War Speeches. Energy-based blackmail of terrorists. Ukraine has been there in the past, and present, and it shall prevail

During July 25–31, russia committed a series of high-profile terror acts on the territory of Ukraine and continues to commit maniacal atrocities. Ukrainian politicians actively call on the international community to recognize russia as a state sponsor of terrorism but the russian side denies its actions, uses gas-based blackmail, and assures African countries of its non-involvement in the energy crisis. At the same time, the "Second Strongest Army of the World" has huge problems on the southern front and assembles reinforcement in the Kherson axis. At the same time, Ukraine keeps increasing its defense capability and moving along the EU integration course.

Ukraine resists the army of terrorists and rapists

The US Senate adopted a resolution calling on the State Department to recognize russia as a state sponsor of terrorism due to its actions in Ukraine, Georgia, Syria, and Chechnya. At the same time, Latvian Foreign Minister, Edgars Rinkevičs, called on the European Union to recognize the rf as a terrorist state.The legal consolidation of such a status will negatively affect russia and will place it on the same level as the DPRK, Iran, and Syria.

"The status of a citizen of a State sponsor of terrorism is even worse than a default. After this, you will have to "be geting off your knees" for a very long time," said the head of the negotiating group, David Arahamia.

However, for Ukrainians, russian troops have long become synonyms of "terrorists" and "rapists". The last week of July showed for Ukrainian politicians, but also for the entire global community other examples of the flaring russian atrocities. In the public space, there were images of torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, including a video with a exhibitory castration of the military member.

"Russian propaganda advocates were thrilled to show how a group of russian savages mutilated a Ukrainian prisoner of war. The entire world needs to understand that russia is a land of hellhounds who enjoy tortures and murders. But the fog of war will not help the russian executioners avoid the punishment. We shall identify everyone. We will reach everyone," Mykhailo Podoliak said.

"The Book of Executioners of the Ukrainian People" received another name of another Buryat man.

Despite such facts, russian politicians are surprised to get the possible status of a terrorist state. The deputy of the State Duma, leonid slutskyi, considers the effort "another russophobic lunacy" and accuses the United States of sponsoring terrorism.

"To everyone who voted for this resolution, I want to say to them — when was the last time you looked in the mirror? The American senators must have had some who used to advocate for the gangs in the Caucasus; there must have been some who approved of helping so-called "moderate" terrorists in Syria, and those who for eight years did not want to notice the ukrofascist terror and genocide in the Donbas! You, gentlemen, are the real sponsors of terrorism and bloody coups d 'état," he wrote in Telegram.

In the context of the mass extermination of Ukrainian prisoners in the prison in Olenivka, lavrov’s statement appears as particularly cynical. He said that "the russian armed forces strictly adhere to the provisions of international law." To make things worse, all this is happening in a situation where the russian federation has made an international commitment to save the lives of prisoners from Azovstal. However, as in the case of the "grain" agreements, russia’s words are worthless. The Ukrainian military and political command considered the events in Olenivka as a classic false flag operation, and published a joint statement demanding decisive action from the guarantors of the security of prisoners of war in Azovstal — from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"russia's shelling of the prison in Olenivka is Ukrainian Katyn massacre. Torture and murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war is a violation of the Geneva Conventions. russia is an irreconcilable terrorist state that must be defeated on the battlefield", — emphasized the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov.

However, russian diplomats can hit the rock bottom and go further. Thus, the aggressor's embassy in the UK said on Twitter that Azovstal's defenders deserve death not through firing squad, but through hanging, because they are not real soldiers.

"russia is a terrorist country. In the 21st century, only savages and terrorists can say at the diplomatic level that people deserve execution by hanging, for nothing. rf is a state sponsor of terrorism. What more evidence do we need?" — the head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak, asked a fair question.

At the same time, the rocket terror of Ukrainian cities, entailing civilian casualties, does not stop. Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Nikopol and other places keep experiencing russian tactics of the "scorched land". Another strike against peaceful people at a bus stop in Mykolaiv was commented by Andrii Yermak.

