Christmas plans and russian gas alternative: timeline and solutions of October 19

KEY EVENTS

Ukrainian army's successes

📌 russians stationed in the Kherson region are preparing to flee—they are robbing and taking away absolutely everything from the area. The Yellow Ribbon movement records unique property theft cases in the Kherson region. Locals report that the Russians are robbing household appliances, personal hygiene products, and sometimes even underwear.

The situation is reminiscent of the same "gesture of goodwill" in the Kyiv region when the russians ran away shamefully after looting all the houses.

📌 The gauleiter of the Kherson region, Saldo, declared the need to evacuate to the left bank because the Armed Forces of Ukraine "accumulated huge resources" to liberate the area. The russian occupiers plan to deport 50–60 thousand residents of the Kherson region.

"The Ukrainian army does not destroy Ukrainian cities and villages. The Ukrainian Armed Forces use high-precision weapons to attack only the army of the russian federation, its equipment, control points, warehouses, and logistics," the head of the Kherson regional military administration, Yaroslav Yanushevych, appealed to the people of Kherson not to give in to the calls of the occupation authorities regarding "evacuation."

📌 The Institute for the Study of War reports that the russian occupiers conducted limited ground attacks in the northeast of the Kharkiv region, trying to regain lost positions. But it is unlikely that they will be able to succeed in this area.

📌 During the night, Ukraine's air defense systems shot down 12 kamikaze drones. In 36 days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed 223 Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.

📌 This afternoon in the Kherson region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down a russian Ka-52 attack helicopter.

📌 In the afternoon, Ukraine's air defense forces destroyed more than 12 russian air targets. Four cruise missiles and eight drones were shot down.

📌 During the day, units of Ukraine's Defense Forces repelled the attacks of the russian occupiers in the areas of 11 settlements in the Kharkiv region and Donetsk region.

📌 In the Luhansk region, Ukraine's defense forces struck 16 areas of concentration of weapons and military equipment, a stronghold, and eight positions of russia's anti-aircraft missile systems. Fighting continues.

📌 The South Operational Command reports that Ukraine's Air Force carried out 15 strikes in the areas of strongholds and places of concentration of russia's forces and equipment. russian losses amount to:

• 84 soldiers;
• Two self-propelled large-caliber howitzers of the Akatsiya and Msta-S types
• One tank;
• Three armored vehicles.

📌 Ukraine's Air Force made 24 strikes during the last 24 hours. It was confirmed that 16 areas of concentration of weapons and military equipment, a strongpoint, and eight positions of russia's anti-aircraft missile systems were hit. 

📌 Soldiers of Ukraine's missile troops and artillery struck four control points, five areas of concentration of russian soldiers, weapons, and military equipment, two air defense objects and one artillery object, and an EW station.

📌 The Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed seven ammunition warehouses and one military unit of the russian invaders in one day.

📌 Explosions were reported in occupied Sevastopol, a metallurgical plant in occupied Donetsk, and russia's Belgorod.

russia's crimes

📌 The russian forces attacked Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk Region) at night with a hit on one of the energy facilities. Part of the city and settlements of the district were left without electricity and water.

📌 Occupied Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, the town where Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is located, was again subjected to provocative shelling by the russian occupiers at night. One of the substations was damaged, as well as the building of the city council's executive committee. The city is partial without electricity and water. 

📌 The russians shelled Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region for almost seven hours. Eight people were injured, and everyone was hospitalized. Private houses, the building of the city council, and an educational institution were destroyed. Due to shelling, there is no electricity and water supply in Orikhiv.

The russian occupiers also fired at Huliaipole with S-300 missiles. The local school was destroyed. No casualties.

📌 russian troops continue shelling the territory of the Mykolaiv region. Yesterday they bombarded the Bereznehuvate and Shyroke communities of the Bashtanka district. Shelling of the Bereznehuvate community was also recorded at night.

📌 In the afternoon, the russians hit an energy facility in the Vinnytsia region.

In Vinnytsia, Ukraine's Security Service detained four residents who filmed and forwarded videos of strikes to the russians. One of them filmed the consequences of the kamikaze drone attack, which appeared on russian propagandist media in half an hour. An hour later, a repeated missile attack led to even greater destruction and people's injuries. Of the three wounded, two are in severe condition.

📌 In the Ivano-Frankivsk region, the russian occupiers again struck the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant. The fire has been extinguished.

📌 In Chernihiv, the Shahed kamikaze drone exploded. Three people were injured.

📌 During the day, two people were hospitalized with injuries due to russian shelling in the Kharkiv region: a 28-year-old woman in the Chuhuiv district and a 57-year-old man in the Kupiansk district.

In the Kharkiv region, near the village of Kurylivka, law enforcement discovered another victim of a shot column of civilians. This is a 19-year-old boy who walked 1.5 km wounded and died in the forest line. The number of dead has increased to 26.

📌 Kherson Region. 

• During the past 24 hours, russian troops shelled the recently liberated Petropavlivka and Tryfonivka in the Beryslav District twice from Uragan and Grad MRLS.
• The russian occupiers covertly move military equipment and troops. The russians are blocking the work of mobile phone and Internet operators in Tavriisk and Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region to hide the fact.
• russians blocked the entry of civilians to the Kherson region "for seven days."

