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Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 3-August-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Killings of Ukrainian POWs.
⬤ Crimea economy collapsing.
⬤ Ukraine protests analysed.
⬤ Why men of conscription age leave Ukraine.
⬤ Russia’s military indoctrination of Ukrainian children.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

We investigated Russia’s military indoctrination of Ukrainian children in occupied territories (The Conversation, July 31st)

Monstrous 18-year sentence against 66-year-old Ukrainian from Russian-occupied Sevastopol (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 31st)

Russia uses Ukrainian flag as pretext for new charges against ‘freed’ political prisoner Serhiy Buhaichuk (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 31st)

Face of Resistance: The Story of Political Prisoner Zavur Abdullayev (Crimea Platform, July 31st)

Crimea unplugged: The Russian-occupied peninsula’s businesses are buckling under blackouts, fuel shortages and a failed tourist season (The Insider, July 30th)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, July 29th)

Russia’s attack on Crimean Solidarity extends repression to all lawyers defending political prisoners (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 28th)

Ukrainian sentenced to 12 years for ‘endangering Russian security’ through donation to Ukraine’s defenders (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 27th)

News from Ukraine

Assault regiment commander ordered troops to fire on retreating comrades, media investigation alleges (Kyiv Independent, July 30th)

From Syrski to Drapatyi: Ukraine’s military shake-up (Hromadske, 24 July)

Progress of the war

De-crudeification: How Ukraine’s strike campaign on Russian oil refineries is changing the war (The Insider, July 30th)

Drone strikes on "Russia's Amazon": the story of Wildberries (Ukrainska Pravda, July 29th)

Ukraine and Iran's dangerous new standoff, explained (Kyiv Independent, July 29th)

War-related news from Russia

Darya Shipacheva: convicted of treason and sentenced to 12 years in prison (Meduza, 31July)

Russian losses in the war: Mediazona’s count, updated (Mediazona, 31 July)

Russia's defense giant quietly launches new cryptocurrency despite EU sanctions (Kyiv Independent, July 30th)

Daniil Belousov: A Political Prisoner’s Son, Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison (Russian Reader, July 29th)

Russian music after 2022: between propaganda and protest (Posle.Media, 29 July)

You Could Be in Pictures (Russia’s Elite Universities and the War) (Russian Reader, July 25th)

Comment and analysis

Draft dodgers and veterans: the chasm on which Ukraine's victory in the war depends (Ukrainska Pravda, July 28th)

Can Germany prove Ukraine blew up Nord Stream? (Kyiv Independent, July 26th)

Masculinity, Guilt and Citizenship: how men of conscription age make sense of leaving Ukraine (Commons.com.ua, 29 July)

After the protests: power, capital and Ukraine’s defence economy (Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, 24 July)

The war’s deepening impact on civilians (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 21 July)

Research of human rights abuses

Ripped from their families and shipped to Russia: The tragic story of Ukraine’s children (The Independent, July 31st)

Only Russia wins if there is no international investigation of its Olenivka mass killing of Ukrainian POWs (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 29th)

War crimes probe initiated after Russians interrogate, then execute Ukrainian POW (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 27th)

Ukraine’s implementation of the concluding observations of the UN Committee against Torture discussed in Kyiv (Zmina, July 24th)

International solidarity

Ukrainian campaign group welcomes EU’s 21st sanctions package, but calls for loopholes to be closed (Razom We Stand, 23 July)

Strengthening Sanctions on Russian Fossil Fuels (B4Ukraine, July 2026)

Also not to be missed

Salvadorans fighting and dying in global conflict zones (El Salvador Perspectives, July 26th)

🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 207

Atheist Ireland ★ As Ireland starts its six-month presidency of the EU Council, Atheist Ireland has submitted a petition to European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions.

1-July-2026

This official process allows citizens and organisations to ask the Parliament to examine how EU law is being implemented in practice.

We’re asking it to examine a gap in Irish equality law. This explicitly protects people with religious beliefs. But it only addresses atheism, humanism, and secularism as the absence of religious beliefs. It does not give them equal status as positive beliefs in their own right.

By contrast, European law refers to freedom of ‘religion or belief’. And the ‘or belief’ part of that phrase refers to nonreligious philosophical convictions. These have the same legal status as religious beliefs.

The problem is not merely symbolic. It shapes how public bodies, schools, equality tribunals, legislators, and regulators understand and apply rights. It causes practical discrimination against atheists, humanists, secularists, and others.

Ironically, the Irish government does recognise the status of Atheist Ireland and the Humanist Association of Ireland as partners in the formal dialogue process with churches and philosophical bodies under Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty.

