A Ukrainian drone strike on a market area in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Kherson region on Thursday killed at least seven people and injured over 20 others stated on Telegram that the attack targeted the city of Oleshky around 9.30 am local time (0630GMT) He accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out the strike in a crowded market district Oleshky is located on the left bank of the Dnieper River which remains under Ukrainian control on the other side of the river at least seven people were killed and more than 20 were injured," Saldo said later claiming that a second wave of attacks was carried out on the city but providing no details about the casualties or damage Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the incident a “terrorist” act and accused Ukraine of escalating the war while sabotaging diplomatic efforts The ministry also claimed that responsibility for the attack lies not only with Kyiv but also with its Western backers “The strike is on the conscience of Kyiv’s Western partners,” it said adding that Russia would “never allow” Ukraine to restore its 1991 borders “We call on the entire sensible part of the international community and relevant multilateral organizations to resolutely condemn the attack," the statement said Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the accusations and independent confirmation of the incident remains difficult due to the ongoing war Ukrainian drone strikes on a market in the occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region killed seven people on Thursday “Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a major strike with FPV drones against civilians,” said Vladimir Saldo the Kremlin-appointed head of the partially occupied Kherson region. “At least seven people have been killed and more than 20 injured,”  Saldo posted a photo of what appeared to be a body lying between two buildings, one of which was damaged. He also shared a video showing smoke rising from the market following a drone strike claiming it was used to “finish off the survivors.” Oleshky lies near the left bank of the Dnipro River where Russian forces have been positioned since first occupying the area in early 2022 There was no immediate comment from Ukraine Russia’s Defense Ministry has also not commented on the drone strikes an overnight Russian air attack killed at least two people and wounded 15 others in a residential neighborhood of Odesa Ukrainian emergency services said early Thursday The reported strikes came one day after the United States and Ukraine signed a minerals agreement that U.S President Donald Trump's administration described as a new form of U.S Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help please support us monthly starting from just $2 and every contribution makes a significant impact independent journalism in the face of repression At least seven people have been killed and more than 20 injured in shelling by Ukrainian forces in the town of Oleshky in the Kherson region Ukrainian militants carried out a massive drone strike in the area of ​​the central market Emergency services are working at the scene He announced that Iran is ready to launch a political dialogue with the EU on security concerns "The signal will be restored after the announcement of the election of the Pope," the statement said Oleshky Specialized Boarding School was one of the best institutions in Ukraine for children with special needs It is still unknown what happened to some of its residents Artem Parakonnyi is an Oleshky boarding school’s pupil who was taken to Russia without his relatives’ consent Photo: Ivan AntypenkoBefore the Russian invasion there was a boarding school for special children in Oleshky The institution was considered one of the best in Ukraine: orphans and special needs children who require complex specialized care went there They not only received the necessary help here but also trained skills for independent life — they went hiking and played sports won a gold medal in table tennis at the Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo Russian authorities removed 84 pupils from the boarding school — despite the fact that many of them had parents or other relatives Now the institution has effectively ceased to exist in its former form and the fate of some of the children remains unknown IStories tells what is known about the boarding school and its residents The piece is based on the New Lines Magazine story together with The Reckoning Project Many residents of the Oleshky Specialized Boarding School were bedridden or wheelchair-bound the staff of the orphanage brought children with wheelchairs and medical equipment down to the basement The most difficult thing was to secure children with crystal deposition disease — a rare genetic disease that causes bones to become brittle and any movement can lead to a fracture An attempt to put pants on a boy with this diagnosis resulted in two broken legs The children could not be evacuated because of the rapid advance of the Russian army but some of the children were taken away by their relatives a teacher and sports coach at the orphanage “Almost all the children had relatives who used to call them But communication in the occupation was deteriorating day by day and at one point we had no way to communicate anything outside at all,” Reutsky says former teacher of the Oleshky Specialized Boarding School August 2024Photo: Viktoriia NovikovaAt the beginning of the war leaving about 100 of the 178 employees to work Food and medical supplies began to run out Russian shelling destroyed the city’s gas pipelines “From the very beginning of the occupation there were rumors among the staff that Ukraine would evacuate us but all attempts failed at the planning stage,” Reutsky says everyone realized that it was only a matter of time before the boarding school came under the full control of the Russian authorities The director of the boarding school, Tatyana Knyagnitskaya, refused to cooperate with the occupation administration, and on October 10, 2022, she was dismissed. The new head was Vitalii Suk, the former head of the driving school, who “could not even suppose that he would ever be the director of the orphanage.” Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the Kherson Oblast The occupation authorities began to curtail the work of schools colleges and social institutions in Oleshky and remove them from the region Vadym Reutskiy received a call from one of the pupils informing him that they wanted to be taken away he found there medics from Russia-annexed Crimea who observed the children and put them on lists the first 16 children were taken out of the boarding school in Oleshky At that time they were from 6 to 18 years old all of them could move independently or on a wheelchair According to the document signed by the new director of the institution Vitalii Suk they were transferred to Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No Transportation of children from the Oleshky boarding school to Russian-controlled territory 2022Photo: Ministry of Social Development of the occupied part of Kherson Oblast“I think they chose these particular children because they were the easiest to look after They took the ones that were convenient to take,” Reutsky said On November 4, 12 more children were taken from the orphanage. A week later, the remaining 56 children were transferred to the Nadiia Rehabilitation Center in occupied Skadovsk which was not adapted for children with such diagnoses — it did not have the appropriate equipment In the Russian-controlled institution, children with special developmental needs from the Oleshky boarding school celebrate Russian Flag Day, meet with employees of the Investigative Committee and learn to fly drones maybe you’ll get used to us?’ I said ‘Sonya Former pupils of the Oleshky boarding school still live in Noviye Berega and meet Maria Lvova-Belova have responded to IStories inquiries about the fate of the Ukrainians The occupation Ministry of Social Protection of the Kherson Oblast refused to answer the publication’s request “Dissemination of personal data is possible only after authorization for processing by the subject and owner of personal data,” stated in the response of the department the children were brought to occupied Skadovsk an international coalition for the return of Ukrainian children began to operate representatives of the UK government and the UN several hundred children taken to Russia were returned to Ukraine most of the children from the Oleshky boarding school were left without parental care and this complicates the procedure: Russia agrees to return the children only to blood relatives Photos of Anton Volkovych in the apartment of his grandmother Maria June 2024Photo: Ivan AntypenkoSome pupils were taken away without notifying their relatives This was the case with 22-year-old Anton Volkovych who was diagnosed with a serious neurological disease at an early age He had been living in the Oleshky boarding school since 2014 requiring a wheelchair and constant medical care was in contact with the staff of the boarding school who told her about the state of her son’s health Zamyshliaieva lost contact with the boarding school Only in November she was informed that her son had been moved to another place Zamyshliaieva was shocked: according to her no one asked her permission to transport Anton “I don’t know what is happening to him: what state his brain is in I don’t even know if my son is alive,” she says some parents received a text message from the occupation authorities of the boarding school that their children were being evacuated a 16-year-old boy with a neurological disease who had been living in the Oleshky boarding school since he was 12 which connected the two banks of the Dnipro river June 2023Photo: Ivan AntypenkoThe next day Medynska decided to get to Oleshky and look for her grandson herself She had to get to the boarding school by boat from the other side of the Dnipro — before the war it took 20 minutes by bus Medynska found out that she was too late: the staff said that her grandson had already been taken away Medynska learned that Parakonnyi was not there — he had been sent to Russia Medynska spent the entire winter trying to get her grandson back refused to give Parakonniy to his grandmother Medynska did pick up her grandson and traveled home through Russia Now Parakonnyi lives with his mother and grandmother in Kherson which is under constant shelling by Russia only ten children from the orphanage in Oleshky had been returned to Ukraine Most of them were returned to Ukraine by their relatives on their own It is also known that six children died in the occupation who was scheduled for surgery in Ukraine but did not have it done because of the war The Ukrainian Air Forces destroyed russian occupiers' control center with an accurate strike The destruction of the russian officers' bunker took place near Oleshky The special operation was carried out by a MiG-29 crew An accurate GBU-62 JDAM-ER bomb strike destroyed the officers' staff and equipment It is known that the enemy used a former Ukrainian Armed Forces bunker "Such strikes deprive enemy forces of clear control and significantly demoralize their personnel," the statement reads Earlier Defense Express reported that the Achilles regiment had taken out one costly T-90M tank and damages another in Kharkiv region At the beginning of Russia’s brutal occupation of Ukraine’s Kherson region Hanna Zamyshliaieva took small comfort in the brief phone calls she received from the staff at the Oleshky Specialized Boarding School about her son’s well-being Twenty-two-year-old Anton Volkovych had been diagnosed at an early age with a neurological disorder and required a wheelchair to get around and constant medical attention named after the small city in which it is located was one of the best for disabled people in Ukraine and Volkovych had thrived under its specialized care for eight years when Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor began the residents of the facility and their carers were trapped — with no way in or out.The calls with Volkovych’s caregivers eased his family’s worries The staff assured Zamyshliaieva that Volkovych was doing well “They sent me photos that everything was fine there were medicines,” Zamyshliaieva said.She assumed the occupation would end soon But the first spring under Russian rule passed Communication between the mother and the school started to become more difficult as Russia cut off access to Ukrainian cell towers in the occupied territories Zamyshlyaieva lost contact with the school altogether.In early November a medical worker from Volkovych’s school reached Zamyshliaieva to tell her the Russians had taken Volkovych and transferred him to another occupied city in the region.She was shocked No one had asked her permission to relocate her son.It’s been almost two years since that message and she still does not know where Volkovych is She blames herself for not removing her son from Oleshky She is consumed by guilt and desperation to bring her son home.“I don’t know what is happening to him: to what extent his brain is functioning because his blood pressure was rising even before the full-scale war,” she said.“I don’t know if my son is alive.”Volkovych is one of 84 disabled people disabled people of all ages are among the most vulnerable This is partly because of the relative newness of international disability rights treaties a lawyer with Guernica 37 Chambers in London and a legal analyst with The Reckoning Project The United Nations only ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006 and there have been some resistance and challenges to putting it into practice in some states Yet the rights are clearly defined under international humanitarian law which states that forcible transfers or deportations of “protected persons,” including the sick and disabled Evacuations are only permissible for urgent military reasons or civilian security but those transferred must be returned promptly and provided adequate care which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights disabled persons have the right to proper health care education and family reunification.The Reckoning Project has spent one year tracking what happened to the forcibly deported We have followed the desperate attempts to bring them home and identified which Russian officials are responsible for abusing their rights The Oleshky Children’s Boarding School had a reputation for being one of the best of its kind in Ukraine The state-funded school accepted orphans as well as children diagnosed with varying degrees of mental and physical disabilities Many of the children fell into both categories but the school was known for its attentive care and specialized treatments for all its students The doctors and educators at the orphanage prioritized socialization of its students and learning independent life skills that would allow the students to best adapt to their futures There were frequent field trips to rivers and a nearby dolphinarium and visits to the colorful house painted by Oleshky’s beloved folk artist Polina Raiko There were competitions and sports training put the facility on the map when she won a gold medal in table tennis at the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo The comradery of the close-knit staff reverberated throughout the halls of the school and into the classrooms we went to work because we loved our work and our children,” said Natalka Hrabovska When Russia’s full-scale invasion started on Feb the staff at the Oleshky Children’s Boarding School resorted to the facility’s basement as their best option for shelter Under a sky flashing with the bright streaks of missile fire they quickly got to work transporting the more than 80 students Most of the school’s students — orphans and children with special needs — were confined to beds or required wheelchairs or crutches to get around Many were connected to breathing equipment or intravenous drips all of which needed to come down to the basement with them The hardest cases were those children with brittle bone disease a rare genetic disorder that meant merely lifting their frail frames put them at risk of fractures and pain An attempt to put pants on one of the boys with this diagnosis resulted in two broken legs A dark and damp basement for storing vegetables and old things,” said Nina Hrihorieva but it was better than in the corridor because there were many windows and the glass constantly shook from the explosions As the school’s residents sheltered in its basement Russia’s invading army swept into Oleshky and the surrounding regions of Ukraine’s southern flank Moscow’s forces captured and occupied almost 90% of the Kherson region including its eponymous regional capital and major port city the region’s main transportation link between the left and right banks of the Dnipro made travel north out of Oleshky too dangerous The window for safely evacuating the school closed quickly 24 — about 100 of the 178 who were employed before the invasion — were left to care for the children with dwindling food and medical supplies Russian shelling had destroyed the city’s gas lines but the school’s kitchen was equipped with electric stoves for cooking the staff did their best to heat the facility with electric heaters to ward off the winter temperatures The staff at the Oleshky school watched in fear as the Russian occupying forces began swiftly implementing administrative control over social institutions primarily targeting the spheres of education other times in uniforms with automatic rifles attempted several times to get the Oleshky school to “cooperate” with the occupying forces offering donations of food in exchange for information such as the whereabouts and headcounts of the children there were constant rumors among employees that Ukraine was evacuating us But all efforts failed at the planning stage,” said Vadym Reutsky a teacher