the enemy attacked four communities in Mykolaiv region with FPV drones and attack drones This was reported to the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration the enemy attacked the Kutsurub community three times with FPV drones and the Halytsynove community once the enemy attacked the Buzke community of the Voznesensk district with an attack drone the type of which is still being established the enemy attacked Bashtanka district with a Shahed drone air defence forces and equipment conducted combat operations in Mykolaiv region but the RMA promised to provide details later As a reminder, on the night of 3 May, air defence forces destroyed eight drones «Shahed 131/136» over Mykolaiv region According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration Vitalii Kim in Telegram “In the evening, on May 3, at about 21:40, the enemy attacked [Bashtanka] the area with a Shahed 131/136 UAV Kim added that on the night of May 4 air defense forces and means destroyed four Shahed 131/136 UAVs in Mykolaiv region According to him, on May 3, the enemy also attacked the Kutsurubska community three times with FPV drones The Halytsynivka community also came under attack by drones As a result of an attack by a Buzka community's attack drone As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Ukrainian Defense Forces shot down 69 Russian Shahed and other types of attack UAVs While citing and using any materials on the Internet links to the website ukrinform.net not lower than the first paragraph are mandatory citing the translated materials of foreign media outlets is possible only if there is a link to the website ukrinform.net and the website of a foreign media outlet Materials marked as "Advertisement" or with a disclaimer reading "The material has been posted in accordance with Part 3 of Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" No 1996 and the Law of Ukraine "On the Media" No 2023 and on the basis of an agreement/invoice Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421 You don't have permissions to access this page Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker '+n.escapeExpression("function"==typeof(o=null!=(o=r(e,"eyebrowText")||(null!=l?r(l,"eyebrowText"):l))?o:n.hooks.helperMissing)?o.call(null!=l?l:n.nullContext||{},{name:"eyebrowText",hash:{},data:t,loc:{start:{line:28,column:63},end:{line:28,column:78}}}):o)+" \n '+(null!=(o=c(e,"if").call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2PreText"):l,{name:"if",hash:{},fn:n.program(32,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:63,column:20},end:{line:63,column:61}}}))?o:"")+"\n"+(null!=(o=(c(e,"ifAll")||l&&c(l,"ifAll")||n.hooks.helperMissing).call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Text"):l,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Link"):l,{name:"ifAll",hash:{},fn:n.program(34,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:64,column:20},end:{line:70,column:30}}}))?o:"")+" Alla Barsehyan, head doctor of the hospital in Bashtanka in southern Ukraine, has been reluctantly acquiring expertise in a new and unwelcome field. “Grad rocket launchers, warplanes, Tochka-U missiles – now we know how they all sound and we can distinguish between them,” she says, listing a few of the weapons that Russia’s military has used in the Bashtanka area since it invaded Ukraine two months ago. “But this was different. It whistled as it came in over the town and the explosion was huge,” she recalls of the missile strike on April 19th that destroyed the hospital’s outpatient clinic, badly damaged its dialysis department and smashed windows all over a medical complex that served more than 100,000 residents of the wider Bashtanka district. “When the missile hit, a woman had just given birth and an operation had to be interrupted and continued later in a different place, once we had evacuated everyone here.” She says it was a “miracle” that no one was killed and that damage to the main building was relatively superficial, allowing staff to bring patients back and resume treatment and surgery after debris was cleared and empty windows frames boarded up. Local officials say there was no military presence anywhere near the hospital, making some Bashtanka residents suspect that the strike may have been revenge for the part they played in routing Russian troops who tried to take the town on March 1st. "Some of us had automatic rifles, those who didn't had petrol bombs, and some hunters brought their own guns," deputy mayor Oleksandr Vasylyev recalls of a motley force comprising 16 town councillors and about 50 territorial defence volunteers. “We positioned ourselves in places where we could take them by surprise,” he says of a convoy of Russian armoured vehicles, artillery pieces, Grad multiple rocket launchers, supply trucks and at least one powerful Pantsir missile system. “And when they came into town, we hit them with everything we had.” Mayor Oleksandr Berehovyi says the convoy of 200 – 300 military vehicles entered Bashtanka, which had a pre-war population of 12,000, in several stages. “The first group came through and we didn’t touch it – you can’t do much damage to armoured vehicles with Kalashnikovs and petrol bombs – but in the second and third groups we hit supply trucks and Grads, and those sections of the convoy got trapped.” Some Russian vehicles that were not pinned down in Bashtanka turned their fire on the town, destroying several buildings and perhaps elements of their own unit, while others tried to continue north to Novyi Buh, a slightly larger town that is just 75km from Kryvyi Rih, a major industrial city and hometown of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Leaving Bashtanka in disarray, the convoy was then attacked and destroyed by Ukrainian helicopters, and Russia's attempt to secure a key road between Kryvyi Rih and the government-controlled port of Mykolaiv on the Black Sea coast had failed. “Our air force worked really accurately and efficiently to take out the artillery and armoured vehicles that we couldn’t do much about,” says Vasylyev, standing in the mayor’s office beside a Ukrainian flag emblazoned with a rhyming rallying cry that translates as: “To hell with tanks, we’re from Bashtanka!” “We stopped their advance and made them change their plans. They didn’t expect such resistance here, but we got together and gave them a surprise. Some Russians we caught thought they were fighting special forces because the gunfire was so intense from all sides,” he recalls. Bashtanka’s town councillors now scroll through photographs of destroyed and captured Russian vehicles and the passports of soldiers captured on March 1st and rounded up later in nearby villages and fields by local territorial defence volunteers. “We had no choice,” Berehovyi says of local people’s decision to fight. “It would have been really hard to get [the Russians] out if they’d taken this area. And if I had run away then why would anyone else have stayed? I have two sons and a wife, and these invaders are like