But Irish citizens do not receive the equal legal protection that this recognition implies. The gap appears across equality law, religious oaths for public office, the education system, marriage solemnisation, charity law, taxation, political advocacy, and access to effective remedies.

What are the consequences of this discrimination?

The Irish Constitution requires religious declarations for several public offices. This means a conscientious atheist cannot become President, a judge, or a member of the Council of State (which includes the Taoiseach and Tánaiste) because they would have to swear an oath to a god they do not believe in.

The Irish State funds a school system in which most schools are controlled by religious patron bodies. There are no non-denominational schools registered with the Department of Education. Boards of management are required to uphold the characteristic spirit, or ethos, of the school as determined by the patron.

In addition, Irish equality law provides exemptions that allow religious bodies and schools to discriminate on the ground of religion in order to protect their religious ethos. These exemptions affect both employment of teachers, and access to education for non-religious families (Section 37 Employment Equality Act and Section 7 Equal Status Act)

The Irish State has no guidelines on how to give practical application to respecting the beliefs of all families equally in publicly funded schools. The only detailed guidelines in place are those issued by the Catholic Church. These assert that atheism and humanism are not ‘beliefs’, directly contradicting EU and international law.

In a case under the Equal Status Act, the WRC accepted the school’s argument that providing alternative classes for students who opted out of religion might cause chaos within the school. It also suggested that offering another subject to such a child could potentially discriminate against students who attended religious classes.

This illustrates the practical problem. Atheism and humanism are treated merely as an absence of religion. This means the burden falls on the non-religious child to fit around the religious ethos, rather than on the publicly funded school to respect all convictions equally.

The Civil Registration Amendment Act 2012 (Section 45A(1)) discriminates in favour of religious bodies over secular bodies in relation to the solemnisation of marriages. It also discriminates between secular bodies, as only secular bodies with humanist objects can solemnise marriages. The result is that religious bodies are trusted to define their own religious purposes, while secular bodies must fit a narrower statutory category.

Irish charity law and tax law also discriminate against citizens and bodies with non-religious philosophical convictions. The advancement of religion is recognised as a charitable purpose. The advancement of atheism, humanism, or secularism is not. Religious bodies can obtain charitable status and associated tax advantages for the advancement of religion. Secular philosophical bodies cannot.

We’re asking the European Parliament to examine why Irish law does not reflect EU law on freedom of religion or belief.

⏩ Follow Atheist Ireland on X @atheistie

Atheist Ireland Petitions European Parliament On Irish Equality Laws

National Secular Society ★ 'No UK charity should be supporting them', says Keir Starmer.

8-July-2026

A Jewish charity in London is being investigated by the regulator for funding a religious school in an illegal Israeli settlement in the Palestinian city of Hebron, it has been reported.

According to The Guardian, the charity Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent almost £200,000 to the religious school between 2019 and 2024.

The UK Government has:

a clear position on Israeli settlements: Settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We strongly advise against conducting any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements", it adds.

The charity is registered under the charitable purposes 'the advancement of religion' and 'the advancement of education'. Registered charities are legally required to act for the public benefit and are exempted from most forms of income tax.

Last month, Labour MP Melanie Ward claimed 32 charities in England and Wales have donated at least £28m to fund illegal Israeli settlements. The taxpayer may have subsidised up to £5.6m of this, she said.

It is not known how many of the 32 charities are registered under 'the advancement of religion'.

Continue @ NSS.

Jewish Charity Investigated For Illegal Settlement Fundraising

Right Wing Watch 👀Written by Peter Montgomery.


“Prophet” and MAGA propagandist Kent Christmas hosted a July 26 “Revival at Ryman” at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville with a cast of characters that included MAGA “prophet” Hank Kunneman and FlashPoint’s Gene Bailey. Christmas, who talked about the event with ElijahStreams’ Steve Shultz on Aug. 3, prophesied that God is getting ready to kill a bunch of people:

“And the days are going to come," said the Lord, "where I'm going to mute the mouth of the evil one. And those that have made covenant with the devil, I'm going to remove them." And the Lord said, "It's a wave, not just of judgment." But God said, "Also, when the glory of the Lord is released, death is going to hit the wicked kingdom." And He said, "The gallows that have been built to hang the Gospel on are going to be reversed." God said, "I'm going to reverse it, and I'm going to hang those that built it [the gallows] on their own judgment.”

Purporting to be speaking on behalf of God, Christmas said God is going to judge and purify the church, including 'every woke preacher . . . '

Continue @ RWW.