and sports coach at the school who stayed for the first months of the occupation Everyone understood that it was only a matter of time before Russia would come to seize full control of the school Reutsky worked at the Oleshky school for more than a decade as an educator as well as a coach for the boccia team a sport similar to lawn bowling except the players maneuver the balls from wheelchairs The bonds he made with some of the children and their parents lasted well into their adulthoods or past their academic years Reutsky was often the main point of communication with parents desperate for updates on their children “Almost all the children had relatives who called the children But communication under the occupation worsened every day and at some point we did not have the opportunity to communicate anything to the outside at all,” Reutsky said Ukrainian cell networks were cut off and often replaced with Russian ones Like the other school staff who had stayed during the occupation Reutsky was opposed to the Russian occupation of his once-peaceful city persistently declined offers to cooperate with the Russians the occupation administration replaced her with the newly appointed head of the institution a local driving school teacher who had sided with the Russians early in the occupation On the first day following his appointment Suk immediately demanded that staff reapply for their jobs under the Russian structure This would essentially make them all employees of Russia’s occupying regime Several dozen staff members agreed to live by the new rules — accepting Russian citizenship recognizing Moscow’s aggression as salvation rejecting everything Ukrainian — in order to continue taking care of the children Reutsky staved off the re-application process for as long as he could still hoping liberation would come before he would have to submit to the Russians In October 2022, eight months into the occupation, rumors began to spread on social media, and in whispers around town, about the imminent Ukrainian de-occupation of the right bank, where fighting around the regional capital of Kherson had intensified. More worrying were the rumors that the Russians were going to blow up the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station leading those in Oleshky and the rest of the left bank to fear catastrophic flooding Reutsky and the other Oleshky staff worried about the rapid pace with which the Russians were conducting a large-scale campaign of rounding up schools colleges and social institutions in Kherson and village communities on both sides of the Dnipro River and bussing them out of the region Russian occupying forces and Kremlin officials called these “evacuations” to protect the students and residents of the institution from “the danger of shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” According to data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Russia forcibly removed more than 2,000 children from the Kherson region to the occupied territories of the East the focus of what Russia called “evacuations” was on social institutions: geriatric and rehabilitation centers and orphanages Reutsky said there were at least 85 students left at the school 35 of whom were part of the adult learning department Some parents had managed to get their children out themselves during the occupation “It was clear that the children would not be left here And the children will definitely be taken away,” Reutsky recalled thinking at the time when he received a call on his cellphone from one of the children at school The student informed him that preparations were underway for their departure Reutsky rushed to the school to find about 10 doctors and staff from the psychiatric hospital in Russian-occupied Crimea walking around the institute and observing the children and asking them for first and last names the doctors started boarding 16 of the children — all of whom could walk unassisted or with a stroller — onto a large The bus was accompanied by an escort vehicle resembling a police car they chose these particular ones because they were the simplest “They took some of the children who walked or used walkers … They took children who were convenient to take.” A list of the 16 children removed from the school that day was left on the teacher room’s table the Russian-appointed director of the Oleshky school had signed the list for “evacuation.” According to the document the children were being transferred to Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No The remaining children and staff waited at the school fearful of what the Russians had planned for them Reutsky left occupied Oleshky with a small bag and the hope of making his way to Georgia through Russia As he moved through occupied Ukraine and across the border into Russia Reutsky got a phone call from one of the Oleshky students The Russians had just “evacuated” 12 more students from Oleshky Though he had no idea about it at the time the deportations were being orchestrated from the highest levels of the Russian government the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights was in the region of Kherson’s left bank in October and November where the occupying forces were nervously watching the rapid Ukrainian approach the official Telegram channels of the occupying authorities wrote that Lvova-Belova who has since been indicted by the International Criminal Court for the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children instructed the remaining students at the Oleshky boarding school to move to Skadovsk another occupied small city on the shores of the Black Sea After Lvova-Belova made a request to the Ministry of Health in Russia providing 14 ambulances for the evacuation of the children from Oleshky,” a statement read adding that local official Alla Barkhatnova the acting Minister of Social Policy and Labor for Kherson Region 56 disabled children and adults were transported by ambulances to the Nadiia Rehabilitation Centre in Skadovsk.At times Russian