This megathread is meant for discussion of the current Russo-Ukrainian War, also known as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Please read our current rules, but also the extended rules below.

News sources:

You can also get up-to-date information and news from the r/worldnews live thread, which are more up-to-date tweets about the situation.

Current rules extension:

Extended r/europe ruleset to curb hate speech and disinformation:

  • While we already ban hate speech, we'll remind you that hate speech against the civilians of the combatants is against our rules, including but not limited to Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Syrians, Azeris, Armenians, Georgians, etc. The same applies to the population of countries actively helping Ukraine or Russia.

  • Calling for the killing of invading troops or leaders is allowed, but the mods have the discretion to remove egregious comments, and the ones that disrespect the point made above. The limits of international law apply.

  • No unverified reports of any kind in the comments or in submissions on r/europe. We will remove videos of any kind unless they are verified by reputable outlets. This also affects videos published by Ukrainian and Russian government sources.

  • Absolutely no justification of this invasion.

  • In addition to our rules, we ask you to add a NSFW/NSFL tag if you're going to link to graphic footage or anything can be considered upsetting, including combat footage or dead people.

Submission rules

These are rules for submissions to r/europe front-page.

  • No status reports about the war unless they have major implications (e.g. "City X still holding" would not be allowed, "Russia takes major city" would be allowed. "Major attack on Kherson repelled" would also be allowed.)

  • All dot ru domains have been banned by Reddit as of 30 May. They are hardspammed, so not even mods can approve comments and submissions linking to Russian site domains.

    • Some Russian sites that ends with .com are also hardspammed, like TASS and Interfax, and mods can't re-approve them.
    • The Internet Archive and similar archive websites are also blacklisted here, by us or Reddit.

  • We've been adding substack domains in our u/AutoModerator script, but we aren't banning all of them. If your link has been removed, please notify the moderation team, explaining who's the person managing that substack page.

  • We ask you or your organization to not spam our subreddit with petitions or promote their new non-profit organization. While we love that people are pouring all sorts of efforts on the civilian front, we're limited on checking these links to prevent scam.

  • No promotion of a new cryptocurrency or web3 project, other than the official Bitcoin and ETH addresses from Ukraine's government.

META

Link to the previous Megathread LVI (56)

Questions and Feedback: You can send feedback via r/EuropeMeta or via modmail.

Donations:

If you want to donate to Ukraine, check this thread or this fundraising account by the Ukrainian national bank.

Fleeing Ukraine
We have set up a wiki page with the available information about the border situation for Ukraine here. There's also information at Visit Ukraine.Today – The site has turned into a hub for "every Ukrainian and foreign citizen [to] be able to get the necessary information on how to act in a critical situation, where to go, bomb shelter addresses, how to leave the country or evacuate from a dangerous region, etc."

Other links of interest

Please obey the request of the Ukrainian government to refrain from sharing info about Ukrainian troop movements

War in Ukraine Megathread LVI (57)
byu/ModeratorsOfEurope ineurope



by ModeratorsOfEurope

45 comments

  2. Can Europe get its own military industrial complex up and running in time to supply Ukraine on its own in case Trump wins the election?

  4. 🔥🔥🔥 Five UAVs attacked the oil facilities in 🇷🇺 Kalach-on-Don, Volgograd Region, Russia. There are two fires raging. 🔥🔥🔥https://x.com/Tendar/status/1810533313439776814

  5. The biggest challenge democracies face today is the imperative of adaptation. But there can be no adaptation if we don’t articulate what it is we need to adapt to. Simply put: If we want to preserve peace, the U.S. and its allies need to move onto a war footing, if for no other reason than the fact that our enemies have already done so. To mobilize for what’s coming, we need a culture change in how we organize our economic activity and how we relate to each other in society. https://www.politico.eu/article/international-relations-america-washington-politics-western-society-democracy-war/

