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Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔  28-September-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Who gets sent to war.
⬤ Will Russia go further? 
⬤ “Resist invasion or accept occupation.”
⬤ Research on human rights in Ukraine. 
⬤ Evidence of Russian torture. 
⬤ Oleshky under siege.
⬤ Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children.
⬤ Russia’s rigged election.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

Russia upends the law for 12-year sentence against 62-year-old from occupied Luhansk oblast (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 25th)

Russian court upholds medical torture and likely death sentence against Crimean Tatar political prisoner (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 25th)

The Sixth Summit of the International Crimea Platform: Key Messages (Crimea Platform, Sep 24th)

Russia sentences four Melitopol men, one just 18 when abducted and tortured, to up to 28 years (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 24th)

Russian invaders sentence Mariupol man to 25 years (Kharkiv Human Rights Prot’n Group, 23 Sept)

Over 1,000 sexual crimes since Russia's full-scale invasion, including the rape of a 4-year-old, genital beatings and torture (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 22nd)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, September 22nd)

The EU and Ukraine’s partner states have condemned Russia’s sham elections in the temporarily occupied territories (Crimea Platform, September 22nd)

Massive 18-year sentence in Russian copy-paste ‘trial’ of Ukrainian from occupied Kherson oblast (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 21st)

Progress of the war

The Realities of Russia’s Brutal War Against Ukraine and Europe (Russian Reader, September 26th)

Environmental Consequences of War, July-Aug (Ukraine War Environmental Consequences work group, 26 Sept)

Oleshky under siege: a city where people eat grass, hide bodies in a hospital basement and wait for an evacuation that never comes (Ukrainska Pravda, September 25th)

The consumer boom is over: Ukrainian drone strikes on Wildberries and Ozon mark the end of Russians’ spending spree (The Insider, September 22nd)

Before the war and now: shocking images of Ukrainian cities (Eastern Frontier Initiative, 27 August)

News from Ukraine

Journalist Maria Yizhvenko killed in Russian drone strike (Ukrainska Pravda, 26 Sept)

US allocates $27 million for return of kidnapped Ukrainian children (Kyiv Independent 25 Sept)

Bail that cannot be paid is not bail. Statement by human rights organisations (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 23rd)

Former Supreme Court deputy head faces corruption charges (Kyiv Independent, 23 Sept)

Improving Humane Conditions in Places of Detention by Strengthening the National Preventive System in Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 18th)

Ukraine foreign minister: Ukraine should choose its heroes carefully (Ukrainska Pravda 17 Sept)

War-related news from Russia

Elections expert Alexander Kynev arrested (Meduza, 25 September)

Women in Prison: Serving Full Time (Posle.Media, September 23rd)

Cases of forced deployment are multiplying (Mediazona, 22 September)

About 60% of United Russia votes might be fabricated (iStories, 22 September)

Four years of ‘partial mobilisation’ (Mediazona, 21 September)

Comment and analysis

Will Russia go further and start a conventional war against another country? (Oksana Dutchak on facebook, 27 September)

“Resist invasion or accept occupation”: reply to Lindsey German of ‘Stop the War’ (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, September 26th)

Russia’s rigged election gives Putin mandate for all-out war (Kyiv Independent, 22 Sept)

TUC Congress votes to reaffirm solidarity with Ukraine (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, 21 September)

Who Gets Sent to War? (The Radical, September 21st)

It doesn’t have to be this way (Radical Dumpling, September 21st)

Research of human rights abuses

Report: human rights in Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 26th)

ECtHR held a hearing on Russia’s abduction of ten Ukrainian children from occupied Crimea: ZMINA and other NGOs joined as third parties (Zmina, September 23rd)

Access to justice behind bars: Ukraine’s experience presented (Zmina, September 22nd)

Human rights defenders discuss cognitive occupation of Ukrainian territories in the framework of Crimea Days in Czechia (Zmina, September 22nd)

UN Commission points to human impact of Russia’s targeting of energy infrastructure, militarisation of education, and recruitment of foreign nationals (UN Human Rights, September 21st)

Also not to be missed

From Russia with ‘Russophobia’: propagandists pose as ‘angry Latvians’ (The Insider, 26 September)

The EU lifted sanctions on two billionaires, extended sanctions on others (Meduza, 25 September)

Empty streets and ‘dragon’s teeth’: Lithuania-Russia border (Eastern Frontier Initiative, 20 Sept)
🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

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We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.