MAGA ‘Prophet’ Kent Christmas Keeps Saying God is Gonna Start Killing a Bunch of People

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Fifty Six

 


Pastords @ 56

 

A Morning Thought @ 3228

Pádraic Mac Coitir ✒ As part of the annual Roger Casement commemorations me and Alan Daly as members of Roger Casement Commemoration & Re-interment Association brought three wreaths to Glasnevin cemetery, Sandycove and Dún Laoghaire all associated with Casement.

Roger Casement was reinterred in Glasnevin in 1965 after his remains were taken from Pentonville prison in London where he was executed by an English hangman on 3rd August 1916. His grave is one of the first on entering the cemetery. I've been there many times and would suggest for people to pay a visit.

We then drove to Sandycove and we commented on how much more plush that part of Baile Atha Cliath is compared to the working class parts of the city. 

We arrived at the street where Casement was born and when we reached number 29 there was a plaque on the wall with a wreath below it. When we knocked the door we were met by a man who couldn't be friendlier. He introduced himself as Tom Cook and he was delighted to see us, especially when we told him who we were reprseenting. He was born in that house in the early 1950s and he remembered many stories growing up about Roger Casement. 

There was a cottage built in the 19th century where Casement was born but after his mother died he moved to Ballymena aged 15 where relatives looked after him. The cottage was demolished and replaced by two houses in the 1920s and a plaque erected by the National Graves Association in 1941. Parades were regularly held by Irish Republicans up until 1969 when the recent phase of conflict broke out. The Free State special branch sat outside the house and harassed people and given the area it is in many kept their heads down but Tom's family continued to look after the plaque. He also told us he flew a Palestinian flag outside the house but he was waiting one being delivered. We could have stayed a lot longer but had to be in Dún Laoghaire for 7pm so we bade farewell and told Tom we would be in touch and hopefully he'll come up to do a talk.

Ten minutes later we met people at a local community centre called Eblana House. After introductions we walked to the seafront and on the way down I couldn't get over how wealthy the place looked. As we looked over the coast we saw the statue of Casement and from a distance it looked impressive. When we reached it there was a crowd of about thirty and a piper led us on a short walk where he played a lament then Amhrán na bhFiann. Alan and another person spoke very briefly then wreaths were laid. 

As the rain came on we walked with a few others back to the centre. We couldn't stay too long but glad we did even for fifteen minutes. A video was shown of Catherine Connolly speaking at the centre a few weeks earlier and I have to say she was very good. She spoke about Casement and about the horrors he witnessed in the Congo and Peru when millions of people were killed, starved and mutilated by colonialists from Europe. She went on to speak of the horrors we are witnessing today being carried out by modern day colonialists. I just hope that when she meets those very same people carrying out atrocities throughout the world she speaks about Casement.

As we drove home Alan and I agreed it was a very worthwhile day. I could write a lot more about Roger Casement but if anyone needs to know more about him there a lot of of books and articles out there.

Padraic Mac Coitir is a former republican
prisoner and current political activist.

Roger Casement

Geordie Morrow 🖌 with a painting from his collection of art work. 



 Oil On Canvas 32”x22”

⏩Geordie Morrow is a Belfast artist.

Chilly Hours And Minutes Of Uncertainty

Muiris Ó Súilleabháin ✍ It is becoming increasingly difficult to see how Sinn Féin can extricate itself from the political position it has created for itself, both North and South. 

Voices that would once have defended every leadership decision are now questioning the party's direction. Some are calling for a change of leadership, others for a fundamental reassessment of strategy, many for both. Either would require an acknowledgement that much of what has been presented as success to date has, in reality, fallen short.

In the north, Sinn Féin entered government promising change. Michelle O'Neill spoke of being a First Minister for all. Yet the party ends its first full legislative term at the head of the Northern Ireland (sic) Executive with little tangible evidence that it has delivered any of the transformation promised to workers, families or the communities that have formed the backbone of its electoral support.

The explanation now being offered as an election approaches is familiar: delivery was blocked by the British Government and/or the DUP. Power-sharing does impose real constraints, but that is only part of the story. As Samuel Johnson observed, "What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure." The same might be said of political promises. Many of Sinn Féin's manifesto commitments were neither distinctive nor achievable. The adaptation of Johnson's other observation comes to mind, what was good was not original, and what was original was not good.

