainian and refusing to ‘confess’ to insane charges  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 30th)

Russian occupiers force doctors and teachers of Mariupol to hand over their Ukrainian passports (Ukrainska Pravda, September 29th)

More than 500 Russian war crimes recorded in liberated Kharkiv Oblast (Ukrainska Pravda, September 28th)

“Grenade under every pillow”: occupiers mine houses and schools in Kharkiv Oblast  (Ukrainska Pravda, September 28th)

Mutilated bodies in Izium mass graves and other atrocities after Russian invaders driven out (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 28th)

Teenager among six killed in shelling of Donetsk market  (Reuters, September 22nd)

About the referendums on joining the Russian Federation:

Dead souls and infants ‘voted’ in Russia’s sham ‘referendums’ on annexing Ukrainian territory  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 30th)

Ukrainians evicted from their homes for refusing to participate in Russia-organised sham referendums  (Ukrainska Pravda, September 29th)

After destroying Mariupol, Russia claims its residents ‘voted’ for annexation and mobilizes them to fight Ukraine  (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 28th)

Russia needs sham ‘referendums’ on occupied territory to forcibly mobilize Ukrainians as cannon fodder  (Tribunal for Putin, September 27th)

‘Vote to join Russia’ or armed soldiers will come for you   (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 26th)

Sham referendum in Melitopol: people are forced to “vote” instead of their absent relatives and neighbours  (Ukrainska Pravda, September 26th)

Sham referendums: Russian occupiers stage a farce with fake employees near ZNPP (Ukrainska Pravda, September 26th)

News from Ukraine – general:

Civilian car convoy attacked in Kharkiv Oblast: 24 dead, including a pregnant woman and 13 children  (Ukrainska Pravda, October 1st)

Analysis and comment:

The Ukrainian State under Russian Aggression: Resilience and Resistance  (by Serhiy Kudelia in Current History, October 2022)

How Can Labour Help Ukraine Win  – recording of Labour Party fringe meeting by the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign  (September 29th)

Ukraine: bogus ‘anti-imperialism’ serves the Kremlin (People and Nature, September 28th)

What’s the future of Russia’s Ukraine war?  (Open Democracy, September 26th)

Taras Bilous on motives for Russian intervention  (Twitter, September 23rd

Positions of the global left over the abyss of imperialist escalation  (Commons journal, September 6th)

Analytical review of civilian casualties:

Firearms attacks during the Russo-Ukrainian war  (Tribunal for Putin, September 26th)


This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at https://ukraine-solidarity.org/. We are also on Twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.

To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com. To stop it, please reply with the word “STOP” in the subject field.  

Thanks to Simon Pirani for the heads-up. ||| TRR