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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 214

National Secular Society ★ 17 baby boys treated for "life threatening haemorrhage, shock or sepsis which relates to a circumcision" at one NHS trust last year.


The National Secular Society has warned of a 'catastrophic failure of child safeguarding' after damning new research reveals boys are coming to serious harm following circumcision in Birmingham.

Data acquired by the NSS shows 17 baby boys were treated for "life threatening haemorrhage, shock or sepsis which relates to a circumcision" at Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust last year.

A further 29 babies were treated at the Trust for serious complications between 2022 and 2024, at an estimated cost of £264,000 to the taxpayer.

The NHS only funds medically necessary circumcisions, which are rarely needed for infants, suggesting that many of the procedures were performed in the local community for non-therapeutic (i.e. religious or cultural) reasons.

Under UK law, anyone can legally circumcise boys, even if they have no medical training or "proven expertise". Anaesthesia does not have to be used, and doctors struck off the medical register for dangerous circumcisions can continue to legally circumcise boys as laypeople.

At least five babies have died since 2007 following non-therapeutic circumcisions.

Continue @ NSS. 

Birmingham 🪶17 Babies Suffer Serious Circumcision Complications

Merrion Press ðŸ”– has published a new book by  Orlaith McBride & John Gibney




THE STORY OF US
Independent Ireland and the 1926 Census
 

 Orlaith McBride & John Gibney



On 18 April 1926 the first census of an independent Irish state was undertaken. Across the 26 counties over 700,000 census forms were completed by, or on behalf of, the 2,971,992 people living in the Irish Free State. But what can we know of the lives that they led?

A century later, with the release of the 1926 census by the National Archives on 18 April 2026, those forms come alive again – revealing a nation in transition and a people forging their identity in the early decades of independence. The Story of Us brings together a wide range of scholars to illuminate the individuals and communities hidden within the census returns. From island settlements to expanding cities, from rural farms and urban tenements to the mansions of the aristocracy, the book traces a vibrant cross-section of society. Lavishly illustrated, it explores themes ranging from entertainment and the arts to housing, infrastructure, family life, and social change.

The Story of Us offers not only a compelling portrait of 1926 Ireland but a deeper understanding of the world in which these lives unfolded.

Hardback • €24.99|£22.99 • 216pages • 240mm x 190mm • 9781788551816
Buy your copy

About The Authors

Orlaith McBride has been Director of the National Archives/An Chartlann Náisiúnta since April 2020. She previously served as Director of the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, where she led major national initiatives including the 2016 commemorations programme. Earlier in her career, she worked widely across the arts sector. She has served on Dublin City University’s Governing Authority and is a member of the Brian Friel Trust.

John Gibney is Assistant Editor with the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy programme. He has written widely on Irish history and historiography. His books include A short history of Ireland (Yale University Press), and he was one of the co-curators of the major international exhibitions presented by the National Archives in partnership with the RIA to mark the centenaries of both the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and Irish membership of the League of Nations in 1923.


Out Now 📚 Orlaith McBride & John Gibney

Right Wing Watch ðŸ‘€Written by Peter Montgomery.


While the Family Research Council’s recent and final Pray Vote Stand national activist conference was a pale imitation of the group’s glory years, speakers made clear that the still-powerful religious-right movement is committed to advancing an anti-equality, anti-freedom, exclusionary Christian nationalist agenda—and looking to make it all possible by keeping Republicans in power in the upcoming midterm elections.
Ending Access to Abortion

The stars of the opening night were U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and his wife Erin Hawley, a lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which played a major role in getting the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Sen. Hawley, a close ally of dominionist activist Sean Feucht, expressed anti-abortion activists’ frustration that the number of abortions in the U.S. have risen since Roe was overturned, because federal policy changes made during the Biden administration facilitate the distribution of the abortion drug mifepristone by mail, allowing patients to access it despite state-level abortion bans.

