Ukraine Daily
Saturday, September 17
Russia’s war against Ukraine
Ukrainian authorities exhume bodies of people killed as a result of war at the Izium city after Russian Forces withdrawal in, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on September 16, 2022. Bodies in the graves began to be exhumed for autopsy and identification. (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Governor: Almost all bodies exhumed from mass burial site in Izium ‘show signs of violent death.’ Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that among the bodies exhumed from the mass burial site on Sept. 15, 99% showed signs of violent death. “There are several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person is buried with a rope around the neck,” he said. “Obviously, these people were tortured and executed,” he added. The mass burial site reportedly contains around 440 bodies.
Ombudsman: Bodies of Ukrainian soldiers with tied hands found at mass burial site in liberated Izium. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Sept. 16 that the bodies of the members of Ukraine’s Armed Forces with tied hands were found at a mass burial site in the recently liberated city of Izium, Kharkiv Oblast. According to Lubinets, soldiers may have been tortured before being killed. Ukrainian police earlier said they had found a mass burial site containing around 440 graves in Izium.
5 more grain ships leave ports of Odesa Oblast. The shipment of Ukrainian agricultural products bound for European and African countries continues as planned, as five more ships depart Odesa via “grain corridor,” Turkey’s Defense Ministry reported on Sept. 16. Ukraine has exported 3.33 million metric tons of grain since Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement brokered by the UN and Turkey on Aug. 1 to allow grain exports to restart, according to Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry.
Governor: Russia once again hits hydraulic facilities in Kryvyi Rih with missiles. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said the damages inflicted on the infrastructure by the Sept. 16 strikes were severe but didn’t provide details. Russia has repeatedly targeted critical infrastructure in Kyryvi Rih. The earlier attack on a local dam on Sept. 14 had caused the flooding of over 100 homes, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city’s military administration.
Mayor: Explosions reported at airdrome in Russian-occupied Melitopol. Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said there was a powerful explosion in the Russian-occupied city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Sept. 16. Fedorov didn’t provide any details about the attack but hinted he was hoping for “good news” from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Podolyak: Russian strikes on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure may push West to send more arms to Kyiv. Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the President’s Office, said in an interview with Interfax Ukraine news agency that the successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast and Russian attacks on Ukrainian thermal power plants and dams may push the West to supply anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems to Kyiv. He believes the allies are still not ready to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, fearing a direct confrontation with Russia, “but the situation will finally change with a little more of effective counteroffensive.”
Governor: Ukrainian air defense shoots down Russian missile over Cherkasy Oblast. Cherkasy Oblast Governor Ihor Taburets reported on Sept. 16 that the missile was downed over the oblast’s Uman district, causing minor damage to several non-residential buildings and an emergency shutdown of power supply facilities. He said there were no casualties.
General Staff: Ukrainian forces hit 4 areas with Russian troops and a strongpoint. The Ukrainian army also hit an unloading station, preventing Russia’s military from sending new reserves, Ukraine’s General Staff said. On Sept. 16, Russia launched 4 missiles and 5 air strikes on Ukraine and carried out 12 attacks with multiple rocket launchers, according to the General Staff.
Zelensky suggests resuming Russian ammonia exports if Kremlin hands back POWs. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Reuters that he proposed the plan to the UN amid a global shortage of fertilizers. “I am against supplying ammonia from Russia through our territory. I would only do it in exchange for our prisoners,” he said. Ukraine has a pipeline that can pump up to 2.5 million tonnes of ammonia annually from Russia to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Zelensky’s idea was rejected by the Kremlin.
Zelensky to address UN General Assembly, despite Russian opposition. UN member states voted on Sept. 16 to make an exception to allow President Volodymyr Zelensky to deliver a pre-recorded statement. Of the 193 member states, 101 voted in favour, seven, including Russia, opposed, and 19 abstained.
Read our exclusives
Ukraine war latest: Mounting evidence of Russian war crimes found in liberated Kharkiv Oblast. Law enforcement agencies continue to find more evidence of Russian war crimes in the recently liberated territories in Kharkiv Oblast following a successful counteroffensive in the northeast.
Photo: Kostyantyn Chernichkin/The Kyiv Independent
Von der Leyen: ‘I’m deeply convinced that Ukraine will win this war.’ As Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his last-ditch attempt to break European support for Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv on Sept. 15, saying that the EU will always stand by Ukraine’s side**.**
Photo: Liza Pyrozhkova / The Kyiv Independent
Police discover 10 ‘torture chambers’ in liberated areas in Kharkiv Oblast. At least ten locations that had been used as “torture chambers” by Russian forces were discovered after the liberation of parts of Kharkiv Oblast, according to Police Chief Ihor Klymenko.
Photo: Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Impunity kills: Kyiv Independent joins call for further investigation of journalist Georgiy Gongadze’s murder. On Sept. 16, 2000, a group of law enforcers kidnapped journalist and founder of the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet Georgiy Gongadze. His mutilated headless body was found in November of that year in a forest in Kyiv Oblast.
