The Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office reported this on Telegram
Russian forces launched an artillery attack on Bilozerka
she was in her yard," the statement said
A pre-trial investigation has been launched into the commission of a war crime resulting in death (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)
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According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office
“Under the procedural supervision of the Oleshky District Prosecutor's Office
a pre-trial investigation into a war crime that caused the death of a person has been launched,” the report says
Russian military personnel attacked a street in Bilozerka
As noted, a 70-year-old man who was on the street at the time of the explosion died as a result
As Ukrinform reported earlier, Russians attacked the Dniprovsky district of Kherson with a drone
MP Serhii Sobolev told the news outlet Suspilne
The ratification vote is scheduled for May 8
Attacks against the border villages of Bilopillia and Vorozhba damaged civilian infrastructure and triggered emergency evacuations
the regional military administration reported
"I look forward to working with President Erdogan on getting the ridiculous
war between Russia and Ukraine ended — now!" U.S
Putin's Victory Day truce "doesn't sound like much
if you know where we started from," Trump told reporters at the White House on May 5
Far-right Euroskeptic candidate George Simion
head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR)
Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan placed second with 20.99% of the vote
and the candidate from the ruling coalition
"It requires the continuation of contacts between Moscow and Washington
which have been launched and are now ongoing," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said
set to operate within the Council of Europe
will focus on Russia's political and military leaders
up to 20 Russian soldiers were killed and their equipment destroyed
The move represents an apparent violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions passed in the wake of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests
"We are ready to deepen our contribution to the training of the Ukrainian military," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on May 5
Davis's arrival follows the resignation of Ambassador Bridget Brink
by An ambulance damaged by Russian shelling of the village of Bilozerka in Kherson Oblast
(Kherson Oblast Military Administration/Telegram) Russian troops shelled the village of Bilozerka in Kherson Oblast
wounding a paramedic and an ambulance driver
Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Nov
Kherson and other regional settlements on the west bank of the Dnipro River are subjected to daily Russian attacks as Russian troops remain in control over the river’s east bank in Kherson Oblast
Both victims were outside at the time of the attack, and they suffered mine-explosive and craniocerebral injuries as well as concussions, according to Prokudin
The paramedic also received a shrapnel wound to the leg
The roof and windows of a medical facility and an ambulance were damaged in the shelling, the Kherson Oblast Military Administration said later via Telegram
The administration added that a house also sustained damages due to a direct hit by a projectile
Dinara Khalilova is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent
where she has previously worked as a news editor
In the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion
she worked as a fixer and local producer for Sky News’ team in Ukraine
Dinara holds a BA in journalism from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and a Master’s degree in media and communication from the U.K.’s Bournemouth University
This was reported in Telegram by the Kherson Regional Military Administration
“Two women aged 58 and 60 were injured in the shelling
They suffered explosive and craniocerebral injuries
An ambulance crew provided assistance to the victims on the spot
As Ukrinform reported earlier, Russians shelled 29 settlements in Kherson region over the past day, wounding seven people.
The Kherson Regional Military Administration reported this on Facebook
As reported by Ukrinform, around 12:30 on Friday, March 28, the Russian army struck Bilozerka with a drone
Around 14:40 on Friday, an invaders' attack drone attacked an educational institution in Bilozerka
Russian troops attacked the Bilozerka community of the Kherson region
This is reported by the Kherson Regional Military Administration
a 59-year-old nurse who was near a store was injured due to the dropping of explosives from a drone
She has an explosive injury and shrapnel injuries to her head and arm
the Russians attacked a civilian car in Tomyna Balka with an unmanned aerial vehicle
as a result of which a 48-year-old woman received an explosive injury and injuries to her face
«Both victims were taken to hospitals
They are under the supervision of doctors,» the message added
It will be recalled that on October 22, the Russian army shelled 17 settlements in the Kherson region
destroying residential buildings and a medical facility
There are also victims among the civilian population
Some Ukrainians in the small settlement of Bilozerka, a village in the Kherson region
secretly worked as informants to aid the Ukrainian military during the Russian occupation last year
was one of the locals who played a critical role in the sprawling resistance
Kysil recruited "spotters" to help locate positions of Russian troops and equipment
His house would be used for backgammon games that were actually a front for meeting and sharing intelligence
Kysil told the Times how he and his spotters spoke in code and used hunting and barbecuing references to relay information
'Do you remember where we barbecued when we opened the hunting season
We barbecued at Khvylia.' The Russians had just entered there
'We should roast something there again,'" Kysil said
which meant that the strike was not successful
After a spotter examines by how much the missile was off