dogs, they rape and they kill – it’s just terrible.” The Russians were driven away from Bashtanka, but the March 1st battle and weeks of shelling have injured several local people, damaged almost 200 buildings around the town and prompted about half of its pre-war population to flee. “The shelling made the walls of our house shake and it scared the children so much. My grandson, he’s 3½, is now terrified of the slightest loud noise,” says Alla, a local woman wheeling her bike through dusty streets lined with white cherry blossom and red tulips. “We still hear shelling in the distance, but I hope it’s going to be safe here from now on. I don’t want to leave Bashtanka – home is always best.” Russian troops are just 50km to the southeast in the town of Snihurivka, from where Bashtanka couple Vitaliy and Svitlana Butochel and other volunteers are trying to evacuate local people. “Every day is different and we never know if the Russians are going to let people leave. It’s very tense and unpredictable there in occupied Snihurivka,” Vitaliy explains. “The other day, over the [Orthodox] Easter weekend, some people got out by pretending to the Russian soldiers that they were just going to visit relatives. They had their bicycles and hid their documents under Easter eggs and cakes that they were carrying. They were let through, and later one of our minibuses picked them up on the road.” Svitlana says several civilians have been killed by shelling in the Bashtanka district, and mattresses and bedding are still laid out in several rooms and the basement of a church hall where scores of locals spent nights sheltering from Russian artillery fire. “Our three children are safe in western Ukraine,” she says. “But we thought that if the Russians took Bashtanka they would come for Vitaliy and me straight away, because we are active volunteers and we help our armed forces.” Bashtanka's proximity to the major government-controlled cities of Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih, Odessa, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro fuels fears that its current, relative calm may just be brief respite, as Russian forces seek to move north and west from Mariupol and occupied Kherson. The Kremlin is believed to be intent on securing significant gains in eastern and southern Ukraine before Russia's May 9th Victory Day holiday, when troops and armour will parade through Red Square beneath the gaze of President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion on February 24th. Western powers are now accelerating delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine to help it withstand the Russian military’s onslaught in the east and south, while warning that the war between the neighbours and former allies could last for many months, or years. “We can probably get through spring and summer but after that it will be very hard,” Barsehyan says of the shattered windows and other structural damage at Bashtanka’s hospital, where the missile strike caused destruction estimated at more than €1 million. “Medical staff are used to dealing with death, but nothing can prepare you for this, for full-scale war,” she explains, beside what was the out-patients unit of Bashtanka hospital, but which is now a shell strewn with rubble and wrecked furniture and equipment, including a mangled x-ray machine. “There’s a kind of fear, an animal fear, that grips you when you hear these explosions. But all the staff stayed in control and no one was abandoned,” she says, in what could also be a description of how Bashtanka’s people stood in its defence. “We all did what we had to do, and we held out.” Facebook pageTwitter feed© 2025 The Irish Times DAC the Russian army launched rocket attacks on Bashtanka district and at around 21:50 p.m A hangar with agricultural machinery was damaged in the Pervomaisk community In Mykolaiv district, an FPV drone attacked the Kutsurub community on 18 April at 07:05, the Mykolaiv regional military administration reported On the same day and in the morning of 19 April five attacks by FPV drones were recorded in Ochakiv The attacks damaged the roof of a private house a car and smashed windows in a high-rise building the air defence forces shot down two «Shahed 131/136» over Mykolaiv region On 17 April, Russian troops also attacked Mykolaiv with an attack drone. As a result of the attack, the warehouses of a private company where household goods were stored caught fire. According to firefighters due to the large amount of flammable materials the fire spread quickly and covered an area of about 700 square metres In mid-May, an important scientific facility in Ukraine that houses valuable seed and plant species, was reported to have come under Russian fire. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ukraine tweeted the one and only #Ukrainian Gene Bank of plants was burned down including unique ones that wonʼt be restored The institution survived WWII but was destroyed by the #Russians." Questions still remain about the details of the attack and the extent of loss at the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources of Ukraine but the report raises questions about how damage to a national seed bank might affect national and international food security. We spoke with Purdue University's Tesfaye Mengiste □     □     □     □     □     □     □     □     □     □    □     □     □    □     □ Tesfaye Mengiste: Seed banks are places where seeds and genetic plant materials are preserved They could be seeds or they could be plant cuttings They are like the banks that preserve animal eggs or sperm for future use But seed banks preserve seeds for future use Think Global Health: Where are seed banks exactly Tesfaye Mengiste: Most countries have seed banks They are all over the world—the United States has more—but there are thousands and thousands of seeds of plant species And within species there are various variants different kinds that are collected and preserved Not only domesticated crop plants that are in current use but also the wild relatives of those plants There are progenitors of these plants which are in the wild and are not domesticated but have very useful traits Sometimes you don't have those traits in the domesticated species so you go back to wild species [that have been stored in seed banks] and bring those traits into the cultivated ones Seed and plant banks are normally under the radar and underappreciated but they are what drives global crop improvements and food security Think Global Health: What would be an example of a wild trait that you'd want to cultivate Tesfaye Mengiste: A very good example would be the tomato The domesticated tomato has been improved for fruit size and disease resistance And those flavors are sometimes important for the plant to defend itself [the flavor may ward off certain pests So maybe the current plant did not improve plants for drought tolerance From the wild species that have adapted to survive under those conditions That's why seed and plant gene banks are