  7. 🔥🔥🔥 In the 🇷🇺 Kursk region, the Oleyniy Plant substation in Sudzha was attacked by Ukrainian drones and is still on fire. 🔥🔥🔥 Additionally, two gas stations were hit, one fire has been contained, while the other is still being extinguished. 🔥🔥🔥 https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1810645457892209018

  10. 💥 On July 9, Ukrainian drone strikes targeted the famous 🇷🇺 Russian 4th State Central Interspecific Test Site “Kapustin Yar”, located near Znamensk in Astrakhan Oblast, southern Russia. Kapustin Yar is a missile launch and testing complex, established by the Soviet Union shortly after the end of the World War II.
    💥 https://x.com/Archer83Able/status/1810810782109630910

  11. The UK’s new Labour government will continue to allow Ukraine to use British-supplied weapons to strike targets within Russia, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has signalled.

    He stressed that arms donated by Britain must be “used in accordance with international humanitarian law” and for “defensive purposes”, but added: “It is for Ukraine to decide how to deploy it for those defensive purposes.”

    Starmer’s comments closely echoed former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s position on the use of UK weapons supplied to Kyiv.

    The US has been more explicit in blocking the use of arms it gives to Ukraine against targets deep inside Russia, although in May President Joe Biden authorised limited cross-border strikes. https://www.ft.com/content/0a44763e-6a50-4797-bfce-99d6d7838730

  12. NATO allies promised five long-range air-defense systems for Ukraine in a fresh show of support, even as leaders resisted offering the country a path toward membership and fresh assessments indicate the conflict with Russia is headed toward indefinite stalemate.

    The announcement was intended as a display of unity in the face of a stepped-up air barrage by President Vladimir Putin’s forces. It also drew attention to the challenge the allies have faced coming up with military aid: Tuesday’s promise repeated some commitments that had already been made in recent weeks. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-09/nato-set-to-boost-ukraine-s-air-defenses-and-send-f-16s

  13. Chinese soldiers are taking part in maneuvers in Belarus, adding another new dynamic to the security situation in Eastern Europe, dominated by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the fallout surrounding it. While Belarus has been a staunch ally of Russia it has, more recently, made overtures toward China, with the aim of building closer relations with it, including in the military sphere: https://www.twz.com/air/chinese-troops-begin-drills-along-polands-border-in-belarus

  14. Russia has been engaged in a “bold” sabotage operation across NATO’s member states for more than six months, targeting the supply lines of weapons for Ukraine and the decision-makers behind it, according to a senior NATO official.

    Multiple security officials across Europe describe a threat that is metastasizing as Russian agents, increasingly under scrutiny by security services and frustrated in their own operations, hire local amateurs to undertake high-risk, and often deniable, crimes on their behalf.

    The NATO official said they had observed “an unprecedented escalation and spread of Russia’s hybrid warfare” over the past six months, which included “physical sabotage” on the supply line of NATO weapons intended for Ukraine. “It is everything from point of production and origin, to storage, to those who are making decisions, to the actual delivery,” the senior NATO official said. “It is bold. Russia is attempting to intimidate (our) allies.” https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/10/europe/russia-shadow-war-nato-intl-latam/index.html

  15. https://www.ft.com/content/ef463ac9-4804-4ad7-b9a2-c113590f2f96

    The type of Russian missile that destroyed a Kyiv children’s hospital relies on western-designed components, according to experts and Ukrainian officials, showing the Kremlin’s success at evading sanctions.

    Captured on camera a second before it hit the cancer hospital on Monday, the Kh-101 is one of Russia’s most advanced cruise missiles and critical to its intensifying air strike campaign against Ukraine.

    Russia is making nearly eight times more Kh-101s than before President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — and is still dependent on parts from western countries, particularly the US.

    “Western technology is allowing them to build these smarter missiles, which allow their terror attacks to get past our struggling air defences,” said Olena Bilousova, a research lead on sanctions at the KSE Institute in Kyiv.

  16. Russia is unlikely to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in the coming months as its poorly trained forces struggle to break through Ukrainian defenses that are now reinforced with Western munitions, U.S. officials say.