Kysil would again send the information back to his contacts
Ukrainian soldiers retook Bilozerka and Kherson after Russian forces retreated last November
people try to rescue animals and possessions but are forced to wait for waters to recede
It took 24 hours for the flood waters to come to Bilozerka
a frontline village 8 miles west of Kherson
they flooded out about 24 cottages in two streets by the waterline – the fast rising levels forcing Oleksandr to flee his home of 22 years
and I realised I had to swim back,” said Oleksandr
looking out to his house from the new waterline
only to drown from the effort of trying to reach safety
Read moreIn a normal summer, Bilozerka, would be an attractive country location by a lake that links up to the Dnipro River, 45 miles downstream from the now ruined Kakhovka dam
has brought dirty ruin to parts of a village already at the centre of the 15-month war
An artillery duel goes on in the distance as aid workers from a US charity
what help the village will need in the coming weeks
It is hard for visitors not to be distracted by the explosions
Two artillery rounds land just as the aid convoy arrives
when too large a crowd has gathered to talk to aid workers and journalists
we are hurried on in case a missile were to strike
Russian artillery strikes, a regular occurrence in and around Kherson, had dropped off for a couple of days after the dam burst, giving Ukrainians hope the enemy’s gun line had been forced further away because of greater flooding on the far southern bank. But the bombing returned on Thursday
a few hours after Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited
when evacuations were being carried out in Kherson itself
Read moreElectricity to the flooded part of the village has been cut off. Water supply to the taps has been cut off too, preventing washing and cleaning. Drinking water already had to be delivered by trucks, but now the demand will only increase, say the two women, and they expect a protracted clean-up and gradual reconstruction when Ukraine can ill afford it
“I discussed this with my husband – if the dam burst
all the houses in the low-lying part of the village would be fucked,” Dashkovska adds
the women still believe the situation on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnipro is far worse
Dashkovska says she has heard that in Oleshky
Russian soldiers have been preventing evacuations
and have “seized the top floor of an apartment block” for themselves
View image in fullscreenA woman surveys the damage to her property
Photograph: Ed Ram/The GuardianNobody is dead or missing or needs rescuing from a roof top or elsewhere in Bilozerka
and the urgent phase of the crisis is over
while the residents say the waters have peaked
can be overheard on the phone suggesting other areas might need immediate help more
the chief executive of Global Empowerment Mission
said the real problem for Bilozerka and the dozens of riverside villages like it
there is going to be so much interior damage,” he said
“Every single home is going to need bedding
It looks like there could be no running water for a long time.”
The humanitarian situation following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine is still a “moving target”
and concerns are rising for what the future holds
according to the UN’s top official in the country
a town on the Dnipro River about 20 kilometres west of Kherson and five kilometres from the frontline
the UN brought in a five-truck convoy to the affected areas
food and equipment to help repair damaged homes
Brown has been visiting affected areas and said that people were completely taken by surprise by the flooding
which came in the middle of the night on Tuesday after the dam suffered a massive breach
Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for its destruction
She stressed that people were “distraught” by the latest catastrophe to hit them
even though they faced “daily shelling” – including just a day ago
In many places, the waters haven’t receded yet, which is why the impact remained hard to assess and satellite imagery was “critical”, Ms. Brown said. The UN aid coordination office (OCHA) said on Thursday that flooding would still last “for at least a week”
For the moment, an estimated 17,000 people were affected in the flooding zone according to Ms. Brown. UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Shabia Mantoo
added that this number could rise to 40,000 as the situation evolved
Asked to comment on earlier criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the UN’s relief effort, Ms. Brown said that the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) had been bringing in supplies “from day one” with commercial vehicles and that UNHCR and the UN migration agency (IOM) were also on the ground
“I have asked that question to the Ukrainian authorities
‘Did we get here on time?’ And the answer was yes,” she said
Brown explained that the current situation was very difficult and fast-moving
and that the fact that UN agencies brought in relief with commercial transporters may have made them less visible to the authorities
She also recalled her conversation with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday
“I am doing my darndest to ensure that we do our job,” she insisted
OCHA said on Thursday that the UN was “extremely concerned” about the plight of civilians in areas under Russian military control and that it had no access to those areas in the Kherson region
UN rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Jeremy Laurence
told reporters on Friday that just like humanitarian actors
human rights monitors cannot enter the Russian-occupied territories
as Russia had denied the Office’s repeated requests on the issue
along with an appeal for an independent investigation into the exact circumstances of the Kakhovka dam destruction
Humanitarians insisted that stagnant water in the flooded was a “major” health concern
heavy oil and pesticides were mixing with the floodwaters and creating additional health hazards
