Ukrainian artillery took out a large group of Russian forces including multiple vehicles and joked that they are helping them to provide more “gestures of goodwill”, as these images show.
The footage, shot from a drone, appears to show at least seven Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers hiding among civilian buildings along a road.
The area is then apparently shelled by Ukrainian artillery units, reportedly resulting in the destruction of the Russian tanks and other vehicles.
The footage was obtained from the 40th Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces – officially the ’40th Separate Artillery Brigade named after Grand Duke Vytautas’ – on Thursday, July 7, along with a statement saying: “Thunder and flames! A couple more gestures of goodwill from Muscovites with the help of the 40th Artillery Brigade.”
The footage was also relayed by the Office of Strategic Communications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the Russian withdrawal from Snake Island in the Black Sea – which is now flying the Ukrainian flag again – was a planned “gesture of goodwill”, leading Ukrainian forces, who shelled their positions for days, to begin jokingly using the expression as a euphemism for retreat or, as appears to be the case here, obliteration.
We contacted the 40th Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces for further comment, as well as the Russian MoD, but haven’t received a reply at the time of writing.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what the Kremlin is calling a “special military operation.” July 7 marks the 134th day of the invasion.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between February 24 and July 7, Russia had lost about 36,650 personnel, 1,602 tanks, 3,797 armored combat vehicles, 815 artillery units, 247 multiple launch rocket systems, 107 air defense systems, 217 warplanes, 187 helicopters, 667 drones, 155 cruise missiles, 15 warships, 2,665 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 66 units of special equipment.
Russian forces are intensifying their attacks in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Civilians are fleeing Sloviansk as Russian forces push towards the city. This comes after the Donetsk regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, urged 350,000 civilians to evacuate the area.
British intelligence has said that the battle for Sloviansk will probably be the next key target for Russian forces. The British Ministry of Defense said that Russian forces “from the Eastern and Western Groups of Forces are likely now around [10 miles] north from the town of Sloviansk. With the town also under threat from the Central and Southern Groups of Forces, there is a realistic possibility that the battle for Sloviansk will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that heavy weapons from Ukraine’s western allies have finally started working at “full capacity” on the frontlines, with Ukraine’s General Staff denying Russian claims that two U.S.-supplied HIMARS light multiple rocket launchers had been destroyed. They instead said that the weapons were being used to inflict “devastating blows” on the invading forces.
Luhansk’s regional governor Serhiy Haidai has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of carrying out a scorched earth policy, “burning down and destroying everything on their way,” as resistance remains strong in villages around the city of Lysychansk, which recently fell to Russian forces.
The Russian parliament is rushing through two new bills to impose strict controls on the country’s economy and require that businesses supply the armed forces.
The United Nations has said that nearly 9 million people have now left Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s invasion. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova has said that the country is investigating over 21,000 Russian war crimes committed since the beginning of the invasion.
A court in Russia has ordered the suspension of Kazakh oil exports to the West for a month. Russia controls the Novorossiisk Black Sea oil terminal where tankers are loaded with oil that transits, via a pipeline, from Kazakhstan’s Tengiz oilfield. Western sanctions have restricted Russia’s oil and gas exports, increasing demand for producers like Kazakhstan.
But the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has refused to recognize the pro-Russian, so-called People’s Republic of Donetsk and the People’s Republic of Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine, and has also said that Kazakhstan might increase its oil exports to the European Union.