"Mykolaiv. Another terror act of the terrorist state. A bus stop where people were waiting. There are casualties and fatalities. russia responds to defeats in battles with the Armed Forces of Ukraine with attacks against civilians. For each crime, they will have to answer," he said.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksii Danilov, agreed that the failures of russia on the battlefield is a key reason for shelling civilians. "Their only task is to intimidate us so that the resistance of our people, of our Armed Forces, slowed down," said the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

On July, 31, in Mykolaiv, russian terrorists deliberately killed the Hero of Ukraine, the owner of the "Nibulon" agrarian company, Oleksii Vadaturskyi. They killed him with a missile. We could expect that russians would claim that killing the owners of the largest grain-exporting companies is not part of the Istanbul agreement.

"russian barbarians continue the terror campaign, trying to intimidate, destabilize, and break Ukrainian society. According to kremlin maniacs, the campaign of high intensity high-profile terror acts should force Ukrainians to kneel, to open the gates, and succumb to the enemy. Every crime makes us feel pain but we live through it and it makes us even harder," commented Mykhailo Podoliak.

Indeed, because of the terror acts of the aggressor, the national resistance of Ukrainians is only growing. They have a desire to get fair justice.

"Take any day in Ukraine — today or any other day after February 24, and you will see that no one in the world invests more in terrorism than russia," said Volodymyr Zelensky.

Gas-based blackmail: russia considers itself a "guarantor" of Europe's energy security but cuts gas pipeline capacity

russian energy blackmail is gaining momentum, although the aggressor publicly calls itself a reliable supplier. Europe's dependence on blue fuel is openly used by russia in interstate relations and they use far-fetched pretests to reduce the capacity of the gas pipeline. According to Andrii Yermak, the gas supply through Nord Stream-1 dropped to about 20% of the pipeline capacity.

russia has declared an energy war on Europe. The response to the fantasies of the russians about the "ice age" should be the strengthening of anti-russian sanctions and additional weapons for Ukraine. Together, we will be able to crush the naive strategy of the Kremlin," Yermak said.

kremlin spokesman, dmitry peskov, denies accusations of deliberate cuts in gas supplies and states that russia "cannot guarantee pumping if imported units cannot be serviced due to European sanctions." Obviously, putin's mouthpiece has forgotten the exception in the sanctions that Canada has made regarding the transfer to Germany of a turbine for pumping russian gas. This was highlighted by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi:

"Even with the compromise on the Nord Stream turbine, russia is not going to resume gas supplies to European countries as it is contractually obliged to do. All this is done by russia intentionally, so that Europeans find it as difficult as possible to prepare for winter. And this is a blatant gas war that russia is waging against the united Europe," he said.

In this regard, the European Union has approved a plan to reduce gas consumption by 15%. Ukrainian politicians positively welcomed the decision. According to the Ukrainian side, gas blackmail is aimed at unbalancing the anti-russian coalition, so Europe should apply counter sanctions, tougher than before.

"The European Commission's plan to reduce gas consumption by 15% is an effective antidote to traditional russian gas blackmail. Europe stretches its shoulders and says: let no one talk to us from a position of strength. The end of the era of the russian lobby in Europe. The beginning of the road to true independence from russia," — Mykhailo Podoliak commented on the EU decision.

However, russia frankly rejoices in this regard, which is evidence of another form of terror. In anticipation of the cold season, dmitry medvedev is rubbing his hands and reflects on various "diseases" of Europeans.

"In general, it didn't turn out well. The yellow-blue tantrums provoked severe diarrhea from fear of freezing in their lukewarm houses, looking out of the ice-glazed windows at the fading productions. However, the smart Europeans suggest treating the diarrhea with some proven medicines: an increase in the supply of weapons to the Kiev regime and a war to the victorious end. Well, well!" The cold wave is coming soon," he said.

Although the russian side continues to convincingly pretend that energy problems are not related to military aggression, gas blackmail is a continuation of the war in Ukraine. It is aimed at those who help preserve our state's sovereignty in the senseless war.