important You'll want to go back and get those traits [from seed banks] Think Global Health: How do seed banks work in the scientific community or accessible to the international community Tesfaye Mengiste: They are all over the world and sometimes there are international agreements to share them Some countries also consider them to be protected wealth What is special these days is that there are a lot of technological advances We know the blueprint—what makes a plant good We can sequence those germ plasm [the seeds and conservation] and we can catalogue them and we know we can make them ready for improvement Think Global Health: Is there any one seed bank that houses all the seeds and plants in the world Tesfaye Mengiste: There is not one bank for everything—some are bigger has seeds from thousands of varieties of food crops Think Global Health: What does an attack on the seed bank in Ukraine mean for Ukraine Tesfaye Mengiste: The destruction could be significant because they had hundreds of plant species and variants These are potentially important not only for Ukraine's agriculture Gene banks work in that they collect seeds and plants that are very important to their regions—that are adapted there locally There are these places called centers of origin and genetic diversity the potato originated in Peru in the Andes Mountains If you go there you don't only see the improved potato but very different kinds of potatoes So Ukraine probably has similar material important for agriculture Where do those improvements or better yielding varieties [of wheat and other crops grown in Ukraine] come from It's from agricultural breeding work and improved croplands And if there is no genetic variation and if there is no gene bank or germ plasm If you are looking for a disease resistance trait you have to have plants that are resistant somewhere in the world that you can cross and transfer the traits to The destruction could be significant because they had hundreds of plant species and variants Think Global Health: Does this have implications for wheat growing around the world Tesfaye Mengiste: We will see the repercussions more in the future because of global population increases and climate change the current crop varieties will need to be more improved These things are normally under the radar and they are underappreciated It is these crops that make a big difference in terms of whether a country will be hungry or not Food self sufficiency is hugely important and there are countries where that's a major problem It is clear that because Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of grain that there is an immediate impact But the long-term impact is the loss of these collections—these gene banks Mary Brophy Marcus is the former deputy managing editor of Think Global Health She is a health journalist who specializes in medicine Look for your next weekly newsletter in your inbox Six books and movies to soothe the heartbreak of the war in Ukraine The insidious march of infectious diseases during war  Neither war nor displacement can keep these Ukrainian bakers from feeding their community The short- and long-term health effects of the Russia-Ukraine war Stay up to date with the latest trends in global health Look for our next weekly newsletter in your inbox Mayors of cities in Mykolaiv region have published their declarations for 2024 NikVesti analysed the declarations of the mayors of eight cities: Pervomaisk and the head of the Snihurivka City Military Administration Pervomaisk mayor Oleh Demchenko receives the highest salary and Snihurivka mayor Ivan Kukhta earns the lowest salary Read more about the declarations of city mayors in the article NikVesti In his 2024 declaration, Pervomaisk Mayor Oleh Demchenko indicated that he owns only a 36.2 square metre apartment in Pervomaisk All other real estate is owned by his wife Iryna She owns real estate in Kharkiv: one 91.2 square metre apartment and another in joint ownership His wife owns 18 land plots in Mykolaiv region She owns 25% each of a 1,285.3 square metre shop and a 1,552 square metre land plot The mayor's wife also leases non-residential premises of 53.5 square metres and 21 square metres of land in Pervomaisk and another 210.3 square metres of land in 2024 The couple also use a land plot and a 210.7-square-metre house in Pervomaisk The mayor of Pervomaisk also declared that he owns a car «Volga» and his wife owns a PORSCHE CAYENNE made in 2013 which she bought in 2019 for UAH 400 thousand Oleh Demchenko received ₴1.3 million in salary as mayor of Pervomaisk And his wife received ₴556 thousand from renting out property the couple sold a 36.2 square metre apartment in Pervomaisk and a NISSAN X-TRAIL car The mayor declared ₴90.8 thousand from the sale of the property The mayor of Pervomaisk keeps 100 thousand hryvnias and 10 thousand dollars in cash while his wife keeps 300 thousand hryvnias the mayor's wife took out a ₴5 million loan The couple also have over ₴300,000 and $2.3,000 in their bank accounts Voznesensk Mayor Yevhen Velychko indicated in his declaration that he owns a 56.8 square metre apartment in Voznesensk and a 20,000 square metre plot of land in the village of Akmechetski Stavky His wife Anna owns 25% of an apartment in Voznesensk with a total area of 66 square metres live in a 137.7-square-metre house in Voznesensk owned by Alla Velychko Yevhen Velychko also owns five trucks and a 2012 FIAT DOBLO car the mayor sold his 2010 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT CC for ₴400,000 which she bought the same year for ₴1.1 million Yevhen Velychko received ₴687,700 in salary as mayor of Voznesensk His wife Hanna received ₴6,800 in social benefits The mayor of Voznesensk keeps 267,700 hryvnias and 7,000 euros in cash Yevhen Velychko also declared that he and his wife have $78,200 in cash The mayor of Pivdenoukrainsk, Valerii Onufriienko which he purchased in 2021 for ₴1.1 million In the first 9 months of 2024, the mayor received ₴583,000 in salary, which is an average of UAH 64,800 per month. After his resignation, Valerii Onufriienko was reinstated as mayor by a court decision in April 2024 the mayor's wife received UAH 134,600 in pension and Valerii Onufriienko himself received UAH 219,000 And their daughter received ₴804,700 in salary from the state-owned enterprise «NNEGC «Energoatom» The mayor of Bashtanka, Oleksandr Berehovyi declared two houses in Bashtanka with a total area of 114.6 square metres He also owns two non-residential premises there Oleksandr Berehovyi has also been renting a non-residential premises with an area of 100 square metres he has owned another 1,000 square metres of land in Bashtanka his wife Yelyzaveta has owned a 44-square-metre apartment in Mykolaiv and two non-residential premises in Mykolaiv with a total area of 70.3 square metres She also owns another non-residential property of 251.84 square metres and a 23.4 square metre garage in Bashtanka The mayor's wife also owns a non-residential property in the village of Pyatikhatky