Igor Zhdanov, the Minister of Youth and sports in Ukraine (2014-2019), a public and political figure, Maidan commandant during the Revolution of Dignity, member of the Maidan Council, candidate of political sciences, ATO volunteer, analyst of the NGO "Open Policy Foundation"

Informational Defence of Ukraine provides a daily review of the military-political situation in Ukraine, morning of March 7th, based on an analysis of open sources.

1. The Armed Forces of Ukraine hold the defense and counterattack.

On the 12th day of the confrontation of the Ukrainian nation with the russian military invasion, the enemy continues its offensive attacks against Ukraine. From the beginning of the day, the russian occupiers continued to carry out rocket-bomb and artillery strikes on the settlements in Ukraine.

The invaders continue to use the airfield network of the Republic of Belarus to carry out air strikes on Ukraine.

 

For several days, the intensity of ground hostilities has been declining, and there is an operational pause, used by both the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the enemy for regrouping. Yes, the russian aggressor is accumulating forces to storm Kyiv.

At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are counterattacking the russian aggressor. In the course of hostilities, Chuhuiv was liberated. Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Safronov, Commander of the 61st Separate Marine Brigade of the russian Armed Forces, and Lieutenant Colonel Denis Glebov, Deputy Commander of the 11th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade of the russian Armed Forces, were killed.

In the Mariupol direction, Ukrainian defenders counterattacked and destroyed 3 enemy tanks, 4 infantry fighting vehicles, 2 “Tigers” and about 30 occupiers.

Near Mykolaiiv, the Ukrainian security officers defeated battalion and a tactical group of occupiers. Most of its combatants are former Ukrainian servicemen who betrayed our state in 2014 and sided with the russian federation in the Crimea.

According to the US Department of Defense, since the beginning of the war, russia has fired 600 missiles at Ukraine and used 95% of the power accumulated at the borders.

Since the beginning of the russian aggression, more than 1 million 50 thousand people have crossed the western part of the state border of Ukraine alone. Besides, more than 900,000 people left the country - almost 764,000 Ukrainian citizens and about 137,000 foreigners.

At the same time, 143,000 of our compatriots came to enter Ukraine, 80% of them are men.

About 22,000 volunteers from 52 countries are going to arrive in Ukraine. They want to fight as members of the International Volunteer Legion.

2. The occupiers of Ukraine are massively using terror against the civilians.

The occupiers are violating the rules of international humanitarian law, shelling civilians, “green corridors”, taking women and children as hostage, placing equipment, ammunition in residential areas of cities, creating a humanitarian crisis in the occupied settlements.

According to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, the bombing of cities and civilians was planned by the occupiers in advance, as evidenced in the documents, plans, and maps of the captured pilots. Thus, rocket-bomb strikes on peaceful cities and villages are not the excess consequences of a military strategy or a mistake, but deliberately pre-planned actions during the preparation of military plans for the russian invasion of Ukraine.

British intelligence agency informed on Sunday that the shelling of populated areas of Ukraine was most likely an attempt to break Ukraine’s morale. russia has previously used similar tactics in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016, using both air and ground munitions.

russian terror has led to the deaths of 38 children and 71 children in 11 days of the war since the shelling of the russian army in Ukraine.

Schools and hospitals also suffer from shelling of peaceful cities. Since the beginning of the war, the enemy has destroyed or damaged 211 Ukrainian schools, destroyed 34 hospitals in which the buildings were damaged or destroyed, networks were broken, and there is no water and energy supplies. This is another violation of the Geneva Convention, whereby medical workers and health care institutions cannot be involved in a war or in military conflicts.

Continuing the terrorist tactics, the aggressor fired at Mykolaiiv from jet systems of volley fire “Tornado”, there were five fires in the residential sector and industrial units (State Enterprise “Zorya-Mashproekt”).

On March 6th, at about 9 p.m., air strikes were launched on the cities of Korosten, Ovruch and Malyn in the Korosten district of the Zhytomyr region.

Three people were injured in a rocket attack in the Khmelnytskyi region. No casualties have been reported so far. At least two people were killed and many wounded in Kramatorsk, where russians were shelling apartments and buildings.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine informed that the russian authorities were preparing to fire on their own neighbourhoods near the Ukrainian border to accuse Ukraine of this. This will be the basis for announcing a general mobilization.

The russian occupiers thwarted another attempt to evacuate civilians through the humanitarian corridors. The Office of the President of Ukraine has published information regarding the need to create the humanitarian corridors in the following areas: the Sumy region (directions Sumy, Shostka, Romny, Konotop, Okhtyrka); the Chernihiv region (eastern and northern parts of the region); the Kharkiv region (the entire region, except the south-eastern part); the Kyiv region (Bucha, Irpin, Vyshhorod, Ivankiv, Vasylkiv, Borodianka); the Mykolaiiv region (the Bashtanskyi, Snihuriv, Bereznehuvatskyi directions); the Zaporizhzhia region (the Tokmatskyi, Berdiansk, Velykobilozerskyi directions); the Kherson region (the Chaplynka, Kalanchak, Henichesk and Novokakhovskyi directions); the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. According to The Office of the President of Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians need immediate evacuation.

In Mariupol on March 6th, the occupiers again thwarted the evacuation - the second attempt to organise a “green corridor” for civilians again ended in shelling by the russians.