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday about the impacts of the flooding on sanitation systems and public health services. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that WHO is supporting the authorities to prevent waterborne diseases and to improve disease surveillance
and the agency’s Ukraine office said that in the coming days
additional supplies to strengthen access to health services will be delivered
With landmines floating downstream with the floodwaters, Ms. Brown said that a UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) mine expert had been deployed to work with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to assess the risks and that a map had been produced of the most heavily mined areas
Brown discussed the situation with Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko
She said that the UN was asked to work closely with Ms
Svyrydenko to communicate the risks from unexploded ordnance in the floodwaters to the population and specifically involve UNICEF in spreading the word in schools
While the immediate impact of the dam’s destruction is staggering
Brown expressed her concerns about “what the future holds”
the dramatic impact on water and energy supplies and the serious risk of environmental contamination
To plan for the long-term effects of the disaster
the veteran aid official said that on Thursday
the UN team met with representatives of the Ukrainian Government
the European Union and the Kyiv School of Economics to look at the available satellite imagery and continue the needs assessment
The UN’s top official in Ukraine reassured the country’s Foreign Minister on Thursday that the Organization has been working to provide support and aid to civilians affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam since the first hours of the disaster.
Reporting by Rod Nickel in Bilozerka; Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; Editing by David Clarke
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Today’s Paper#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Russia-Ukraine War
Extensive flooding inundated villages and swept away structures after a dam was destroyed in southern Ukraine on Tuesday
according to local officials and imagery of the aftermath
Note: Satellite image is from before the flooding
Sources: Planet Labs PBC; Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project; Google Maps
With the waters still rising and reliable information hard to come by — especially from Russian-held areas east of the Dnipro River — the full magnitude of the threat was difficult to gauge
and more than 40,000 people may be in the path of the flooding on both sides of the river
according to the deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine
The river is not expected to crest until Wednesday morning
about 40 miles downriver from the Kakhovka dam
residents looked on in horror at the roiling coffee-colored floodwaters released by its destruction
People could be seen wading about swamped front yards rescuing pets and belongings
About 4,000 residents remained there before the flooding on Tuesday
out of a prewar population of about 13,000
Local officials told Russian state media that the small town of Oleshky
and a nearby highway could be seen underwater in videos shared on social media
Residents in fishing villages along the river and in low-lying neighborhoods of Kherson evacuated by bus and train on Tuesday
a body of water the size of the Great Salt Lake in Utah that provides drinking water and water for the area’s rich farmland
Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the attack on the dam
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, upstream from the dam, also relies on water from the reservoir to cool its reactors and spent fuel. The facility was not at immediate risk of meltdown as a result of the dam’s destruction
according to the International Atomic Energy Agency
Sources: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project; Google Maps
the city immediately next to the destroyed dam
the city hall and the Palace of Culture were inundated
Ukraine — It’s an early Saturday afternoon
and almost no personnel are left on duty at the Bilozerka village hospital in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine
I’m advised to hurry if I want to try to catch the specialist I’m looking for
Ukraine has more doctors per capita than many European countries
but most state medical centers empty out on the weekends
I meet a man in his thirties named Vitaliy
who is there with his mother and sister to visit his father
All three are wearing blue scrunchies over their boots
They suggest I buy the same in the pharmacy across the road
You can’t visit a patient here without them
“It is so expensive to get treatment,” complains Vitaliy
patients end up paying for almost everything: drugs
hospital stays — even sundries like washing powder
Vitaliy’s father has been told he will have to stay for at least 10 days
Ukraine’s free health care system looks great
The country has 4.4 doctors and 7.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people
more than 90 percent of Ukrainians were unable to afford treatment because of high prices
Even doctors are afraid of not being able to pay for medical expenses if their relatives fall ill
The majority of Ukrainian doctors are poor
Though 60 percent of the national budget for health care is allocated to salaries
An experienced professional is paid only slightly more than $100 per month
I know because both of my parents are doctors
they dreamed of a prestigious career in medicine
and easily found jobs in Kherson based on their credentials
they thought that if they worked hard and scrupulously
The collapse of the USSR turned their personal and professional lives upside down
struggled to put food on the table for their children
My family survived thanks to my grandparents
None of the dozens of Ukrainian medical professionals I spoke to in Kherson pretended that a system of “nonofficial payments” did not exist
it is the only way for Ukrainian medicine to stay afloat
there are patients in severe stages of diseases because they came too late,” one doctor told me
as they do not have enough money for examination and treatment.”