The wife of the mayor of Bashtanka owns three plots of land in Bashtanka and the village of Mykhailivka Their total area is 92.3 thousand square metres She also leases a 366 square metre plot of land in Bashtanka Oleksandr Berehovyi declared three cars owned by his wife Yelyzaveta which she purchased in 2018 for ₴193.1 thousand; a 2021 SKODA KODIAQ which she purchased in 2021 for over ₴1 million; and a 2023 SKODA KAMIQ which she purchased in 2023 for ₴941.1 thousand The mayor of Bashtanka has had a car trailer since 2008 Oleksandr Berehovyi received ₴854 thousand in salary as mayor of Bashtanka which is an average of ₴71.1 thousand per month He also received a gift of 179 thousand hryvnias from his wife His wife received ₴2.9 million in income from business activities and ₴35.4 thousand from renting property The mayor of Bashtanka keeps 140 thousand hryvnias in cash while his wife keeps 25 thousand dollars and 1.5 million hryvnias The mayor of Novyi Buh, Maksym Lahodiienko declared a 122-square-metre house and a 36-square-metre apartment in Novyi Buh He also owns three plots of land in Novyi Buh Maksym Lahodiienko has another land plot in the village of Pokazne And his wife owns two plots of land in Novyi Buh Maksym Lahodienko received ₴965.1 thousand in salary as mayor of Novyi Buh which is an average of ₴80.4 thousand per month He received another ₴27.5 thousand for «independent professional activity» from the Department of Education Youth and Sports of the Executive Committee of the Novi Buh City Council His wife Victoria received 195,300 hryvnias in salary from a private rental company «Victoriia» The head of the Snihurivka local military administration, Ivan Kukhta The total value of the spouses' land plots as of the date of acquisition of the right was ₴363,300 Ivan Kukhta's wife owns a 66.8 square metre apartment in Mykolaiv and a 1.1 hectare land plot in the village of Rybakivka Yevheniia Onyshchenko also jointly owns a 230-square-metre office with Yurii Chichkov and a 240-square-metre plot of land in Bashtanka Ivan Kukhta owns three cars: Volkswagen transporter made in 2006 He also owns a 1996 Mercedes-Benz 609 D bus His wife Yevheniia Onyshchenko owns an Opel Insignia made in 2013 The declaration states that Ivan Kukhta's wife owns the company «Kiv-trans» with a registered capital of 100 thousand hryvnias The company's main business activity is wholesale trade in grain Ivan Kukhta received UAH 279.1 thousand in salary as the head of Snihurivka DMA which is an average of ₴23.2 thousand per month He received another 24 thousand hryvnias of income from the company «Kiv-Trans» and 1200 hryvnias of income from the company «Yug-Tir-Service» His wife received ₴20,600 in social benefits The couple have no registered bank accounts The mayor of Nova Odesa, Oleksandr Polyakov declared a 69.6 square metre residential building in Nova Odesa and a 508 square metre land plot His wife Victoria owns a 20,000 square metre plot of land in the village of Novoshmydtivka Oleksandr Polyakov earned ₴898,300 in salary as mayor His wife received ₴88.2 thousand in salary from the Department for Interaction with Local Self-Government Bodies of the Mykolaiv District State Administration She received another ₴16.3 thousand in part-time salary from the Charitable Organisation «Charitable Foundation «Adventist Agency for Relief and Development in Ukraine» but the amount of money kept on them is not specified The income declaration of the mayor of Ochakiv, Serhii Bychkov, is still classified by the National Agency for the Corruption Prevention. However, after checking the mayor's declarations for 2021 and 2022, the National Agency reported that Serhii Bychkov purchased an apartment in Spain worth more than ₴5 million and received ₴12 million as a gift from his mother The NACP said that the inspections revealed signs of illicit enrichment and declaration of false information worth more than ₴3 million He also allegedly received gifts in cash from his mother worth over ₴12 million these funds exceed the woman's legal income which since 1998 has amounted to only more than 580,000 hryvnias «The income of the mayor of Ochakiv and his wife from confirmed sources also did not allow them to purchase an apartment in Spain at their own expense noted an increase in monetary assets by ₴2 million in the reporting period the legality of the sources of which was not confirmed during the inspection» And also, what is stated in the declarations of the heads of district state administrations in Mykolaiv region and heads of district administrations in Mykolaiv Implemented with the support of the Association of Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine and Amediastiftelsen as part of the Regional Media Support Hub project The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the official position of the partners This was reported by the communication department of the Mykolaiv regional police a medical institution reported to the duty unit of the police department No 2 of the Bashtanka district department that two young men aged 18 and 19 with mine-blast injuries and multiple shrapnel wounds had been hospitalized The police found out that the young men had been injured during field work when one of them found and picked up an unknown object that immediately detonated," the statement said They noted that the victims sustained numerous injuries as a result of the explosion and are in hospital explosive experts found and removed fragments and remnants of metal parts from the fuse to the "Uragan" warhead Law enforcement officers are currently establishing all the circumstances of the incident Law enforcers once again urged residents of Bashtanka district to be extremely cautious when detecting unknown objects especially in the de-occupied territories and in places where active hostilities were taking place People should refrain from visiting areas that have not been surveyed by sappers As reported, a man was injured in Mykolaiv as a result of a grenade explosion, probably a grenade The Ukrainian counter-offensive has regained swathes of territory but towns are devastated following savage bombardment Country’s medical system now has to deal with a huge influx of complex injuries suffered in the ongoing war – and that includes psychological trauma The signs of shelling are everywhere as we enter Bashtanka The roads of the town in the southern region of Mykolaiv are dotted with large craters left by Russian bombs Residents say that the savage bombardment was Russia’s revenge for the fierce resistance with which the locals met their attempted invasion convoys with dozens of tanks rolled in to Bashtanka The Russian army wanted to set up a base in the town which is strategically located between Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih birthplace of President Volodymyr Zelensky Local resident Anton told IWPR that three military columns entered from Snigurivka with an estimated 300 units of equipment including off-road vehicles and missile launchers “But