Religious-right groups have been demanding that the Trump administration reverse those policies, which Hawley complained “is turning every mailbox in America into a Planned Parenthood.”

Continue @ RWW.

Religious Right Wants GOP In Power to End Abortion Access, Reverse Marriage Equality, Impose Religious Test On Supreme Court

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand One Hundred And Twelve

 

Pastords @ 64

 

A Morning Thought @ 3283

Kate Rice ✍ Like most people, my social media feed has recently been awash with news of protesters in Dover, Portsmouth, and other seaside towns, demonstrating against small boat migration and the RNLI’s "helping hand." 

The fallout from these actions hit a boiling point when the Portsmouth Lifeboat Station was forced to temporarily suspend its services due to the intense physical and online abuse directed at its volunteers.

Where I can usually form a coherent opinion on complex public matters, I find myself completely baffled by this. The RNLI has existed since 1824, and since its inception, it has been an entirely indiscriminate humanitarian service. Its founding ethos is to protect those in peril on the sea—full stop. There is no clause stating "protect as long as they look like us" or "protect as long as they hold the right documentation." Its only mandate is to save those who are drowning.

When I was a child visiting the seaside, the RNLI hubs were places of community and pride. Volunteers were always happy to show you the lifeboats and share stories of maritime history. They never spoke of a political agenda because they didn't have one; their sole focus was saving lives. To any normal person, this selflessness is admirable. So why are we now seeing crowds calling themselves "patriots" protesting heroic charity work, threatening good-hearted volunteers, and driving vital rescue operations off-service?

The forced closure of the Portsmouth station creates an undeniable hazard. On an immensely popular stretch of coastline, risks emerge every day for hobby sailors, windsurfers, families, and yes, migrants in small boats. The irony is that during the Portsmouth incident, RNLI volunteers even stepped in to ensure the safety of the protesters who had waded into the water to confront the arriving boat. The charity protects everyone.

This unconditional humanity isn't new. During the Second World War, the RNLI routinely rescued downed German airmen from the sea. They did so without stopping to check documentation, and without pausing to consider that these men were actively at war with their country. They saved them simply because they were human beings facing death in the water. Once safe on solid ground, the proper authorities took over.

This is exactly what happens on the rare occasions they assist small boats in the English Channel. It is not the purpose of a volunteer rescue crew to act as border enforcement or to assess legal status; their only job is to ensure a person doesn’t die when a tragedy is entirely preventable. Channel rescues make up barely more than one per cent of the RNLI's nationwide callouts, yet volunteers are being branded as "traitors" online and targeted at their stations. Demanding that volunteers stand by and watch people suffer or drown is, without question, inhuman.

All human beings possess a fundamental right to life and safety. The human condition must always take precedence over a political or legal status. Protests targeting a lifesaving charity are dangerous reflections of xenophobic rhetoric. The consequences of these actions do not just endanger migrants; they put the volunteers themselves at risk and threaten the legal citizens who rely on those same lifeboats every single day.

When does it end? Will these critics only be satisfied when more small boat crossings end the way it did for two-year-old Alan Kurdi, the Syrian child whose lifeless body washed ashore, becoming a horrifying symbol of global inaction and a heart breaking picture on the cover of our newspapers? We cannot allow political bias and bigoted anger to dictate who lives and who dies when the means to save them are readily available.

The RNLI and its lifesaving mission must be fiercely protected. To those standing on the shores shouting insults at rescue boats, I ask a simple question - will you only be satisfied when the tide brings in nothing but bodies to bury?

⏩Kate Rice is a peace baby.

Hating The RNLI

Geordie Morrow ðŸ–Œ with a painting from his collection of art work.

painted this on my release from prison, a colourless palette, the image of the two, myself and my right arm, the visit to our father, with our faithful Bruce, enjoying his dinner, a Frey Bentos steak and kidney by the light of the TV, acrylic on canvas 36”x30” 1977


⏩Geordie Morrow is a Belfast artist.