Photo: Maxim Polishchuk/UNIAN
The human cost of Russia’s war
Governor: Woman injured in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast after night of Russian shelling. Four communities were hit in the oblast, with most strikes targeting Nikopol, where Russians damaged 11 residential buildings and injured a 57-year-old woman, said Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko.
Governor: 5 civilians killed, 6 injured in Donetsk Oblast in past 24 hours. Over the past day, Russian troops have killed one civilian in Selydove, one in Krasnohorivka, one in Marinka, one in Soledar, and one in Bakhmut, said Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Russian forces also wounded three civilians in Selydove, two in Krasnohorivka, and one in Toretsk. According to Kyrylenko, since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia has killed 851 civilians in Donetsk Oblast, not including Mariupol and Volnovakha.
Prosecutor General’s Office: Russia’s war has killed 384 children, injured 753 since Feb. 24. The largest number of casualties was reported in Donetsk Oblast, where 393 children have been killed or injured. Just on Sept. 14-15, in Kharkiv Oblast, as a result of Russia’s shelling, three children were wounded, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported. The number of children killed and injured by Russia is expected to be higher and does not include casualties in Russian-occupied areas and near the front line.
Official: Russian forces might have killed more people in Izium than in Bucha. According to Oleh Kotenko, the government’s commissioner for missing persons, the exhumation of bodies at mass burial sites has begun in the recently liberated city of Izium, Kharkiv Oblast. He said that the number of dead in Izium may be much higher than in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb where at least 458 people were found dead after the liberation from the Russian occupation in April. Earlier on Sept. 15, Ukrainian police said that they had found a mass burial site containing around 440 graves in Izium.
Governor: Recent Russian attacks kill 2, wound 1 in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. According to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko, Russian troops shelled the oblast’s Velyka Kostromka village with heavy artillery on Sept. 16, killing two men. The official also reported some infrastructural damages but didn’t provide details.
International response
CNN: Some US officials disappointed about sanctions’ impact on Russian economy. “We were expecting that things like SWIFT and all the blocking sanctions on Russia’s banks would totally crater the Russian economy,” CNN quoted one of the U.S. officials. Russia’s economy was expected to shrink by nearly 15% earlier in the year, but between April and June, it declined by about 4% as compared to the same period last year, the report reads.
UN to inspect collective grave site in liberated Izium. Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, said on Sept. 16 that the agency plans to send monitors to the recently liberated city of Izium in Kharkiv Oblast where Ukrainian police say they have found a mass burial site containing around 440 graves. “They (monitors) are aiming to go there to try to establish a bit more about what may have happened,” Throssell said.
Western politicians appalled by mass burial site in liberated Izium. The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the bloc is “deeply shocked” by the mass graves with more than 440 bodies discovered in the city by the Ukrainian authorities. “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has been leaving a trail of blood and destruction across Ukraine,” he said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Izium atrocities may be interpreted as war crimes, and there is a need to “build the evidence and document the atrocities that have been committed.”
Greece to supply Ukraine with 40 BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles. According to a deal finalized with Germany, Greece will receive the same amount of Marder armored fighting vehicles from Germany in return for the BMP-1 vehicles supplied to Ukraine, Greece’s Defense Ministry said. It took Germany and Greece four months to agree on the deal.
Pentagon: Ukraine to receive first two NASAMS air defense systems within 2 months. “These air defense systems will help Ukraine protect itself from threats from the air - in particular from airplanes, drones, and cruise missiles,” Pentagon press secretary General Patrick Ryder said. NASAMS are surface-to-air missile systems capable of detecting and hitting targets at distances up to 180 kilometers.
Three Russians excluded from EU sanctions list. Saodat Narzieva, a sister of the oligarch Alisher Usmanov; Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died in April, and Olga Ayziman, the ex-wife of Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, have been removed from the list. On Sept. 14, the EU extended restrictive measures against the country for another six months, until March 15. The sanctions apply to 1,206 individuals and 108 legal entities.
In other news
NABU: Ukrainian MP Derkach put on wanted list, accused of treason. Lawmaker Andrii Derkach has received at least $567,000 from Russia’s law enforcement to discredit Ukraine in the international arena, according to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. In June, Ukraine’s Security Service also exposed a Russian agent network, allegedly spearheaded by Derkach. According to authorities, Derkach received funds from the GRU to create private security structures that Russia planned to use to capture Ukraine. Russia allocated $3-4 million every few months for the purpose.
Energoatom provides Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant with urgently needed spare parts. Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom reported that a 25-truck convoy passed Russian military checkpoints and arrived in Russian-occupied Enerhodar with spare parts for the repair of damaged facilities. The trucks also brought diesel fuel for power generators to ensure the stable functioning of the plant in case of a possible power outage. Russia, which has been shelling Ukrainian positions from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, is accused of using it as a shield and a tool of blackmail.
Mayor: Kolomoisky’s company lost right to operate Dnipro Airport. According to Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov, the right of Galtera, a company linked to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, has been revoked by a court. Despite the fact that the airport was destroyed by the Russian invasion, “the time will come when Dnipro people will fly freely to Europe,“ Filatov said.
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