propaganda celebrated the removal of the Ukrainian children “We do not ignore the children’s social institutions that were evacuated,” a Russian parliament member bragged on his Telegram messaging channel less than a month later The politician’s post included photos of “volunteers of the United Russia Humanitarian Mission” delivering diapers and food to the Skadovsk facility which was by then housing the Oleshky boarding school students.For the Russians the deportation of disabled people was a propaganda opportunity the disabled residents of Oleshky were being held in poor conditions The Skadovsk center was a two-story building that lacked the necessary equipment to adequately cater to the Oleshky children’s special needs The longer they are on Russian-controlled territory the more the Oleshky residents will be subjected to Russian-enforced indoctrination that looks to eradicate the independent Ukrainian identity Human rights organizations and Ukrainian officials have decried these actions as part of a broader campaign to erase Ukrainian culture and sever the next generation’s ties to their homeland This forced assimilation has been described as a potential war crime by international observers When four of the students were deported to the Russian village of Noviye Berega in the western Penza region The children had been moved to a special residential village designed for people with disabilities local state news described their joy in glowing language: “They have only spent five days here … but have already learned to love all that surrounds them.” The village they were staying in had been built by Lvova-Belova’s sister While Maria Lvova-Belova oversees deportations her sister receives government funds to open orphanages a year and a half after the Russians deported the residents of the Oleshky school someone sent Reutsky a link to a Telegram post with an embedded video a Russian soldier held up a rudimentary drawing from a child The drawing was of primitive sketches of shapes but what was clear were the letters Z V and O — used by the Russian army as symbols of their war against Ukraine “Come back home alive” was written in childlike script As the Russian soldier held up the drawing with both hands for the camera adding that the child was from the Oleshky orphanage The image of the soldier thanking Oleksandr for the drawing broke Reutsky’s heart Oleksandr was one of his students and the coach knew he could not write or draw one of the teachers drew it and signed it on behalf of the children,” he surmised “Using children for propaganda is not just low it is a violation of our rights,” he wrote in a post that day almost exactly two years after Russia invaded an international coalition for the return of Ukrainian children was established Managed by the Ukrainian and Canadian governments and set up by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “Bring Kids Back” has returned several hundred children who were forcibly deported to Russia and enlisting the help of a team of international legal experts including from the British government and the U.N A major hurdle in bringing back minors is Russia’s demand that they be returned only to blood relatives more than half of the pupils are without parental care meaning their relatives need to be found before Russia will agree to release them finding relatives who are themselves fit enough to care for the children is often extremely challenging as is locating a Ukrainian state institution responsible for protecting the best interests of these children While the Russian occupying administration insists that their appointed director is in charge of the Oleshky boarding school Ukraine appointed its own director two years after the “evacuations” in order to have a representative for the children’s interests all Oleshky children from orphanages in Russia were moved to occupied Skadovsk became the makeshift capital of the occupied region Children from various institutions in Crimea were also relocated there Ukrainian workers who remained in Oleshky reported that the orphanage building had been stripped of everything from carpets and curtains to valuable medical equipment “They took everything and left bare walls,” said Natalka Hrabovska In the weeks and months following their deportation from Oleshky the Russians separated and shuttled the disabled children to various locations in both the occupied territories of Ukraine and Russia itself Their locations were shrouded in confusion But that didn’t stop them from doing all they could to find and return the lost disabled residents of Oleshky had her own cellphone and could call her mother almost every day during the occupation (both of their names have been changed at their request to protect their identities) The mother and daughter were close; they would chat about Aurora’s new friends at school and learn updates about relatives back home Maria struggled to care on her own for Aurora who has a mild learning disability and is confined to a wheelchair and placed her in Oleshky when she was small Doctors from Crimea had come to the Oleshky school and were loading some of the children onto a bus but the nannies ‘fought’ for me,” she told Maria explaining how the school’s caregivers had pleaded with the Russian doctors to leave the chair-bound girl The Crimean doctors took Aurora in the second round of evacuations on Nov which Maria would learn about on the following day I already knew they had taken one group of children first Suk told Maria the decision to take Aurora from Oleshky came from “instructions ‘from higher-ups.’” “They gave her clothes and food for five days I don’t know what documents they brought with them,” he told Maria Oleshky’s pupils were scattered across Russia In addition to those taken to Russian orphanages Aurora’s mother was on her way to Crimea from the free part of Ukraine She had to travel more than 6,000 miles to reach her daughter Maria found the staff assigned to care for her daughter reluctant to return her child they