    Through the spring and early summer, Russian troops tried to take territory outside the city of Kharkiv and renew a push in eastern Ukraine, to capitalize on their seizure of Avdiivka. Russia has suffered thousands of casualties in the drive while gaining little new territory.

    Russia’s problems represent a significant change in the dynamic of the war, which had favored Moscow in recent months. Russian forces continue to inflict pain, but their incremental advances have been slowed by the Ukrainians’ hardened lines.

    The months ahead will not be easy for Ukraine. But allied leaders gathering in Washington this week for the 75th anniversary of the founding of North Atlantic Treaty Organization can legitimately argue that their efforts to strengthen Ukraine are working.

    “Ukrainian forces are stretched thin and face difficult months of fighting ahead, but a major Russian breakthrough is now unlikely,” said Michael Kofman, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who recently visited Ukraine.

    While Russia is not in a position to seize large parts of Ukraine, the prospects of Kyiv retaking more land from the invading army are also waning. Prodded by American advisers, Ukraine is focused on building up its defenses and striking deep behind Russian lines.

    Eric Ciaramella, a former intelligence official who is now an expert on Ukraine working with Mr. Kofman at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it had become clear over the past 18 months that neither Russia nor Ukraine “possesses the capabilities to significantly change the battle lines.”

    The United States, Mr. Ciaramella said, has always defined its strategic objective “as a Ukraine that is democratic, prosperous, European and secure.” The United States and its allies will need to make long-term investments to enable Ukraine to hold its lines, wear out Russia and do damage, according to Mr. Ciaramella and current U.S. officials.

    “That’s still a highly unstable scenario,” Mr. Ciaramella said. “That’s why Western leaders also really need to focus on integrating Ukraine into European and trans-Atlantic security structures.”

    The European Union agreed last month to begin membership negotiations with Ukraine, a critical step in the long accession process. While NATO is not yet ready to invite Ukraine to join, allied leaders are set to approve language this week that all but promises Kyiv that it will become part of the alliance.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/09/us/politics/russia-ukraine-nato.html

  18. 🔥🔥🔥 A burning 🇷🇺 Russian oil depot in Kalach-na-Donu is visible in recent satellite imagery.
    This depot is more than 385 kilometers from the front line in Ukraine. 🔥🔥🔥https://x.com/bradyafr/status/1810997394571420001

  20. Sounds like NATO is going global from the summit, China and “pacific partners” seems to be as much in focus as Russia.

  22. NATO leaders issued the alliance’s strongest-ever language calling out China’s military support for Russia amid signs that Beijing is developing an attack drone for the conflict with Ukraine.

    In a declaration issued Wednesday night during its 75th anniversary summit in Washington, NATO described China as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The communique detailed China’s supply of dual-use materials such as weapons components, equipment and raw materials that serve as inputs for Russia’s defense sector.

    The US briefed NATO allies on China’s support before the summit as part of efforts to forge a shared concern over the burgeoning defense partnership, according to people familiar with the matter.

    The declaration said China poses “systemic challenges to Euro-Atlantic security,” including through cyber activities and disinformation as well as its development of counter-space capabilities.

    “We urge all countries not to provide any kind of assistance to Russia’s aggression. We condemn all those who are facilitating and thereby prolonging Russia’s war in Ukraine,” the alliance said in the communique. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-10/nato-set-to-call-out-china-over-support-for-russia-s-war-machine

  23. A raft of newly published books take for granted that the US and China have entered a new cold war. The conclusion is understandable, especially for policymakers who came of age during that earlier twilight struggle. Once again, a liberal democracy is engaged in a global struggle with a communist dictatorship. Countries everywhere are under pressure to choose sides.

    In fact, the historical analogy is wrong. And unless the two rivals recognize that soon, they may fail to repeat the greatest unsung accomplishment of the US-Soviet cold war: avoiding a hot one.