Ukrainian Health Minister Uliana Suprun | Iuliia Mendel for POLITICO
“The reason that there is a problem in [the] health care system in Ukraine is because for 70 years of communism and 25 years of independence nothing was done to make it better,” Uliana Suprun
The country’s health care system seems to be so difficult that the government tends to turn to outsiders to try to change it
Suprun took over the ministry from a Georgian predecessor
Wearing a plain black fleece jacket over a T-shirt and no makeup
Suprun strikes a different chord from the first woman to lead the ministry
who was known for her love of the luxury brand Louis Vuitton and was accused of embezzling some $42 million under Viktor Yanukovych’s pre-revolutionary government
Suprun entered the ministry in the summer of 2016
During the Euromaidan revolution and the military conflict in Donbass
Suprun worked with NGOs to provide soldiers with first-aid kits and training
and earned the trust of Ukraine’s international supporters
But earning the trust of common Ukrainians will likely be much more challenging
People have heard about the poor state of the health care system from every successive minister
Suprun is the 22nd health minister in 25 years of independence
and they’ve long ceased to pay much attention to who occupies the office
Those who are paying attention in Kherson are broadly skeptical of the American reformer
Nostalgia for the Soviet system has been always more present here than in other parts of the country
and Kherson has become even more susceptible to Russian propaganda after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014
“The reason there is a problem with health care system in Ukraine because for 70 years of communism and 25 years of independence nothing was done to make it better” — Uliana Suprun
scared of Putin’s appetites and unpredictability
The region’s industries have died and the national government seems to have forgotten about many of its development projects there
and political mistrust has fomented passivity and skepticism
Those who want change are often resistant to taking on the responsibility
they separate themselves from the abstract authority responsible for all the misfortune
Kherson’s doctors are largely on board with Suprun’s proposed health care reforms
a corrupt opposition and widespread mistrust of authority have led many to misinterpret her proposals
Doctors say they want insurance and higher salaries
but they are afraid of changing the financial system
They want to provide better treatment but are wary of having to implement international standards
Suprun’s proposal to merge hospitals that serve fewer than 100 patients a year — a measure that would allow doctors to provide 24/7 care but still take days off — was interpreted by medical personnel as a move to close hospitals
and many are afraid of losing their jobs or having to commute on bad roads
often struggle to point to solutions themselves
Suprun has no option but to move forward and hope doctors in places like Kherson will follow her
Uliana Suprun's challenge will be earning the trust of common Ukrainians | Iuliia Mendel for POLITICO
“What we’d like to do is to make a comprehensive change of the system ..
to actually organize it in such a way that we know where the financing is going
we raise the quality of care and we provide the services that are necessary,” Suprun said
The first visible changes are set to be implemented in April — the same month the current government’s one-year immunity is set to end
which saw three governments in the past three years
this immunity protected current ministers from change for a one-year period
The position of health minister is a coveted prize in the holy war of Ukrainian politics and there is a high chance Suprun will soon be replaced by someone else
who will likely start the process of health care reform again from scratch
Asked about the possibility of being replaced
she is hopeful her work will be a strong basis for a successor to keep reforms on track
not much will change for the doctors at the village hospital in Bilozerka
Iuliia Mendel is a Ukrainian freelance journalist
‘We are not afraid because our military is here
But we can’t relax for even a minute.’
And in recent weeks I’ve been traveling around
trying to reconnect and to understand what’s been happening here on the ground
reporting corruption can bring on a lawsuit
“I’ll never forget what he said when he found what he was looking for: ‘Now I see it