insisted Maria sign a statement that she had no complaints against the hospital and that the girl had no bruises She was dressed in dirty clothes and her frail body had a strong Aurora later revealed that during her three weeks at the hospital she never brushed her teeth or took a shower She spoke about being beaten by medical staff and how much she missed her friends Maria faced a major problem with the lack of medical documents as the Crimean hospital did not return most of her daughter’s personal file containing her entire medical history from the past seven years the hospital staff refused to give back the child’s wheelchair claiming it belonged to the Oleshky orphanage When the mother and child tried to cross Russia’s southern border into Georgia Maria and Aurora were detained by Russian border guards who couldn’t understand how the child ended up in Russia without any documentation of her crossing the border “How did you manage to get her into Russia without her migration card?” the guards asked her “I have the same question,” Maria retorted and one day she woke up and there was a referendum The border guards told her it was illegal for the child to enter the country as she did “You mean to say that the child is here illegally that the Russians took her here?” Maria argued with them As Aurora lay in the open air in the back of the truck that had gotten them this far Maria stood for hours in the cold Caucasus mountain air and repeatedly explained the situation to the border guards the guard offered Maria a way out of the back-and-forth “You mean the child was rescued and evacuated?” the Georgians looked at the documents and said “We know all about the situation.” Then they offered Maria and Aurora a cup of hot tea It was just one step in their long journey home to Ukraine The day after the Russians took the second group of Oleshky children away in buses the Russian occupation authorities overseeing the school sent out a text message to some of the students’ parents to inform them that the school had been “evacuated.” Artem Parakonnyi’s mother received the message on Nov None of the children were named but Artem’s grandmother Medynska decided to get to Oleshky and look for her 16-year-old grandson herself She found a boat to take her over the Dnipro River then the only means of transportation available Medynska did not know at the time that she had managed to get on the last boat from Kherson to the left bank of the Dnipro She would not return home for another five months.Parakonnyi was diagnosed with a neurological disease and developmental disability at the age of 5 Medynska could get from where she lived in the suburbs of Kherson city to Oleshky in 20 minutes which allowed her to regularly visit and bring him home for short stays.During the Russian occupation of Kherson which fell within the first 72 hours of the invasion Medynska and her family set up a shelter in their basement to protect themselves from shelling There was no safe way to retrieve Parakonnyi from Oleshky Medynska relied on updates from the school staff caring for Parakonnyi in occupied Oleshky.In Oleshky Medynska learned from a school staff member that her grandson had been with the children who were taken to Crimea on Oct the first round of Russian “evacuations.” The school staff believed that the group had been transported later to the Nadiia Rehabilitation Center in Skadovsk.Medynska headed to Skadovsk Medynska learned that her grandson was already in Russia The first 16 students taken by bus to Crimea on Oct 21 were almost immediately sent to orphanages in Russia Out of the second group of evacuated students Parakonnyi ended up in the city of Kropotkin about 90 miles from the southern Russian city of Krasnodar She was sure her grandson didn’t even appreciate the full danger of what it meant to be in Russia and that’s it,” she said.Determined to bring her grandson home Medynska stayed in Skadovsk on the Black Sea and used all her energy and resources to track him down Parakonnyi and several other Oleshky students were returned from Russia to occupied Skadovsk the director of the boarding school appointed by the occupation authorities refused to return the boy to his grandmother Her persistence irritated Suk to the point that he threatened to throw Medynska into one of the Russian occupying regime’s notorious basement prisons after weeks of bureaucratic hurdles and paperwork to establish herself as Parakonnyi’s legal guardian Suk finally relinquished the teenager to his grandmother on March 27 nearly four months after he was taken by the Russians without consent The newly appointed management of the boarding school issued the boy a Russian passport which his grandmother refused to accept.On March 28 Medynska and Parakonnyi started to make their way home to Kherson the city had been liberated by Ukrainian forces and Medynska was eager to get the boy back to his family despite the dangers of drones and shelling in the southern front of the war.As the pair passed through a Russian filtration camp in Dzhankoy Medynska described a horrific scene of harassment and stress.“They shout at the children the children are frightened: ‘What is your mother’s name? What is your last name?!’ The child cannot understand what they want from him,” she said Those attempting to cross whose passports showed they had been to Europe were treated harshly; some were forced to strip naked Medynska and Parakonnyi needed to travel through Russian-occupied territory then make their way through Belarus and Russia before finally crossing into Ukraine the same trip would have taken less than two hours.For the boy as his physical and psychological condition make it difficult for him to travel for long stints.