Sunday, October 16. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine

Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 235.

As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues and the war rages on, reliable sources of information are critical. Forbes gathers information and provides updates on the situation.

Breaking: several countries called on their citizens to leave the territory of Ukraine.

Egypt. On October 14, Egypt reported that The Egyptian Embassy in Kyiv, without a clear explanation of the reason, urged members of the Egyptian community to depart Ukraine via available land routes with the neighboring countries.

China. On October 15, Consul General of China Zhang Meifang urged Chinese citizens to leave Ukraine “with the current grim security situation.” She added that the Embassy will assist in organizing the evacuation of people in need.

Serbia. Today, the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Kyiv announced its temporary closure “in order to protect the safety of its personnel.” Recalling that on February 13, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia recommended to its citizens to consider the possibility of temporarily leaving the territory of Ukraine, and to those citizens who were planning a trip to Ukraine, to postpone their trip. Russian mass media reported on several other countries that have called on their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately, but there is no official confirmation of this information yet.

About 9,000 Russian troops are currently arriving in the Republic of Belarus. “The first troop trains with Russian servicemen who are part of the RGF began to arrive in Belarus,” Valery Revenko, Assistant Minister of Defense of Belarus, wrote on Twitter. “The relocation will take several days. The total number will be a little less than 9 thousand people.” On October 10, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said that Russia and Belarus had agreed to deploy a joint regional grouping of troops due to the “escalation” on the western borders of Belarus. “If the threat level reaches the current level, as it is now, we begin to activate the grouping of the Union state.”

More than 11,200 houses, 479 industrial enterprises, 167 educational institutions and 64 hospitals were damaged or completely destroyed by Russia in the Luhansk region, stated the head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration. According to preliminary data, at least 18 sports facilities, 6 social welfare facilities, 64 health care facilities, 115 cultural facilities, 37 administrative buildings, 7 railway stations, and 48 livelihood facilities were damaged due to constant shelling and bombing of the region in eastern Ukraine. “The enemy purposefully destroyed the economy of the region. Today, it is impossible to carry out economic activities on the territory of the Luhansk region. Thousands of individual entrepreneurs, 3,408 enterprises, including 479 industrial enterprises, cannot work.”

Dnipropetrovsk Region. At night, the city was shelled 30 times from barrel artillery, almost fifty strikes from a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system were recorded, as reported by the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. During the attack, 6 people were injured, 2 were hospitalized. Russian Forces shelled 3 nine-story buildings, 21 private houses, damaged 5 power lines and many other objects. The shelling caused several fires and more than 1,500 families were left without electricity.

Kharkiv Region. The head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, Oleh Synyehubov, reported that yesterday the Russian army shelled several settlements near the contact line and the border with the Russian Federation. According to the regional Center of Emergency Medical Assistance, 3 people were hospitalized with injuries in the Kupyansk district: 2 men aged 36 and 48, and a 69-year-old woman. Synyehubov also added that 555 explosive objects in the Kharkiv region were defused during the day by the pyrotechnic units of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

On The Cultural Front

The American streaming service of films and series, Netflix
NFLX
, has acquired the rights to show seven Ukrainian films. These are the first of a large package of films on Ukraine, the rights to which Netflix has purchased, the distributor Film.ua Distribution confirmed in a comment to The Village Ukraine. “…our full meters are actually needed by the viewer, create interest and admiration. All this inspires us to continue working on the local and global distribution of Ukrainian films and series.”

Among the films that are already available on the service: “My Thoughts Are Silent” by Antonio Lukich, “The Rising Hawk” by Akhtem Seitablaev and John Wynn, “Stars Exchange” by Oleksiy Daruga, “Devoted” by Khrystyna Syvolap, “Foxter & Max” by Anatoliy Mateshko, “The Stronghold” by Yuriy Kovalyov, “The Guide” by Oles Sanin.

The Russian authorities, under the pretext of “evacuation,” are going to expropriate artifacts from Crimean museums and institutions as well as those in other temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, according to the website of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. “Such mass removal of cultural values from the territory of Ukraine by the Russian occupiers will be comparable to the looting of museums during the Second World War and should be qualified accordingly.” The Ministry of Culture said.

The ministry appealed to UNESCO and all international partners to prevent another violation of international law by Russia and to refuse cooperation with Russian museums and other institutions. The Russian plan for “external evacuation” from the museums of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to the territory of the Russian Federation provides for the priority removal of the most valuable objects. In particular, archaeological finds made of precious metals.