they did not expect such resistance,” he continued “People grabbed everything they could: Molotov cocktails we’re from Bashtanka!” became a rallying cry in the town which already has a history of insurrection In 1919 Russian White Guards occupied the town: a rebel committee led what became known as the Bashtanka Uprising which pushed the Russians out of the town and established the Bashtank Republic a woman approaches and asks what we are doing; a soldier demands to see our documents Residents have organised to provide support for others affected by the war Vitaly is among those providing assistance coordinating a local centre for displaced people Thousands have passed through the centre in several waves of evacuations there were the town’s residents themselves then people from the surrounding villages and finally those fleeing from the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions “People have lost everything there,” he told IWPR Pensioners Ivan and Svitlana are two of the people currently seeking refuge in the centre  They were at home in the Mykolaiv region city of Snihurivka and half the building was gone,” Ivan explained “We hastily packed our things and got on the evacuation bus.” Snihurivka has been under occupation since March 19 It is a critical transportation hub with both railroad line and highway roads and one of them directly connects it to the strategic port city of Kherson Ukrainian intelligence reported that Russian soldiers from Buryatia, a mountainous Russian republic in eastern Siberia, have moved their families to the town, where they have taken over farms left behind by locals. On October 5, Vitaliy Kim, head of the Mykolaiv regional state administration, stated that Russian officers have abandoned Snihurivka a sign that Ukraine’s counter-offensive is threatening Russian troops’ grip on the town leaving heavy damage although there were no casualties Berezneguvate was reportedly hit with banned cluster munitions One family literally pushes us away from their front door it was the final barrier between the port city of Kherson The Ukrainian counter-offensive has regained swathes of territory but about half the population of Mykolaiv is estimated to have fled following heavy bombardments in June and July Many of the 230,000 who remain are elderly and unable to leave Roads in and out are manned by one checkpoint after another As we sat with the soldiers in the evening a man approached them and asked what they wanted for breakfast that gesture seems more nourishing than food Journalists need training and support to properly cover war crimes trials Activists warn that vulnerable domestic workers risk abuse often returning with serious health conditions sacrifice and luck secured a vital early win in the south-eastern campaign Some women face Adana's male-dominated traffic chaos for a living Recent murder highlights widespread discrimination and violence against LGBTI people Open source intelligence (OSINT) can provide facts – but impatient Tel +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Tel +1 202 393 5641 IWPR is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom (charity reg no: 2744185); in the United States as a not-for-profit organisation with tax-exempt status under IRS section 501(c)(3); and as a charitable foundation in The Netherlands The opinions expressed on iwpr.net are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting Site design by IWPR. Developed by AG Prime Mykolaiv region is one of the three most heavily mined regions of Ukraine International partners are helping to clear its land of deadly Russian hardware the world's largest humanitarian demining organization they focus on the territories that were under occupation or in the area of active hostilities the first 13 demined areas with a total area of 360,000 square meters were handed over by the HALO Ukraine team to the communities of Bashtanka district for further use in agricultural production local residents will be able to use this land again: grow crops The signing of the relevant documents took place in a solemn ceremony on one of the demined fields near the de-occupied village of Novopetrivka Our journey from Mykolaiv to Novopetrivka began on a cool cars are often stopped and inspected at checkpoints on the Bashtanka highway but the HALO Trust logo is already well known here When we turned onto the road to Snihurivka because last spring there were still tall weeds growing here under which dangerous ammunition was "disguised" and the area where the event was planned to take place was completely "sodden," so when we got out of the cars there were pegs - the sappers' markings that they had not yet managed to remove Head of Operations for the Southern Region said that the HALO Trust began its activities in Ukraine in 2015 they have significantly expanded their activities and now operate in seven regions of Ukraine including the southern part of the country - These regions are considered to be the most explosively contaminated areas in Ukraine That is why a large number of unpleasant incidents occur here 75 accidents occurred when people were blown up by unexploded ordnance So today I am very honored to participate in the transfer of 13 plots of demined land to the communities of the region where they can work safely," said Perkins She also added that demining work is currently underway at 15 sites spoke in more detail about the areas that were transferred to the communities One of the tractor drivers hit a mine with his harrow a manual demining group started working here The area of this site is 27,500 square meters 36,500 square meters were cleared of ammunition we found three TM-62M anti-vehicle mines with anti-personnel ammunition traps under them Mine clearance in this area was carried out with the financial support of the Buffett Foundation from the United States and Germany," said Davydovych a nine-member manual demining team worked here for almost two months Nataliia Rudenko is a hairdresser and makeup artist by profession But she has received appropriate training and now works as a deminer-paramedic Her group detects explosive devices and marks their location Other units are responsible for neutralizing them - I like the process of work and the way they treat security issues here If you follow a set of standard operating procedures Physical strength is only needed to carry a bag of equipment sometimes you have to pick every blade of grass with your hands for a long time," Nataliia says she demonstrated one of the methods of searching for stretch marks using a special probe This fragile girl also knows how to operate robocats which are mechanical demining devices that have different purposes Some remove the grass cover on a mined area while others can neutralize explosive objects of a certain class Nataliia Rudenko has had many extraordinary situations in her practice but the most memorable was when a caterpillar flew off a robocat The ground turned into a solid mud that stuck to the caterpillar our robocat