Timeline: day 149 of Ukraine’s defense against russia’s aggression

Today is July 22. russia's military attack on Ukraine has been going on for 149 days. We're reporting on the current news. The article will be updated.

What about today?

Key points

What can everyone do today for Ukraine's Victory?

• Be effective in your position, teaching in school, doing military work, selling, healing, repairing, and rebuilding.
• Donate to the army and volunteers.
• Post on social media about Ukraine and spread information about the crimes of russians. The world should not forget about Ukraine!
• Communicate with relatives and friends and support each other. It is vital; we are strong when we are together!

A sign of maturity is the readiness to take responsibility for something bigger than yourself, Ukrainian Cardinal Liubomyr Huzar said. Therefore, let's tune in and work in one team with our military; everyone can do something for the sake of the planned victory.

Ukrainian aviation made eight strikes against russian positions and ammunition depots in the south. The South operational command reported. The occupiers lost:

• 35 soldiers.
• A Msta-S self-propelled howitzer.
• Two UAVs.
• Three armored vehicles.
• Eight units of automobile equipment.

In addition, the Ukrainian forces hit five strongholds and two enemy ammunition depots. Defenders of Ukraine continue to repel enemy assaults. 

The key points from Ukraine's General Staff's daily report:

• The occupiers are conducting assaults in the direction of Verkhnokamianka–Verkhnokamianske. Fighting continues.
• Assault operations in the directions Dolomytne–Novoluhanske and Streapivka–Soledar ended with losses for the enemy. Our soldiers drove away the disorganized units of the occupiers.
• The russians continue their assault attempts in the direction of the Vuhlehirsk Thermal Power Plant and near Pokrovske—hostilities continue.
• Defenders of Ukraine immediately suppressed all attempts of enemy assaults in the direction of Mala Semeidynukha–Andriivka and Davydiv Brid–Bilohirka. The occupiers left.

The Ukrainian forces have already eliminated 39,000 occupiers! The enemy suffered the most significant losses in the Kryvyi Rih and Bakhmut directions in the last 24 hours.

russian troops have not yet taken the heights around Siversk; most likely, they will not be able to take Sloviansk and Bakhmut, ISW's conclusion says. Researchers report that russian attacks on Siversk from the east on July 21 remained limited and unsuccessful. Attempts to attack Bakhmut were also unsuccessful. In general, the pace of the russian offensive is a little different from what happened during the "operational pause" officially announced by russia on July 7–16. It strengthens ISW analysts' confidence that the russian army will not be able to take Bakhmut and Sloviansk.

In the southern direction, ISW drew attention to the failed russian attack in the Andriivka area and the direction of Lozove in the Kherson region. It means that the Ukrainians still have a bridgehead on the Inhulets River.

The occupiers appropriated twenty grain elevators in the Zaporizhzhia region. They stole these elevators because their real owners did not agree to cooperate with them. In Zaporizhzhia, the occupiers created the "State Grain Company" with a balance sheet of 20 elevators.

There are 321 citizens in Mykolaiv hospitals—all of them suffered from the attacks of the occupiers on the Mykolaiv region. Another 115 victims were treated on an outpatient basis.

In the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, 2,997 people died. In Ukraine, only according to official data, russia has already killed more than 5,000 people. This number is much higher considering the dead in the destroyed cities in the occupied territories. russia must be recognized as a sponsor of terrorism!

Ukraine's talks with russia

Agreements on unblocking grain export from Ukraine are expected to be signed today in Istanbul. One of the parties to the deal will be the UN; Secretary-General António Guterres and President of Turkey Erdogan will attend the signing ceremony.

Who's coming to Ukraine?

On financial and information aid, weapons and politicians

The People's Bairaktars fundraising campaign's team expects to receive Bairaktar combat drones Ukrainians collected money for at the end of the summer, TV presenter Serhii Prytula said.

The air defense systems, which Germany promised to transfer to Ukraine, are currently in production and will be ready by the end of the summer, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

The head of the Bundestag defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, called on German politicians to abandon the circular scheme for the supply of weapons to Ukraine, as it is not working. For example, the German tanks supply to Slovakia in exchange for Slovak tanks to Ukraine was disrupted. Strack-Zimmerman called for a special conference to start supplying weapons to Ukraine directly.

News from partners

US senators introduced a resolution to recognize russia's actions in Ukraine as genocide, including the forced deportation to russia and the targeted killing of Ukrainian civilians during mass atrocities.

Moldova didn't allow russian soldiers from the so-called operational group based in Transnistria into the country's territory. They were called "an illegal formation that violates the status of neutrality."

Spiegel writes that Europol spokesperson Jan Op Gen Oorth stated there were signs of arms smuggling from Ukraine. "There is a risk that the weapon will fall into the hands of organized criminals or terrorists," said a spokesman for the agency. However, there were no specifics in the material of the publication. At the same time, it is worth noting that Ukraine will strengthen monitoring of arms circulation from partners in Ukraine. The system provides three levels of accounting for its supply and use. Defense Minister Reznikov reported.

What about russia?

russia's ability to spy in Europe has halved after more than 400 russian spies were expelled from European countries, British intelligence reports.

russia is in a hurry to hold so-called "referendums" in the occupied territories by September 15, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. This process is managed by Sergey Kiriyenko, the deputy head of the russian president's administration. He constantly visits the occupied Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, and the Kherson region. Bloomberg clarifies that the annexation is necessary for the Kremlin to show the russians the success of the war and the international community that russia will not give the occupied territories back. However, September 15 is still a long way off, and the Ukrainian forces are close!

Western analysts once again assessed russia's "missile power" remains. Experts of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) argue that the invaders have exhausted their stock of strategic cruise missiles of the Kh-101 type to a specific "sensitive" limit, so they had to use anti-ship cruise missiles with limited accuracy for strikes.

Vadym Skibytskyi, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence representative, also confirmed the information about missile stocks. According to him, russia used from 55 to 60% of the high-precision weapons it had before the full-scale war—the Iskander, Kalibr systems, air-launched cruise missiles.

Sanctions on the aggressor!

During the negotiation of the seventh sanctions package against russia, the EU blocked a proposal to impose bans on the most prominent russian producer of titanium. France and several other countries opposed the decision to impose sanctions due to fears of a possible ban on the export of titanium from russia to the EU in response.

Philip Morris will leave the russian market by the end of 2022. Cigarette brands Marlboro, Parliament, Bond, Chesterfield, and L&M, do not want to stay on the russian market.

Life considering hostilities

Our soldiers are the first on the battlefield and in sports. The Ukrainian Armed Forces team won four gold, two silver, and bronze medals at the First Baltic Air Pistol Shooting Championship.

One of the LEGO retailers—The Brothers Brick—dedicated new figurines to the heroic defenders of Azovstal. The prototypes of the figures were Denys Prokopenko ("Redis," Azov regiment commander), Bohdan Krotevych ("Tavr," chief of staff of the regiment), and Sviatoslav Palamar ("Kalyna," deputy commander of the unit), as well as other defenders of "Azovstal."