“When we arrived home with him scratched himself and banged his head against the wall The child’s mental disorder was so severe,” Medynska said.Even through his speech impediment his relatives understood from certain phrases he used that he was subjected to physical violence in the Russian children’s institution in Kropotkin.Parakonnyi turned 18 this year grandmother and sister in an area of the city of Kherson that is shelled constantly by the Russian army stationed just over the Dnipro River.Living in their region of Kherson has risks — the shelling disturbs him and makes him cry — but the boy is home with his family Heorhiy Burskyi was removed from parental care as a toddler after the Ukrainian social services declared his mother unfit to care for him because she has infantile cerebral palsy is developmentally disabled and has a rare form of bone atrophy that requires him to use a wheelchair or walker He entered the Oleshky school when he was 5 He was 13 when the invasion started.Petro Yenyushin said he and his siblings grew up in various state-run institutions for most of their lives The first time he met Gosha was when he was around 2 years old he tried to keep close tabs on his younger brother Yenyushin visited his younger brother in Kyiv when Gosha came from Oleshky for treatment at a special institute in the capital Yenyushin presented Gosha with a cellphone so the brothers could stay in touch.During the occupation He told his older brother how scared all the children were while sheltering in the school’s cramped basement at the beginning of the invasion to update him on the situation in the Oleshky school and with Gosha in particular While Reutsky loved all the children and adults at the school he confessed that Gosha was one of his favorites And the boy reciprocated with his admiration of the warm-hearted boccia coach Gosha often referred to Reutsky as “dad.”In the first months of the occupation of Oleshky Yenyushin explored the possibilities of how to get his younger brother out of Oleshky but none of them seemed feasible.In April 2022 communication between Yenyushin and Gosha abruptly ended.The Russians removed Gosha from the Oleshky school with the first group of children on Oct and transported him by bus to the Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No Several employees of the boarding school recognized him in the video from occupied Skadovsk and believe Gosha is currently there.Yenyushin submitted a statement to the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine and subsequently appealed to the guardianship service but the Office of the Ombudsman has advised him to be patient.“The process of returning a child with a disability takes time,” he was told.Yenyushin remains deeply concerned about his brother “It is crucial for me to bring [Gosha] back because which was previously provided to him in Oleshky,” Yenyushin said.As of September of this year nine minors are known to have been returned six of whom were retrieved by their relatives without the involvement of Ukrainian state authorities One adult female student was also returned making the total returned Oleshky students 10 out of the 84 taken by the Russians three children were returned with the participation of the Ukrainian government This is the only known case of an adult student being returned from state institutions under occupation It is also known that at least six children died during the occupation Reutsky claims that the child had a heart defect He was scheduled for an operation in Ukraine but this didn’t happen due to the Russians taking him He believes the Russians did not perform the operation on the child or he would most likely still be alive.Currently he can only guess about the condition and location of the children from the messages of the Russians on social networks most of the students are in occupied Skadovsk He still worries constantly about the students he once spent his days with at the Oleshky school Every time he reads about another one of Ukraine’s stolen children returning from Russia’s grip he scans for the name and hopes it’s one of the children from Oleshky his phone suddenly buzzed with a message from one of the Oleshky students in Russian-occupied territory Reutsky could hardly believe it — he hadn’t spoken with him for over a year Reutsky tried to learn as much as possible about the students in Russian so-called care while being careful not to ask anything that would provoke the student from saying anything so anti-Russian it would get him in trouble if the call were being monitored One student was so upset he had taken to smashing windows and was now about to be sent to a psychiatric ward The other students were being fed less frequently than in Ukraine Relatives who had tried to recover family members under Russian occupation had been turned back at checkpoints It was a rare moment of contact with his students they still remembered and missed their common picnics and how they drank tea together But how much longer would it be before those bonds were broken Gosha’s brother Petro Yenushin has the same worries Will Gosha even remember him when — and if — they meet “The other side doesn’t want to return him They don’t care about any international laws.” Reporting for this story was based on witness testimonies and research collected by journalists with The Reckoning Project Sign up to our mailing list to receive our stories in your inbox Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy The Russian Federation systematically deports Ukrainian children from occupied territories which is a blatant violation of international law and human rights The tragic case of the Oleshky Boarding School in the Kherson region vividly illustrates this crime where children with disabilities were forcibly taken away from their friends Russian occupation forces transferred 84 residents with disabilities from the Oleshky boarding school to temporarily occupied Crimea and Russia’s Krasnodar region Most of the boarding school residents were minors This relocation occurred without the consent of their relatives or legal guardians in direct violation of international humanitarian law this case is only part of a larger campaign by Russia to deport Ukrainian children Russia uses the deportation of children as part of