could not stand it and simply "took off its shoes" This happened in an area that hadn't been cleared yet so we had to use manual demining to make a path to it and only then use it further," Nataliia recalls He also graduated from the deminer and paramedic courses I found out from my friends that the HALO Trust organization was relocating from Donetsk region to Brovary I got a job there and have been working there for a year I participated in demining in Kyiv and Kharkiv regions We work on a shift basis: ten days in four," Vladyslav says he also demonstrated how deminers work using a regular metal detector and protective equipment VEGETABLES AND WATERMELONS WILL BE GROWN ON THE CLEARED FIELD it was time to sign the documents on the transfer of the demined areas the bright sun broke through the thick clouds as if the heavens were happy to see the fields return to peaceful labor the head of a farm that is part of the PAEK group of companies He says that about 1,500 hectares of their land in the Snihuriv district were under occupation But as soon as the territory was liberated we grew sunflower on 700 hectares and grain on another 800 hectares talked and decided that we first needed to cultivate at least 50-60 hectares of land so that the farm could exist We cannot leave this land because we grew up on it and there were even repeated incidents where we had already tilled," says the farmer He also notes that the earth tends to push metal to the surface so they are constantly finding something in the fields almost the entire area of farmland has been cleared The increase in the number of employees is due to the fact that they decided to grow vegetables and watermelons It is planned to allocate 100 hectares for them - We all know that large areas in the Kherson region are now out of cultivation So we want to lend a hand so that our fellow citizens do not experience an acute shortage of this delicious and healthy berry Watermelons have always been considered a product from Kherson region and we want to make sure that they are also from Snihuriv region," the farmer shares his plans He says that they will also be growing vegetables of the "borsch set" the head of the Vasylivka starosta district of the Snihuriv community is very grateful for the work of the HALO Trust Ukraine deminers He is in charge of three villages: Pavlo-Maryanivka which were under occupation for a long time the Russian invaders had plenty of time to set up their deadly hardware here these settlements also suffered significant damage after the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was blown up The water level here sometimes exceeded three meters No wonder many people were forced to leave their homes But if before the Great War more than 2,250 people lived here - It is difficult to overestimate the work of HALO in this area because people were often injured by mines here Their team has already cleared about three kilometers of territory along the Ingulets River from Vasylivka to Yevhenivka They have collected over 260 pieces of explosive ordnance Further from Yevhenivka to the border with Kherson region about 500 hectares of land still remain contaminated "This will take years of work," says the starosta more than 750,000 hectares of land in Mykolaiv region are potentially mined more than 112 thousand hectares were surveyed there is hope that further demining will proceed more quickly while until recently HALO Trust Ukraine was only able to detect explosive devices it has now received permission to destroy them on its own the humanitarian demining program «The HALO Trust Ukraine» handed over the first demined plots of land to the communities of the Bashtanka district of Mykolaiv Oblast representatives of the organization handed over 13 land plots with an area of 357.2 thousand square meters for use The ceremonial handover and signing of documents took place at one of the 13 demined sites «Novopetrivka-3» near the village of Novopetrivka «This is the «Novopetrivka-3» agricultural plot an accident occurred here — a tractor blew up on an anti-tank mine our manual demining group came here and cleared the area,» said Oleksii Davydovych the head of demining groups of HALO Trust Ukraine as well as people with the sad experience of mine detonation to the solemn ceremony of handing over the vacated plots the humanitarian demining organization «The HALO Trust» has been working in Ukraine since 2015 the project was implemented on the territory of Donetsk region «The HALO Trust» expanded its activities to 6 regions of Ukraine: Kyiv «The HALO Trust» has been operating in the Mykolaiv region since March 2023 «The Mykolaiv and Kherson regions are considered the most contaminated by explosive objects in the zone in which we work in Ukraine,» emphasized April Perkins operational officer of the Mykolaiv-Kherson direction According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine 277 were killed during the detonation of mines and other explosive objects 14 children were among those killed by mines Last year, 2023, 17 people, including one child, died in the Mykolaiv Oblast due to the detonation of ammunition According to the calculations of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) there were a total of 57 cases of detonation of the civilian population by landmines last year On November 24, 2022, a case of mine detonation was recorded in the de-occupied Snihurivka community in the Mykolayiv region. Employees of the State Emergency Service were killed and wounded On December 15, 2022, a man found two anti-personnel mines left behind by the Russian military in one of the villages of Snihurivka region. The shells were detonated. A 26-year-old man died on the spot. Subsequently, on April 22, 2022, in the town of Snihurivka, near the former mineral water plant, two residents of the community were blown up by an anti-personnel mine On September 20, 2023, a car carrying two men was blown up by a mine in Snihurivka. One of them died on the spot, the second man was hospitalized. Later, on October 11, a combine exploded on a mine in a field near the town of Snihurivka The driver was injured as a result of the explosion and is in the hospital Also, on February 1, 2024 , four people were detonated by a mine near the village of Yevgenivka in the Mykolaiv region. On March 5, 2024, a 38-year-old man blew himself up in the village of Bezimenne We would like to remind you that on March 12, 2024, an interactive safety class was opened at the base of the Department of Emergency Situations in the Mykolaiv region, where children will be taught the rules of handling explosive objects Earlier, in August 2023, Mykolaiv rescuers created a mobile mine safety class which works in various settlements of the region It was created to minimize risks and reach as many residents of the region as possible especially in the de-occupied territories or in settlements where active hostilities were taking place Read also the article by NikVesti «Decades are needed: How the demining process of