Monday, September 26. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information

Dispatches from Ukraine. Monday, September 26. Day 215.

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

National

There are now almost 7.5 million Ukrainians outside Ukraine, according to the UN Refugee Agency. As of now, 4.6 million are ready to return to Ukraine at the first opportunity. There are currently about 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens, mostly women and children, currently in Russia without the possibility of returning home, and their relatives can’t contact them, said Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European integration.

Crimean Tatars received about 90% of summonses to join the Russian army. “Crimean Tatars are 13% to 15% of the population of the peninsula,” says Yevhen Yaroshenko, analyst of the public organization Crimea SOS. “Such scale of mobilization can lead to a hidden genocide of them.”

Conscription of residents of occupied territories into the ranks of an occupying army is prohibited by Article 51 IV of the Geneva Convention and is the same war crime as forcing Ukrainian citizens to participate in hostilities against their own state. “Crimean Tatars are citizens and an indigenous people of Ukraine, whom Russia can purposefully destroy by throwing them into a war against their own state,” Yaroshenko noted.

At gunpoint, Russian soldiers forced Ukrainians to vote against their preferred positions in pseudo-referendums, threatening them with imprisonment, according to the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration, Oleksandr Starukh. Due to the fact that only a small number of people came to the polling station, Russian forces are conducting “polls” at home, without having legal grounds for this. Realizing that even this will not work and local residents will refuse to “vote,” the occupiers brought several buses of people from Crimea to Melitopol and Berdyansk on the eve of the vote. They were supposed to help create a positive image for Russian mass media propaganda. “Another way of agitating people is intimidation, bullying, humiliation,” Starukh said. “During the period of martial law, 515 people were abducted by Russian troops, more than 200 of them still remain hostages.”

Regional

A 15-year-old girl died during a rocket attack in the city of Pervomayskiy in the Kharkiv region. On September 26, the Russian army fired rockets into two settlements in the Kharkiv region—Pervomayskiy and Kupiansk. They were hit by rocket salvo systems using prohibited cluster munitions and heavy artillery.

In the city of Kupiansk, a church school building and a shop with a total area of 500 square meters caught fire as a result of the attack. One person was injured. As a result of the attacks on the city of Pervomaiskyi, which occurred around 1:30 p.m., seven people were killed, including a 15-year-old girl.

Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russian artillery struck nine times in four communities—Nikopolska, Marhanetska, Chervonogrigorivska and Myrivska. Almost 130 Russian shells landed in the cities and villages of these communities, reported Valentyn Reznichenko, the Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration.

In the city of Nikopol, more than 40 residential buildings, farm buildings, cars, gas pipelines, and power lines were damaged. In the city of Marhanets, more than 20 private sector homes, gas pipelines, and power lines were partially destroyed. Residential and commercial buildings were damaged in the Chervonogrigorivska and Myrivska communities. There were no deaths or injuries among the civilian population.

World

On The Culture Front. Various artists and musicians have elected to bring Ukraine’s culture to the U.S. audiences this fall.

In New York, an exhibition documenting Russian atrocities committed in Ukraine is on view at the Ukrainian Institute of America. The show, consisting of a video installation and photos, opened during a week when the UN hosted its 77th General Assembly meeting and was toured by various officials, including UK prime minister Liz Truss and Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska. The show first opened at Davos World Economic Forum this past May, created by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and PinchukArtCentre. Russian War Crimes shows striking images by war photojournalists in Ukraine, curated within an artistic framework. The show is running at 2 East 79th Street in New York City through October 2.

In New York’s Lower East Side, at the Miguel Abreu Gallery, a group exhibition titled “Stolen Sun” features work by a new generation of Ukrainian artists, such as Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Alexandra Kadzevich, and Lviv’s Open Group. The show is on view through October 23.

Kyiv City Ballet is on tour in the U.S. through the end of October, bringing contemporary choreography––consisting of classical ballet training and Ukrainian dance traditions––to U.S. audiences in Illinois, Michigan, Alabama, and Louisiana.