Daily News And Information From Ukraine

Dispatches from Ukraine. Thursday, October 6. Day 225

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.

By Polina Rasskazova

Regional. Zaporizhzhia Region.

At 5:00 a.m., Ukraine time, the Russian army launched a massive attack from S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems at the city of Zaporizhzhia. Seven rockets hit high-rise residential buildings in the central district of the city and private sector buildings nearby. As a result of the shelling, three people died and about 12 people were injured, including two children, according to reports from Oleksandr Starukh, the Head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration

Kharkiv.

Last night, the Russian army attacked the eastern city of Kharkiv with Iran-made kamikaze drones. “Fires broke out, non-residential buildings were partially destroyed. There are no casualties,” wrote the Head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration.

The Russian army also struck the newly-liberated Kharkiv region, shelling the Kupianskyi and Vovchanskyi districts, as well as several towns in the Kharkiv region. “According to the Regional Emergency Center, 3 men who were injured as a result of shelling in the Kupiansk district were hospitalized within a day.”

World.

The 8th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation is approved.

“I welcome the Member States’ agreement today on the 8th sanctions package. We have moved quickly and decisively,” wrote President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on her Twitter page. “This package introduces new EU import bans worth €7 billion to curb Russia’s revenues, as well as export restrictions, which will further deprive the Kremlin’s military and industrial complex of key components and technologies and Russia’s economy of European services and expertise.” — it is stated on the website of the European Commission.

The sanctions also deprive the Russian army and its suppliers from further specific goods and equipment needed to wage its war on Ukrainian territory. The package also lays the basis for the required legal framework to implement the oil price cap envisaged by the G7. “Our sanctions are hitting Putin’s system hard. And we are determined to make the Kremlin pay for the latest steps on the escalation path,” according to the European Commission’s website. The list of sanctions also includes a ban on Russians owning cryptocurrency wallets in the territory of the Eurozone.

Cyber police exposed a large-scale network of bot farms that spread fake images, information and propaganda about the war in Ukraine.

According to the head of the Cyber Police Department, bot farms have more than 50,000 bots in social networks and mail services. “To implement the criminal scheme, the perpetrators involved citizens of the Russian Federation and residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” said the head of Ukraine’s cyber police department. “Performers received payment for created accounts in Russian rubles through electronic payment systems prohibited in Ukraine.” The head of the department added that fake pages were used to spread false information about the war, justify the occupation of Ukrainian territories, and propaganda in the form of posts and comments on social networks.

On the Russian borders with Latvia and Estonia, Ukrainian citizens seeking to exit the Russian Federation sometimes wait for 2 to 6 days to cross the border.

Estonia’s Minister of the Interior said in a recent interview it appears that Russia transported Ukrainian refugees — who previously gathering behind the southeastern border of Estonia — in trucks to an unknown destination. “Otherwise, a little more than a thousand people were waiting at the border, but today they are no longer there — they were put into trucks and taken away.”

The Ministry of Integration of Ukraine reported that if a citizen of Ukraine does not have a Russian passport, he or she is allowed to leave. And if it is established that a citizen of Ukraine also has a Russian passport, then such a person will not be released from Russia. “Those citizens of Ukraine who, for example, are registered in Crimea, but do not have a passport of the Russian Federation, are allowed to cross the border. They can freely cross the checkpoint.”

On The Culture Front

New York’s Carnegie Hall will host a concert in honor of the 100-year anniversary of the Carol of the Bells, a famous Christmas carol with music by a Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych on December 4th.

Eleven Ukrainian designers will present SS23 collections at Brussels Fashion Week as part of the “Support Ukrainian Fashion” Initiative launched by Ukrainian Fashion Week. This will be the ninth and largest event of the UFW International Season SS23. Fashion Shows of Ukrainian designers in the capital of Belgium will take place on October 5-7. Then the collections of Ukrainian designers will be presented during the Vegan Fashion Week in Los Angeles, Portugal Fashion and Fort Fashion Week Middle East, which will be the final events of the longest UFW International Season SS23.

A solo concert by artists of the National Operetta of Ukraine was held at the Philharmonie de Paris on October 5 at the initiative of Bohdan Strutynskyi with the support of Olivier Manteil. Artists of the National Operetta Choir, known as the band “OBEND” presented popular Ukrainian songs and folk melodies in their own, modern interpretations to French listeners. The concert was performed a cappella, charming and captivating the audience with the beauty and melodiousness of Ukrainian music and Ukrainian words.