The situation on the front line, July 28, 2017. Map by ATO
Ukraine Day 1256: LIVE UPDATES BELOW. One Ukrainian soldier was wounded in action.
Yesterday’s coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here.
An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
1 Ukrainian Soldier WIA, Less Attacks; Saakashvili Vows to Fight Stripping of Ukrainian Citizenship
Mikheil Saakashvili. Photo by AP
The ATO [Anti-Terrorist Operation] cited 17 attacks from Russia-backed forces in the previous reporting period on July 27, Liga.net reported.
One Ukrainian soldier was wounded in action.
The day was described as “relatively quiet” with some attacks at dusk. On the Donetsk line, militants fired on Avdeyevka with grenade-launchers and small arms.
On the Mariupol line, heavy machine guns were fired on Vodyanoye and Maryinka
On the Lugansk line, Zolotoye and Stanitsa Luganskaya were struck with small arms and an armed BMP pounded Novozvanovka.
Although shelling was reduced, reconnaissance activity increased; the ATO recorded 4 drone flights. A reconnaissance group of militants was also detected at Nikolayevka with the aid of night vision and repelled.
Ukrainian military intelligence says that 28 Russia-backed separatists have been killed in battle in the last week, Liga.net reported. They provided the names and numbers of units and the numbers of those killed in action.
Separatist news sources affiliated with the self-declared “Donetsk People’s Republic” have not reported so many casualties.
Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia appointed as governor of Odessa Region by President Petro Poroshenko, and once given citizenship to take this post, has now been stripped of his citizenship, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Saakashvili’s lawyer plans to appeal the action.
Poroshenko announced the removal of Saakashvili’s citizenship on July 26 after returning from a trip to Georgia to meet with the Georgian leadership. While at first he said Ukraine had not received an extradition request, later he said they had.
The presidential administration cited a claim that Saakashvili had not revealed everything about criminal prosecution of him in Georgia for “exceeding his powers” while president, when he was granted the Ukrainian citizenship.
Saakashvili was automatically stripped of Georgian citizenship in December 2015 after taking the Ukrainian citizenship.
About 100 demonstrators came to the Maidan to protest the stripping of Saakashvili’s citizenship.
Saakashvili is currently in the United States, where he may be forced to seek asylum, RFE/RL reported.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
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