None of this should have come as a surprise to the Party. The institutional vetoes that were negotiated by Sinn Féin at St Andrews in 2006 ensured that fundamental change would always depend upon unionist consent. Those who warned at the time that these arrangements would constrain any future Sinn Féin First Minister were dismissed as cynics. Events have proven otherwise. Equally significant was the DUP's strategic decision to forgo the Finance and Economy portfolios in favour of Communities and Education. It was a calculated judgement about where their political influence would be greatest, and one that has left Sinn Féin struggling to explain why many of its flagship ambitions remain unrealised. The consequences of those decisions are now becoming impossible to ignore.

The much-publicised Good Jobs Employment Rights Bill, presented as a flagship commitment of the party of change after Sinn Féin assumed responsibility for the Department for the Economy, will not be enacted during this Assembly mandate. For legislation heralded as a defining reform, its progress was remarkably slow. The Bill remained with the Sinn Fein Minister for years before finally reaching the Assembly, leaving limited time for meaningful consultation, democratic scrutiny and legislative passage before the end of the mandate.

Even then, the legislation fell well short of the rhetoric that accompanied it. Much of what was proposed would simply have extended to workers in the north employment protections already available elsewhere in the United Kingdom, rather than creating a new or distinctive set of rights.

The lack of attention given to drafting the Bill, became apparent almost immediately. Within twenty-four hours of the Bill's introduction, the Sinn Fein Minister was forced to amend a central proposal following universal criticism of its practical implications. The DUP seized on the reversal, rightly claiming that the Economy Minister had been "forced into a screeching U-turn which recognises a major flaw in her original proposals." Whether one accepts that characterisation or not, the episode reinforced the impression of legislation that had been inadequately prepared despite the time available to develop it.

Upon becoming leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Jon Burrows, a former RUC officer, remarked that when he first entered the Assembly, he could not decide whether Sinn Féin was attempting to undermine Northern Ireland's institutions or whether it was simply incompetent. Having observed the party in government, he said he had reached the latter conclusion.

It is not a harsh judgement, and one that has become increasingly difficult to dismiss. The handling of the Irish place names project, together with a succession of uncomfortable Assembly exchanges in which Sinn Féin ministers and senior representatives, including Gildernew, have struggled under sustained and pointed questioning from Timothy Gaston, Phillip Brett and Jonathan Buckley, has contributed to a growing perception that the party is less assured in government than it once appeared.

For a movement that built its reputation on discipline, strategic planning and political competence, such episodes matter. They do not simply provide ammunition for opponents, they raise legitimate questions among supporters about whether the party has adapted successfully from opposition and agitation to the demands of government.

After a full Assembly term leading the Northern Ireland Government, Sinn Féin ministers appear to have little political capital left to demonstrate that the promised era of change has materialised. Increasingly, ministerial announcements are dominated by photo opportunities around routine infrastructure projects, pothole repairs, road resurfacing and traffic management schemes, rather than the structural reforms that featured so prominently in the party's election campaign.

The party's defence has become equally familiar. Speaking after being promoted to a Senator, former Economy Minister Conor Murphy argued that Sinn Féin was trying hard to make the institutions and Northern Ireland work, but that progress was being frustrated by unionist resistance. There is, of course, an element of truth in that claim. The institutions were designed to require cross-community agreement on contentious issues. Yet that was not an unforeseen obstacle. It was the constitutional architecture to which Sinn Féin itself signed up, and which many critics warned would allow the DUP to frustrate significant change whenever it chose to do so.

To attribute the absence of delivery principally to unionist obstruction is therefore to overlook an uncomfortable reality, many of the constraints now cited as an explanation were negotiated, accepted and defended by Sinn Féin itself.

There is an unmistakable irony in a republican movement lamenting that unionism is preventing the institutions of Northern Ireland from functioning as intended. For decades, Sinn Féin's ambition was to challenge, disrupt and ultimately replace those institutions. Today, it finds itself defending them, explaining their limitations and appealing for their effective operation. In doing so, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish the party from the constitutional order of the SDLP it once sought to overturn.

Perhaps the greatest political transformation of the peace process has not been the capture of the institutions by Sinn Féin, but the capture of Sinn Féin by the institutions. The movement that once promised to turn Stormont upside down now finds itself constrained by its procedures, dependent upon its survival and invested in its continuity. The revolutionary has become the custodian.

Casement Park is a case in point. It may be uncomfortable for some to acknowledge, but the principal reasons for the project's failure lie not with unionist opposition but with those who carried political responsibility for delivering it. The prolonged dispute with local residents, the collapse of the original planning approval, and the persistent failure to secure a fully funded and deliverable scheme cannot simply be attributed to unionist obstruction. The greatest responsibility rests with Sinn Féin, the SDLP and those charged with managing the project, not Gordon Lyons.