the Mykolaiv region continues.» Also, NikVesti explained what mines are and how to act if you find a suspicious object. [email protected] The Central District Court of Mykolaiv dismissed a lawsuit by local Mykhailo Zmiyevskyi against the online media outlet Prestupnosti.NET (LLC “Ukrainian Media Group Company”) who demanded the journalists retract the reported information about his detention and involvement in leaking data on the location of Ukrainian army positions in Mykolaiv oblast as reported by the media outlet's chief editor Anatoliy Chubachenko in a comment to Kateryna Sereda the Institute of Mass Information representative in Mykolaiv oblast On July 15, 2022, the media outlet reported in a Telegram post that the Security Service of Ukraine had detained a man on suspicion of helping the Russian troops aim their strikes on Mykolaiv and Bashtanka The media outlet disclosed the man's full name and posted an unblurred photo of him This post prompted Mykhailo Zmiyevskyi to file a lawsuit demanding that the information about his detention and involvement in the crime be retracted The man who was detained on suspicion of aiding Russian troops in aiming strikes on Bashtanka and Mykolaiv sued us because he believed that the information we had reported was misleading the first instance court found him guilty of the crimes he had been charged with and sentenced him to 11 years in prison The court ruling in the case over which he was detained confirmed the information we reported: that he was detained precisely because of what he was charged with,” said Anatoliy Chubachenko The journalist believes that the man will file an appeal “We are satisfied with the court’s ruling we believe that society should know such information it is important for today,” said Anatoliy Chubachenko He also added that the court had found the use of the photo lawful since the plaintiff had posted it on social media himself The court pointed out that the post concerned a socially important event: ​​the detention of a person who the provisions of the laws of Ukraine “On Information” and “On Media” allowing the reporting of socially significant information from official sources are applicable Bashtanka resident Mykhailo Zmiyevskyi actively leaked data on the location of Ukraine's army units on pro-Russian Telegram channels in 2022, which put the soldiers' lives at a real risk, says the court’s verdict, quoted by Prestupnosti.NET On July 15, 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine reported that a Mykolaiv oblast resident had been detained on suspicion of leaking location data to the Russian troops. On December 20, 2024, the court sentenced the man to 11 years in prison finding him guilty under several articles of the Criminal Code such as dissemination of information about the transportation of weapons and denial of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine Earlier, the Administrative Court of Appeal No. 5 ordered the Mykolaiv TPP to provide MykVisti with the requested information on the salaries and bonuses received by the company’s management [email protected] (050) 447-70-63 Ідентифікатор медіа: R40-01250 Reprinting and disseminating our information is allowed but under strictly condition of reference to the source Vitaly's little orange car -- "CHILDREN" written in Russian on signs stuck to the windows and windscreen -- broke down outside the war-scarred town of Bashtanka in southern Ukraine The town had been torn apart in the month of fierce fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine the fighting was still too close for comfort two children and his mother-in-law had fled the Russian-controlled town of Snihurivka about 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of Mykolaiv "At first it was on the outskirts and now in the centre." "There's been no water or electricity for 10 days," he said "The most important thing now is to survive Despite the icy wind blowing over the plain he was dressed in a baseball cap and flip-flops Before their car gave out outside Bashtanka a town in the centre of the country and west of the capital where they have family Eventually they found a way out of the battle zone leaving the carcasses of burnt-out cars behind them Bashtanka had a population of around 12,000 people it is populated mainly by Ukrainian soldiers a mural of a smiling cosmonaut still adorns the blackened facade of a building damaged by shelling It escaped the blast that destroyed part of the ground-floor pharmacy and the building's roof a 43-year-old resident who told AFP he had taken part in the fighting there "We gave these fascists the lesson they deserved," he said Russian troops won partial control of the town before Ukrainian troops forced them back out "They took villages around Bashtanka and looted them," said Natasha Gasilina a middle-aged lady wearing a thick burgundy coat In one village the Russian soldiers found photos of members of the Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Kremlin separatists in the east of the country since 2014 "They looked for them to kill them," she said -- but in vain when the city was woken by Russian bombs -- dropped by parachute say residents -- that left large craters and shook the nearby homes Only one injury was reported: a man pulled out alive from under the rubble "There were Ukrainian military vehicles there But the roof of his parents' home several hundred metres away had been ripped off by the force of the blasts Olga Miheikina arrived by bicycle from another neighbourhood to ask after a family friend and survey the damage "It's inhuman," she said at the sight of the destruction "These people who call themselves our brothers who lie to the whole world and to their own people." "There'll be no forgiveness nor divine mercy for such people!" stood outside what was left of his home: the roof gone He had sent his wife away to stay to with friends I wanted to live to be a hundred years old," said the frail old man Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion about 30 million hryvnias have been sent from the budgets of the Bashtanka district of the Mykolaiv region for various needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the correspondent of NikVesti reports About 1,200,000 hryvnias were allocated from the specified amount to support the regional military hospital this was done so that after the end of the full-scale war could receive high-quality psychological and physical assistance — We have a regional military hospital we gathered a meeting with the heads of the UTC and realized that sooner or later the war will end and the boys who return will undergo psychological examinations need physical assistance and various rehabilitation points Today we allocated almost 1 million 200 thousand hryvnias to support this institution we understand that without the support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine At the expense of the budgets of all levels: district and local today almost 30 million hryvnias have been sent to help