On March 6th, Ukrainian authorities held talks to evacuate Hostomel, Irpin, and Bucha in the Kyiv region, which are constantly shelled by the russian troops. However, they ended in vain.

The russian military is deliberately firing 120-millimeter mortars on a bridge in Irpin, where people are trying to leave the city. However, despite the shelling, Ukrainian police and military from the 206th TRO Battalion removed 200 civilians from the combat zone, including 50 children and one wounded. The evacuation was carried out near the village of Romanivka under mortar fire from the enemy.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed a decree establishing a delegation of Ukraine to participate in the oral hearings of the UN International Court of Justice on genocide charges under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

3. Peaceful resistance of Ukrainian citizens continues.

In the Kherson region, people rallied against the russian occupiers in Kherson, Nova Kakhovka, Novooleksiiivka and Kalanchak, and residents of Troitskyi in the Luhansk region are also protesting.

In the temporarily occupied Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region, Ukrainians are holding thousands of rallies against the invaders. According to eyewitnesses, the russian occupiers opened fire with small arms on civilian protesters.

A rally against the russian occupiers is taking place in occupied Henichesk, on the shores of the Sea of Azov and Lake Syvash, near the border with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, in the Kherson region.

4. International support and assistance to Ukraine is growing.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi once again called on Western leaders to close the skies over Ukraine or give planes to protect civilians from an aggressor who cynically fires upon civilian infrastructure: “We repeat every day: close the sky over Ukraine. Close for all russian missiles, combat aircraft, for all these terrorists. Make a humanitarian air zone. No missiles, no bombs.”

Local councils in various regions of Ukraine also appealed to NATO and other Partner countries to support the closure of the sky over the country.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba called on Ukrainians in the European Union to mobilize for large-scale actions in support of Ukraine’s rapid accession to the EU next week.

The United States is preparing new sanctions against russia’s aggression, and more than 200 American congressmen from both parties are most interested in concrete assistance to Ukraine.

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi also announced the establishment of four special funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine: Fund for Reconstruction of Destroyed Property and Infrastructure, Fund for Economic Recovery and Transformation, Public Debt Service and Repayment Fund, and Small and Medium Business Support Fund.

Each tenth hryvnia comes from abroad in accounts opened by the National Bank of Ukraine helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine and people affected by hostilities.

A rally against the war in Ukraine and russia's military aggression took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on March 6th.

5. The political and socio-economic situation in russia is deteriorating.

In russia, the anti-war movement against the so-called putin special operation in Ukraine is growing: recently, opposition politicians in russia called on their citizens to take part in mass protests against the war in Ukraine.

On March 6th, thousands of anti-war rallies took place in nearly 50 russian cities. Security forces beat and detain participants en masse, according to the latest data, more than 4,539 people were detained by the end of the day. Most detainees are in Moscow (at least 1,629 detainees), St. Petersburg (1173), Novosibirsk (272), Yekaterinburg (215), Tyumen (124), and Perm (91).

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba believes that unprecedented action in russia is developing at such a pace that it will soon cross the level of the world's toughest dictatorship, the DPRK (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea).

russia has also reacted cynically with regards to its fallen russian combatants. The order “for official use” of February 26th, signed by Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko, requires from March 1st, 2022 to withdraw identity documents from personnel fighting in Ukraine, to take measures to evacuate the bodies of soldiers of the russian federation from Ukraine as soon as possible and to provide covert removal of bodies at night to “permanent locations and their burial in a mass grave with the assignment of numbers”, including in Belarus. In addition, the document stipulates that where it is impossible to evacuate the bodies, it is necessary to “decide on their destruction in the city”

economic situation in russia continues to deteriorate. Moody’s has changed russia’s sovereign credit rating from B3 to Ca - now Russia is only one step away from default. The lowest possible rating according to the agency is C, it is received by issuers who have defaulted.

The downgrade is due to the loss of control over the reserves of the Central Bank of Russia, which will limit cross-border payments, including for debt service on government bonds.

Ukraine asks the G7 countries to initiate and implement a procedure to suspend the operations of the IMF and the World Bank Group with russia and Belarus and terminate their membership in these organisations.

The Central Bank of the russian federation has officially announced that it restricts bank transfers abroad by individuals to other people, including spouses and close relatives, in the amount of $ 5,000 per month.

 

Companies that already have left russia’s market

The group of companies “New Products” is one of the largest producers of beverages and snacks in Ukraine (brands “Natural Source”, SHAKE, NON STOP, PIT BULL, KING'S BRIDGE, REVO) announced the complete severance of all business relations with russia and Belarus.

Western sanctions have led to the russians losing their jobs and, consequently, their livelihoods:

• Ikea closure - 15,000 jobs;
• the plant in Togliatti (Renault-Nissan) is shut down due to lack of imported spare parts - 35,000 jobs;
• Avtotor BMW assembly plant - 3,500 jobs;
• Yandex has warned employees about the risk of default - 12,000 jobs.

 

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The past period was characterized by an operational pause, regrouping of both Ukrainian and enemy armed forces. The Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out counterattacks near Mykolaiiv and Mariupol, inflicting significant losses on the occupiers. russia has continued its tactics of mass terror against Ukrainians, launching missile and bomb attacks on peaceful cities and disrupting the organization of humanitarian corridors. International support and assistance to Ukraine is growing. At the same time, the political and economic situation in russia continues to deteriorate.