Had the objective remained the timely construction of a modern stadium for Antrim GAA, Casement Park could have been completed many years ago. Instead, the ambition, driven by Sinn Fein, evolved into something far more complex. The aspiration to develop a multi-purpose venue capable of hosting major commercial events fundamentally altered the scale, cost and controversy surrounding the project. Whether that mistake was well-intentioned or not, that change of course delayed rather than advanced the interests of Gaelic games in Antrim.

The greatest losers have not been politicians but Gaels. For more than a decade, Antrim footballers, hurlers and supporters have been denied the stadium they were promised while political parties traded blame and expectations repeatedly outstripped reality.

Casement Park will almost certainly be built. When it is, it should stand as a home for the GAA and the people of Antrim rather than an outdoor concert venue or a monument to avaricious political ambition.

Casement Park is only one example. More troubling is the apparent ease with which Sinn Féin has been able to attribute their political failure, whether in government or in opposition, to unionism or to the British Government. This manufactured narrative has proved remarkably resilient, often insulating the party from any scrutiny of its own decisions and responsibilities.

The willingness of many Sinn Fein supporters and the media to accept those explanations without demanding a more searching analysis has, for years, reinforced that dynamic. There are signs, however, that this may be changing. Recent elections in the Republic and opinion polling north and south suggest that the party's carefully cultivated image of competence coupled with perpetual victimhood is beginning to encounter greater public scepticism even within their own base. Whether that scepticism becomes the catalyst for political realignment remains to be seen, but the assumption that Sinn Féin can indefinitely externalise responsibility for its own policy and political failure appears less secure than it once did.

The leadership of the movement is not oblivious to these changing political realities. Across Ireland, poorly attended republican family meetings have been hosted as the leadership sought to reassure supporters that a border poll, and ultimately Irish unity, remains within reach. Yet the momentum that once appeared to surround the constitutional question has undoubtedly slowed. The certainty with which unity was presented as an approaching political reality has given way to a more cautious and qualified narrative.

The UK's latest Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, on entering office, made clear that constitutional change within the United Kingdom was not a priority for his government, continuing a position adopted by successive British administrations since 1922. His newly appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has likewise indicated that a border poll is not under consideration. That position is not surprising. The electoral evidence has yet to even remotely demonstrate the sustained shift in public opinion that would justify the exercise of the British Secretary of State's discretion under the Good Friday Agreement.

The shift, in opinion is being reflected elsewhere. Sinn Féin's much-heralded Unity Bill failed to gain any meaningful political traction beyond the party's own ranks. Opinion polling across both jurisdictions continues to suggest that voters are more concerned with housing, healthcare, the cost of living and public services than with constitutional change. Performative politics, once one of Sinn Féin's greatest strengths, appear now, to have diminishing returns when measured against the everyday concerns of the Irish electorate north and south.

None of this is to suggest that Irish unity is impossible. Constitutional change remains a possibility. What has become increasingly difficult to sustain is the claim that it is either imminent or inevitable. The language of inevitability has collided with the real arithmetic of electoral politics and Government. For all the certainty with which it was once proclaimed, it is a destination that, in my judgement, lies beyond my generation.

I suspect Sinn Féin is fast approaching the political crossroads that many seasoned observers have long predicted. The strategic assumptions that served the party so well over the past two decades are beginning to encounter electoral and political realities that can no longer be ignored.

The choices facing the leadership are stark. In the Republic, difficult questions will inevitably arise about whether lame duck McDonald remains the person best placed to lead the party towards government. In the north, Sinn Féin faces a different but equally profound dilemma. Having invested so much political capital in the institutions established by the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements, it can neither transform them in the manner once promised nor abandon them without accepting responsibility for the resulting instability.

That is the paradox of Sinn Féin's political journey. A movement that once fought to overturn the constitutional position of the north is now one of its principal custodians. It has become bound to institutions that make the achievement of Irish unity contingent upon the consent of others, yet from which it cannot easily withdraw. The once revolutionary movement has become the establishment, and in doing so has created challenges for itself that cannot readily be resolved.

They are, indeed, interesting times.

⏩Muiris Ó Súilleabháin was a member of the Republican Movement until he retired in 2006 after 20 years of service. Fiche bhliain ag fás.

Hope Springs Eternal

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Fifty Five

 

A Morning Thought @ 3227

Remembering Tom McElwee On The 45th Anniversary Of His Death On Hunger Strike In The H Blocks Of Long Kesh.


Tom McElwee🏴 45 🏴 Eternal Dreamless Sleep

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