"putin's gas war against Europe is a direct continuation of his war against Ukraine. Wherever he can do harm, he will. He will use any dependence of Europe on russia to ruin the normal life of every European family. The only solution is to pay back a blow and get rid of any dependance," said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba.

russian diplomats also wasted little time to push propaganda in the energy sector. At the end of July, the russian Foreign Minister, sergei lavrov, travelled to African countries with the ready-made speeches about the 2014 coup d 'état in Ukraine, about the genocide of the people in Donbas, the anti-russian vector of the joint NATO-Ukraine military exercises. Obviously, the purpose of lavrov’s African voyage was to enlist the support of countries that took neutral positions in the war with Ukraine, and to blame Europe for all the misery. Otherwise, it might have been the "quintessence of russian sadism," Mykhailo Podoliak commented on the trip.

The diplomat did not forget to blurt out about the energy and food crises, either. Following the meeting with the President of Uganda, lavrov said:

"We also discussed the causes of the current crises in the field of energy, and supply of world food markets. There is a loud campaign going on around this. At the same time, the origins of this state of affairs are clear to our African friends — they are not related to what is happening now in the framework of the special military operation. We agreed to take into account the current situation in our bilateral relations and to look for such opportunities (in the field of energy and trade in agricultural products) that will not depend on the whims of Western colleagues."

It is quite clear that the russian federation survives mainly through the sale of natural resources, so it is reorienting oil and gas exports to other countries, including China. But here, too, there may be some issues. The United States may impose sanctions on China's imports of energy resources from the rf.

"Republican senators, including Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, presented a bill on sanctions on China’s import of oil and other energy carriers from the russian federation. The bill provides for penalties for any organization that insures or registers tankers delivering oil or liquefied natural gas to China from the russian federation," Andrii Yermak said.

The outrage of the russian side was expected, but in their statements, the rf persisted on not linking US actions with the consequences of the "special military operation". Instead, leonid slutsky accused Senator Rubio of approaching an energy collapse.

"A very "far-sighted " solution, which, if implemented, will come back to haunt American citizens themselves. And the rise in energy prices could then rightly be named Rubio, rather than looking for the culprits outside the US. And this is not to mention the impact that the bill can have on the world energy markets," — said slutskyi.

Problems of the Occupiers in the South of Ukraine: russians learn to swim

In the Kherson axis, russia suffers a strategic defeat as a result of the partial destruction of the Antonivskyi (Dnipro River) and Daryevskyi (Inhulets River) bridges, which cuts the military group of the russian federation from the replenishment of heavy equipment and ammunition. In addition, Ukrainian troops created a bridgehead on the right bank of the Inhulets River, near the settlements of Andriivka, Lozove, and Bilohirka, creating trouble for the Kryvyi Rih group of terrorists. The President of Ukraine commented on the destruction of bridges:

"About the Antonivskyi Bridge in Kherson and other river crossings in the region. Of course, all of them will be rebuilt, but we shall do it. We are doing our best to ensure that the occupiers do not have any logistical opportunities on our land. Whatever plans they have, we will break them," said Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Such actions of the Ukrainian army created prospects for the "gesture of goodwill" of the occupier's troops on the right bank of the Dnieper River, in particular with regard to Kherson.

"Hardly any bird COULD FLY OUT of the middle of the Dnieper River. Of course, you can call the Antonivskyi Bridge a means of Russian ASW intercepting Ukrainian missiles, but you can't escape from reality: the occupiers should learn how to swim across the Dnieper River. Or leave Kherson, while there is still a chance. There may be no third warning," Mykhailo Podoliak warned the occupiers.

It is no secret that russia is assembling the reinforcement on the Kherson axis because with no gains in the Donbas, the loss of Kherson will be a major political failure. However, terrorists need to think twice: Ukraine can shoot at any military targets of the enemy, regardless of their geographical location. Oleksii Danilov said that Ukraine could destroy military facilities on the territory of russia, including the Crimean bridge.

"If necessary, the military will make this decision. As for the Crimean Bridge or other infrastructure facilities, believe me, everything is under careful control. As soon as there is a need, opportunity, and the task set — everything will be delivered, and not only for this object," Danilov said.

russia worries about increasing Ukraine's defense capability

The Ukrainian military continue to masterly destroy clusters of troops and ammunition of the occupiers. Neither gas blackmail nor terrorist acts reduce the supply of high-quality weapons to Ukraine. Norway, Lithuania, Italy, USA, Germany, North Macedonia, an dPoland helped the Ukrainian army last week. Defense Minister, Oleksiy Rieznikov, commented on the supply of weapons from Germany as follows:

"Our capacity to protect our skies will be strengthened. The ‘Gepard’ self-propelled anti-aircraft systems began to arrive in Ukraine. I would like to thank our German partners, and personally Christine Lambrecht, for supporting our country. I look forward to receiving the IRIS-T", the Minister said.

