FRIDAY 24 JUNE 2022

THE LATEST Ukraine: The Daily Telegraph

“Nobody is going to break us.  We are strong.  We are Ukrainians.”

• Ukraine is planning to pull out of Sieverodonetsk city.  It appears there is no other option.  To the south, Russia has made some advance and could have cut off Ukrainian troops.   
• Day 121
• The costs of these small Russian gains have been at great cost to both sides.
• When Russia was pushed out of the North, he said the liberation of the Donbas was the real goal. 
• Had the Russians kept moving westward in the south, they might have done better rather than changing focus onto the Donbas.  We think this is about Putin’s ego.
• This fight in the Donbas has given the Ukrainians time to wait for Western weapons.
• Article about hollow victory for Russia (Telegraph)
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• There has been a lot of resistance in the South.  There was a car bomb today that killed the head of a department, known as pro-Russian, installed as part of the occupying regime. 
• Sunday Telegraph article about Russians trying to establish educational curriculum.
• Zelensky is thinking of sacking a government official.  They were underprepared in the South and that area fell early.  He is close friends with this appointment.  People thought that closeness was the reason he was appointed.  This is perhaps in reaction to the EU candidacy, the cronyism of the appointment.
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• Lithuania has blocked some goods being imported into Kaliningrad.  Russia threatened reprisals and called it a “blockade.”
• There is a train that travels from Moscow to Kaliningrad every day.  This train has been stopped before being allowed to go on.  The Lithuanians are searching the train.  Passengers are therefore on the train for longer and the Lithuanians are offering a free wifi service in Russian, only there are graphic images of dead in Ukraine, a method of information warfare. 
• The Lithuanians have few English speakers.  Russians keep coming back and forth across the border.  They are afraid that they are going to be involved in the war.
• There is a lot of exchange between Lithuania and Kaliningrad.
• Lithuanians support Ukraine. 
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• EU Candidacy Status
• Some worry that this is a “fig leaf” this offer of candidacy status.
• After Zelensky thanked the members for this vote, there was a statement made about this status being permanent?
• Denmark raised a number of questions about a questionnaire Ukraine filled out.  There are a lot of quibbles and objections.