📌 ​​The Ukrainian government announced that more than 90% of the houses in Lyman and Sviatohirsk of the Donetsk region were destroyed.

📌 The UN recorded several violations committed by the russian military in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The civilian death toll is in the thousands, and the damage to infrastructure is devastating. Among other things, the russian occupiers:

• used explosive weapons in populated areas;
• killed civilians who tried to escape;
• kidnapped, executed, and tortured people;
• raped the civilian population;
• treated people cruelly;
• deported the population to the russian federation.

📌 putin introduced martial law in the occupied territories of Ukraine that he claims to be "annexed." Now the occupiers will rob the population in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions even more.

"'Martial law' implementation on the occupied territories by RF should be considered only as a pseudo-legalization of looting of Ukrainians' property by another 'regrouping.' This does not change anything for Ukraine: we continue the liberation and de-occupation of our territories," this is how the adviser to the head of the Office of the President, Mykhailo Podoliak, commented on the introduction of "martial law" in the occupied territories.

📌 In Mariupol, the russians dismantled a monument to the victims of the Holodomor, saying that "Ukraine and Donbas were not badly affected by the famine in 1932-1933."

Life amid war

📌 Inker magazine released a comic ⬆️ about a 15-year-old boy who, at the beginning of a full-scale invasion, helped destroy more than 100 units of russian equipment in the Kyiv region. Andrii Pokraska joined the Territorial Defense together with his father. And later, he became an operator of a drone and conducted aerial reconnaissance for his fellow soldiers.

📌 Ukraine took second place at the European stage of the PostEurop competition for the sketch for the post stamp "Peace is the highest value of humanity!" (in the photo above). Ukrposhta, Ukraine's national post, initiated the change of this year's theme.

📌 The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra received one of Europe's most prestigious musical awards—the Prince Pierre de Monaco Award.

📌 The Orthodox Church of Ukraine allowed the Christmas service to be held this year according to the New Julian calendar on December 25. This is an important step. It brings Ukraine even closer to the whole civilized world.

📌 The European Parliament awarded Ukraine the Sakharov Prize "For Freedom of Thought."

SOLUTIONS TO WIN

Foreign partners' support

💡 By 2022, Ukraine will receive Germany's PzH 2000, anti-drone systems, and MLRS. Armored evacuation vehicles, Dingo armored vehicles, bridge-laying tanks, and additional Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers will also be transferred.

💡 Now armored engineering vehicles, 35 forklifts, sleeping bags, and winter clothing for the Ukrainian Armed Forces have set on the road to Ukraine from Germany. 

💡 The EU has prepared new sanctions against Iran for supplying weapons to russia.

💡 World rock and pop star Rod Stewart sheltered Ukrainian refugees in his home. ⬆️

💡 Ukraine and Turkey signed a memorandum on post-war reconstruction. Ankara will help rebuild part of the destroyed infrastructure, including bridges.

💡 A conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war is being held In the Netherlands today. Attention is also paid to short-term needs, such as preparing for winter.

💡 Europe found an alternative for russian gas faster than expected. In the spring, it was assumed that abandoning russian gas would last seven years, but it took only eight months to replace two-thirds of the supplies, said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

Ukrainians, let's unite! 

💡 The YesHelp application has been launched to connect Ukrainian refugees with volunteers worldwide. App users can search directly for housing, transportation, childcare, or pet care professionals. YesHelp is already available for download on iOS and Android in over 60 countries.

💡 Tachka Na TROkachku is a project that restores old military vehicles. Seventeen cars have already been repaired thanks to patrons. But now, the Armed Forces of Ukraine need at least 4,000 such vehicles for the front. You can join using the link.

💡 The equipment for rehabilitating military personnel, purchased with funds from a charity fashion show, was handed over to the Neurology Center in Uzhhorod. 

The Zakarpattia School of Models purchased equipment with funds at a charity fashion show on September 17. Then they managed to raise 45 thousand hryvnias at the show.

💡 During charity matches in New York in the United States of America, Ukrainian baseball players ⬆️ raised more than 20 thousand dollars. This money will be directed to restoring sports facilities damaged as a result of russia's invasion of Ukraine.

💡 In Pryluky, Chernihiv Region, a charity auction was held supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Among the lots are candlesticks in the form of angels, flags, and T-shirts with signatures of military commanders and paintings by local artists. More than 50 thousand hryvnias were collected from the sale of lots at a charity auction.

💡 Boxer Oleksandr Usyk became the ambassador of the United24 fundraising platform. He will support the Ukraine Recovery direction, primarily in the Kyiv region. To raise funds for the restoration, the Usyk Foundation is holding a charity evening and auction in Los Angeles on October 20.

💡 In Dnipro, students of art schools, together with teachers, paint the walls of temporary shelters in out-of-school education institutions. ⬆️ The children offered to decorate the shelter. They say that during an air raid, the place they hide in should be bright and pleasant so that they are less nervous and more inspired.