the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces Earlier it was reported that the Mykolaiv City Council allocated about 700 million hryvnias to the needs of the Defense Forces 17 new cars were purchased and handed over to the Armed Forces with city funds another 89 pieces of equipment were handed over to parts from utility companies We will remind that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 597 million hryvnias have been allocated from the budget of Mykolaiv for the needs of the Armed Forces and another 80 million hryvnias have been transferred to equipment It was previously reported that the Mykolaiv Parks utility company intends to purchase 511 tree saplings and 16,420 bushes for 7,726,475 hryvnias However, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych , suggested that 7 million hryvnias from the trees planned for planting should be used for the purchase of pickup trucks for the military We remind, on Saturday, November 4, residents of Mykolaiv joined the action in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine The demonstrators demanded to send money from the budget to help the Armed Forces Later, the first deputy mayor of Mykolaiv Vitalii Lukov held a meeting with the participants of the «Money for the Armed Forces» campaign who are demanding that the city authorities allocate more funds to the needs of the army He emphasized that Mykolayiv systematically helps the Armed Forces and is one of the cities of Ukraine that provides the largest financial support to the army Author: Olena Orlova / Legal Development Network The non-governmental organization “Time to gather Ukrainians” together with a team of partners delivered and distributed humanitarian aid to more than 7 thousand residents of the front-line Mykolaiv Oblast and special conditions – it was impossible to expose people to danger during shelling Lawyer Vadym Zhepalo told the Legal Development Network about the humanitarian mission and how the organization lives during the war But even during the service, lawyers, whenever possible, accept appeals from compatriots online and provide legal assistance Thanks to friendly relations with other public organizations they try to help people in all acute issues which the organization dealt with during June-July 2022 Active hostilities are taking place on its territory and the town of Snigurivka and several dozen villages near it are occupied by russian troops The enemy is shelling both Mykolaiv itself and the populated areas of the oblast with various types of weapons and is not giving up its plans to try to capture the oblast center again almost half of its 500,000 residents left Mykolaiv About 70,000 people remain in the oblast and have received the status of internally displaced persons The oblast center has been without normal water supply for three months and electricity supply lines have been systematically damaged The kits contain products that can last one person for about a month: cereals International humanitarian aid was intended for civilians who are in a difficult financial situation and have suffered from the war these are people vulnerable to HIV and tuberculosis and their close environment the partner organizations decided to jointly organize the processes of distribution activists and volunteers quickly found warehouses and vehicles; created a team that was engaged in cargo work; appealed to the local media with a request to convey information about the possibility of receiving help to people as widely as possible they developed a mechanism for issuing food kits: it was important to do it in such a way as to avoid a significant and long-term crowding of people in places of possible shelling the Mykolaiv oblast received 120,000 kg of food It was distributed to more than 7,000 residents of the front-line settlements of Shevchenkove He adds that now his organization is expanding its activities There are representatives of the NGO “Time to gather Ukrainians” in almost every territorial community Now it’s about resources and practical projects that will help support people in these extremely difficult times The organization has already submitted an application for participation in the competition under the project “Capacity development of local NGOs – legal aid providers in Ukraine” This project is aimed at developing the potential of local civil society organizations whose activities are focused on providing legal assistance to the population in particular on meeting the legal needs of internally displaced persons If you have notices an error on the web-site Print and place the Network's poster on a notice board in your entrance hall Become a volunteer and assist others in finding problem solutions https://ldn.org.ua/en/success-story/they-defend-provide-legal-consultations-deliver-humanitarian-aid-lawyers-and-activists-from-mykolaiv-help-residents-of-the-front-line-city-and-region-2/ i один з експертiв Мережi надасть вiдповiдь Графік роботи чату: з 10:00 до 16:00 щодня(обідня перерва з 13:00 до 14:00) Поставте питання через LawLink Bot в будь-який зручний спосіб LawLink Bot — це розумний та цифровий юридичний помічник Web-site development — demch.co Ukrainian leaders are predicting more gruesome discoveries in the days ahead as Russian forces retreat said investigators have found at least three sites of mass shootings of civilians during the Russian occupation and some corpses with their hands tied were “dumped like firewood” into recently discovered mass graves Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said the count of dead civilians stood at 320 as of Wednesday but he expected the number to rise as more bodies are found in his city Ukrainian leaders predicted there would be more gruesome discoveries in the days ahead after retreating Russian forces left behind crushed buildings streets strewn with destroyed cars and mounting civilian casualties that drew condemnation from across the globe Kremlin forces devastated the northern city of Chernihiv as part of their attempt to sweep south toward the capital before retreating dozens of people lined up to receive bread diapers and medicine from vans parked outside a shattered school now serving as an aid-distribution point Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned on Thursday that despite a recent Russian pullback and he pleaded for weapons from Nato and other sympathetic countries to help face down an expected offensive in the east Nations from the alliance agreed to increase their supply of arms spurred on by reports that Russian forces committed atrocities in areas surrounding the capital Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that the horrors of Bucha could be only the beginning Mr Zelensky warned of even more casualties Ukrainian officials said earlier this week that the bodies of 410 civilians were found in towns around the capital city Ukrainian authorities expected to find much the same The same terrible crimes,” Mr Zelensky said This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.