    Swayed by the parallels, US and Chinese leaders are adopting similar strategic frameworks and tactics to win what they see as an open-ended contest for power and security. Washington is dusting off its earlier playbook, hoping to contain China through security partnerships and export controls. Following the Soviet approach, China is rapidly building up its nuclear arsenal and its economic and technological self-sufficiency, to defend against trade sanctions and potential embargos.

    Those strategic choices are locking the two rivals into a dangerous action-reaction spiral. Perhaps the best example is China’s fateful decision to form a strategic partnership with Russia in 2022 to counter US moves to strengthen its regional alliance networks, such as AUKUS (a program to equip the Australian navy with the most advanced US nuclear attack submarines). Chinese support has enabled Russian President Vladimir Putin to sustain his war against Ukraine, angering the US and its NATO partners and propelling mistrust of Beijing to new heights.

    However compelling these steps may appear to Washington and Beijing, they are repeating the mistakes that marked the real historical parallel to today’s rivalry: the British-German tensions that led to World War I. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-07-10/us-and-china-rivalry-isn-t-another-cold-war-it-s-worse

  28. Trump just won’t give up talking about NATO as a kind of costly but useless burden on US taxpayers. He should tell that to the families of the Danish, Dutch, German, and British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, heeding the call of Article 5 of the NATO treaty. More than 1000 NATO soldiers died in Afghanistan fighting alongside their American comrades. They were only there because they were US allies.

  29. [Thousands enlist in volunteer Ukrainian military unit in Poland, says Sikorski](https://tvpworld.com/79253889/thousands-enlist-in-volunteer-ukrainian-military-unit-in-poland-says-sikorski)

    >He added: “Interestingly, many of them really want to serve and replace their compatriots [at the front], but they say: we don’t want to be sent to fight without proper training and equipment.”
    Sikorski said that Poland will provide training and equipment to the volunteers, and then they would be sent to Ukraine with the right to return to Poland after they finish their rotation.

    “If every European country did that, Ukraine would have a few such brigades,” Sikorski added

  32. Europe needs to prepare for the possibility that Trump will get re-elected and disengage from Ukraine.

  34. [Yehor Zavadetskyi, a 7-year-old boy who was in the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital during the Russian missile attack on July 8, has died.](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1e1e9ej/yehor_zavadetskyi_a_7yearold_boy_who_was_in_the/)

    **Yehor Zavadetskyi**, a 7-year-old boy who was in the **Okhmatdyt** children’s hospital during the Russian missile attack on July 8, has died. Yehor was admitted to **Okhmatdyt** after falling off a bicycle. On June 20, he suffered an internal hemorrhage, severe bruising of the abdominal wall and a hematoma on the liver. After the Russian attack, he had to be moved to another hospital. Doctors continued fighting for Yehor’s life but couldn’t save him. If he hadn’t needed to be moved, maybe Yehor would be still alive. The death toll of the Russian attack keeps growing.

  39. [Vitaliy Markytan, who worked as an assistant director of the Vasyl Vasylko Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater in Odesa was killed in Russia-Ukrainian war, theater reported on its social media on July 11.](https://english.nv.ua/nation/vitaliy-markytan-assistant-director-of-odesa-vasylko-theater-dies-at-the-front-50434417.html)

    Read also: [‘No need to justify yourself’, Ukrainian actor and soldier tells those who choose not to fight](https://english.nv.ua/life/dmytro-sova-from-silver-screen-to-front-lines-a-heroic-journey-unfolds-in-ukraine-s-defense-forces-50367746.html)

    Assistant director of the theater joined ranks of Ukrainian Army since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022. He had been working at the theater since 2021.

    “With deep sadness and sorrow in our hearts we inform you that our colleague, assistant director of the theater, Vitaliy Markitan, who has been defending Ukraine at the front since the first days of the Russian full-scale invasion, died defending his fatherland” theater wrote.

    Vitaliy has been working at this theater since 2021, and during this time, he became a close person to the Vasylkiv community, actors wrote.

    “It is hard to realize that we will never be able to create together again, and we will not be able to thank him for his service,” theater added.

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