I Was So Much Older Then - I’m Younger Than That Now

Anthony McIntyre ☠ This month marks the third anniversary of Israel's genocide in Gaza. 

Since the nation of child killers invaded Gaza with one aim in mind - making Palestinian life unsustainable - the people of conscience involved with Drogheda Stands With Palestine have assembled each Saturday to protest the genocide and offer solidarity to the Palestinian people. 

The citizens of Drogheda are for the most part welcoming. The rare outbursts of hostility invariably come from those who claim to be Irish nationalists but who are in fact Irish racists. I usually tell them to put their hats on as woodpeckers are about. The colour form might be different from the hate filled bigots who are currently trying to have their march forced down Garvaghy Road. The Irish racists wave green, white and orange, the Portadown hate cabal's colour preference is red, white and blue. Don't be fooled by form or colour. The content is the same. Hate mongers eager to target people they deem children of a lesser god.

Since we gathered here last Saturday, the Irish national soccer team has most unfortunately turned out against Israel. A 3-0 victory over the child killers brings no consolation to those opposed to the game ever having being played. Even less to the besieged and beleaguered of Gaza. When Stop The Game tennis balls were hurled onto the pitch at the Aviva Stadium during Ireland's midweek game against Austria, the thought struck me that there were more balls thrown from the spectators than there are among the ethical eunuchs in the higher echelons of the the Football Association of Ireland. So, it was with a sense of pride that I watched our very own Joanna Byrne, who has stood with us in this very spot, tear strips out of the FAI for its refusal to withdraw from the game during an Oireachtas committee hearing into the handling of the fixtures. She quickly took the smirk from the smarmy face of Paul Cooke, the FAI President.

While it was good to see the Irish players refuse to shake hands with the team representing the genocidal state, and to wear black armbands, it was small consolation, style over substance. At the turning point the entire Irish team, bar one, failed to turn. Gavin Bazuna, alone chose to walk away from the child killers rather than play with them. The Irish squad was given the opportunity to vote on whether to play Israel or abstain. It chose to play and in doing so allowed the Israelis to claim that 'football has won.' Sport didn't win. Sportswashing did.

Also during the week I saw an image of a 94 year old woman, the human rights barrister Margaret Owen, being carried by a large group of British police officers. She was being forcibly removed from the British Labour Party conference because she protested genocide and supported Palestine Action. Like Gavin Bazuna she took a stand of substance, rather than opt for posture protest. Defend Our Juries, which organised the protests, said in a statement:

Inside the Labour party conference today, Ed Miliband will tell campaigners and party members that they were right to build political pressure over Gaza with their protests. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. If he means what he says, why are those taking a principled stand against genocide still being arrested as terrorists?

Like the FAI, the British Labour Party is big hat and no cattle.

The Irish soccer team stands to repeat its obscene abdication tomorrow evening and again take to the field against the child killers. They would do well to ponder the words of Dave Sherlock of the Stop The Game Coalition.

You can't play football with these people – you have government ministers standing up in their parliament and saying there are no innocents in Gaza, kill them all, kill the children because they'll only grow up to be terrorists.

For words such as these Dave Sherlock and Joanna Byrne, like the elderly supporters of Palestine Action, will be seen as the real problem. the message from the FAI: let's pillory the protestors and play the child killers.

⏩Follow on Bluesky.


Ethical Eunuchs

Brandon Sullivan ðŸŽ¤ Ulster Said No, Loyalists Went on the Rampage: They’ve Lost every Fight They’ve Started Since

How this situation came about can be summed up as follows. In November 1985, the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland signed an agreement with Ireland. For the first time, Dublin had a say in the governing of NI - albeit an advisory role, Unionists were apoplectic with fury, and the “Ulster Says No" campaign was a launched. Whilst unionist paranoia had reached a fever pitch, there did seem to be a new determination on the security forces to face down loyalist street disorder. Or, to be more accurate, there seemed to be the political will to use the RUC to quell loyalist street disorder. Much, but by no means all of this, seemed to be in Portadown, more specifically, Obins Street.