At the same time, Andrii Yermak reported that both parties of the US Congress support the transfer of ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, which can hit targets at a distance of more than 280 km.

"These missiles will cut off the military logistics of the russians, which they are panicky to rebuild after the successful attacks on the military warehouses by our army," Yermak said.

The russians no longer know what to think of to prevent the supply of weapons to Ukraine. The spokeswoman of the russian ministry of foreign affairs, maria zakharova, said that "any attempt to gain "victories on the battlefield" is a direct road to fall down into the abyss, for both Kyiv and Brussels."

She also accused the Ukrainian authorities of corruption, in particular with regard to obtaining Western weapons.

"During all of the last five months of continuous weaponization of Ukraine, in the West, they have tried to hide the uncomfortable truth about the unprecedented risks of this policy to the internal security of the EU and its citizens. They turned a blind eye to the total corruption of the Kyiv authorities. Everything was sacrificed to the ambitions of EU individual leaders and EU member states to cause as much damage to russia as possible," said zakharova.

However, while the russian army removes obsolete equipment from storage and uses paper-based maps from the last century, Ukraine is improving the process of procuring the weapons. According to Oleksii Rieznikov, the Ministry of Defense will have two agencies similar to the NSPA (NATO Procurement and Support Agency).

"This is a kind of "Amazon", only with militarized goods. In fact, this model was used for the Defense Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Defense, taking into account NATO standards. It is a transparent mechanism that is clear for our partners, for businesses, and for manufacturers," Rieznikov highlighted.

The aggressor is only left with labelling Ukraine as "a radicalized state where Hitler's collaborators are glorified" and threaten to seize the entire territory. Thus, dmitry peskov stated that "the kremlin is in a mood to generally liberate Ukraine from all forms of neo-Nazi sentiment."

The European integration course and development of Ukraine are unstoppable

Despite the extremely difficult conditions, Ukraine continues to progress on the European track. Over the past week, a new Prosecutor General and head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office appeared in Ukraine.

"The main tasks of the prosecutor's office today are to prosecute all russian war criminals, restore justice and defend the interests of Ukraine. I am convinced that Andrii Kostin, as a professional lawyer, will be able to ensure the systemic work of the Prosecutor General's Office. His first important decision in his new position was the appointment of the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. It is Oleksandr Klymenko," — Volodymyr Zelenskyi commented on personnel changes.

Ukraine has increased electricity exports to Europe's consumers, and the process of European integration has shifted from the sphere of foreign policy to the domestic area.

"Can a market economy survive a great war? War is a test for any system. We are passing it with dignity. War is costly. Defeat is more expensive. We need sincere partners, financial leverage, and restructuring. Ukraine should feel that behind our back, there is the strength of the economy and the military industry of the West," Mykhailo Podoliak says.

At the same time, the Government of Ukraine has submitted a draft law on the conditions for acquiring Ukrainian citizenship.

"When the law is adopted, in order to obtain Ukrainian citizenship, it will be necessary to pass a comprehensive examination in the basics of the Constitution of Ukraine, the history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian language," stressed the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal. In his opinion, "the citizenship of Ukraine is a privilege that must be earned through knowledge and respect for the fundamental principles of the country."

In addition to rebuilding and ensuring the life of the country because of the actions of terrorists, Ukraine has launched an information campaign "The Vanguard History of Ukraine." The fundraising platform UNITED24 and YouTube channel @ U24_gov_ua have been developed, and Ukraine now celebrates the Day of Ukrainian Statehood.

"All stages of the history of statehood of Ukraine, its protection and struggle for it can be described in one sentence. WE WERE in the past, we are in the present, and we WILL BE there in the future!",  declared Volodymyr Zelensky.