For many years, Orange Order parades travelled through Obins Street on their way to Drumcree Parish Church. Nationalist residents increasingly objected to the marches, arguing that repeated loyalist parades through their area were intimidating and that they were not treated equally when seeking to hold St Patrick’s Day parades elsewhere in Portadown.

In 1985, tensions escalated following disputes surrounding parades in Portadown. In response to growing disorder, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) decided to prevent Orange Order marches from using the Obins Street/Tunnel route. In 1986, after further serious violence, the route was formally redirected. The Orange Order subsequently travelled towards Drumcree using the Garvaghy Road, which created a new and even more prominent dispute as more houses were built, which were occupied by Catholics.

At Obins Street, Unionist politicians could be heard saying to loyalist protestors that “Dublin’s giving the orders.” Ian Paisley himself, at a political event in June 1986, added to the increasing hysteria in his own tried and tested formulaic way: the BBC reporting that:

after accusing some of the police officers of mistreating him, Reverend Paisley shouted: "Don't come crying to me if your homes are attacked. You will reap what you sow".

Drumcree in the 1990s – Standing Up for God and Ulster

In the early hours of one summer morning, in the mid-1990s, a senior RUC officer walked to where a mother was standing with her young sons, who would have been about the same ages as the murdered Quinn brothers. The boys were wavering, tired, their eyes starting to close. The RUC man addressed the mother: “would you not be better off getting those wee boys home to bed?” The mother looked down and barked at her children “stand up straight for God and Ulster!” The incident stayed in the RUC man’s mind for many years after it happened.

The Orange Order, and violent loyalism was defeated at Drumcree. The “Orange Card” – which was basically “might is right” in the form of the threat of apocalyptic violence, never carried the same weight again. Loyalists tried it a few more times, with diminishing returns.

Obins, Drumcree, Harryville, Holy Cross, Flags… Loyalists lost every fight they’ve started.
Until 2026… and The Ruling by the Parades Commission

In decades to come, this will still be seen as the stupidest, most counterproductive decision taken by an entity in Northern Ireland. Conspiracy theories will abound as to why on earth close to 30 years of peace was upended by a decision.

But, the fact remains, that the Parades Commission made that decision. It ruled that 35 Orangemen could march silently, at 8am, down the Garvaghy Road.

The residents, and their supporters, blocked the road. In doing so, they adopted an approach which has some similarities to that which loyalists of the 90s took – they went for might-is-right. Let me head off any criticism of the comparison: there is a massive difference. Those on the Garvaghy Road are peaceful, are not threatening widespread murder and disorder, and are behaving in an unreproachable manner.

But they were happy with the Parades Commission until it made a decision they didn’t like, at which point they used sheer physical presence to prevent its decision being carried out.

Isn’t that hypocrisy?

Isn’t that what Bryson and Portadown LOL No 1 want?

Wouldn’t it have been better to let the 35 prize specimens waddle silently down a road and then take to the courts to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

My Tuppence Worth

I think the Chief Constable of the PSNI has a raft of issues, personal and political, that make him ill-suited to dealing with the situation that has unfolded. Within his ranks are Continuity RUC types, that probably dislike him as much as they dislike the residents of the Garvaghy Road. Could these officers have offered the Parades Commission some sort of false guarantees? Could this be about getting Boutcher to resign? Predictably, some are calling for it. Yet he won’t go. But he’s going to be having a bad week or two.

Jamie Bryson, on the other hand, will be delighted. He’d have been devastated if the Orangemen had got to go for a silent Sunday stroll.

Should nationalists have shown some magnanimous pathos and let the Orangemen take their heavily restricted walk?

This piece is designed to stimulate debate. I hope that it follows.

⏩Brandon Sullivan is a middle-aged West Belfast émigré. He juggles fatherhood & marriage with working in a policy environment and writing for TPQ about the conflict, films, books, and politics.

Should The Garvaghy Road Residents Have Allowed The Orange Order To March Down Their Road?

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand One Hundred And Eleven

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