its propaganda efforts are often portrayed as "rescued" in fake humanitarian campaigns designed to showcase the "care" of Russian authorities behind these claims lies an attempt to erase the national identity of the children The intergovernmental program Bring Kids Back Its implementation is hindered by limited access to occupied territories insufficient coordination with international organizations and a lack of resources for tracking abducted children the Ukrainian Ombudsman’s Office and the entire return process architecture demonstrate limited effectiveness: out of more than 19,000 declared abduction cases only about 400 children have been returned The lack of an effective international mechanism to counter such crimes creates another significant issue traditionally considered a key player in humanitarian issues demonstrates complete inaction regarding the deportations of Ukrainian children The organization not only avoids active participation in investigations but also fails to assist in returning children It is worth noting that Ukrainian state statistics on the number of abducted children are questionable The absence of an accurate data collection mechanism and the difficulty of verifying information due to limited access to occupied territories complicate the assessment of the actual scale of deportations The entire system for identifying children and qualifying the crime of illegal deportation faces challenges due to ambiguities in international humanitarian law and difficulties in gathering evidence during pre-trial investigations Circumstances surrounding abductions are often disguised as evacuations Except for a few rigorous exceptions for military necessity and civilian security the obligations attached to which the Russian Federation fails to respect this type of displacement is a blatant violation of International Humanitarian Law it is essential to monitor the humanitarian consequences: the condition of children after their return the overall trauma experienced by families This also presents challenges for researchers and the justice system The issues surrounding children in boarding schools are not new to Ukrainian society Ukraine has faced serious problems with the organization of institutions for children with special needs or those requiring state care this case is particularly resonant due to the following factors: As the occupying power with effective control in the area Russia technically has legal obligations over state institutions So whether they had the authority to order is a grey area that is made more uncertain by the Ukrainian governmental response.It is also important to say that whatever the question about guardianship Russia has obligations to keep families together where possible and repatriate children And also to educate/ care for children in a way that respects their nationality and heritage harms children not only physically but also psychologically and environmental changes may suffer serious mental trauma that will affect their future development a systematic approach to working with children during wartime must be highly organized and precise The situation in Oleshky reflects deeper issues in Ukraine’s social care and child protection systems which have become even more evident during the war Thousands of children remain in occupied territories while others seek refuge in western Ukraine each requiring individual support and care Ukraine must analyze the wartime experience and implement systemic reforms in social support and child rights protection The story of returning a single child, described in an article by New Lines Magazine was abducted from the Oleshky boarding school and returned home after two and a half years This case highlights how complex and lengthy the return process can be as well as the dedication and courage of relatives Russia’s deliberate actions aim to erase Ukrainian identity among the younger generation which is part of a broader strategy to destroy Ukrainian culture Children taken to Russia are often placed in environments where their names This is not just a crime against specific children — it is a crime against the entire Ukrainian nation The international community continues to show an insufficient response Despite numerous statements of condemnation arrest warrants for Maria Lvova-Belova and Putin concrete actions remain at the level of declarations Ukraine needs the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate deportations the introduction of strict sanctions against those responsible and the development of mechanisms for returning abducted children Among those who facilitated the deportation of children are local collaborators the director of the Oleshky boarding school actively helped the occupiers carry out their criminal intentions sending an important signal to the world that such crimes will not go unpunished Every deported child is a story of pain and loss Bringing them home is both a humanitarian and moral duty for Ukraine These stories must become a call to action as every rescued child is a victory in the fight for the future Editor-in-chief: Sevğil Musayeva Founding Editor: Olena Prytula Contact us: upeng@pravda.ua Ukrainian armed forces struck a hospital in the partially occupied Kherson region on Monday the region's Kremlin-installed governor said The attack happened in the Russian-held town of Oleshky in the southern Kherson region an area where Ukrainian and Russian forces frequently clash "A NATO drone operator directed a drone directly into the office of the head doctor," the Kremlin-backed Kherson region Governor Vladimir Saldo claimed on Telegram Deputy chief physician Vasily Borisov was killed in the attack while chief physician Vladimir Kharlan was injured by shrapnel "This is already the second attempt on the chief physician's life," he said Images shared by Saldo on Telegram showed the facade of a building with its windows blown out while another showed a room cluttered with damaged furniture Oleshky had a population of around 20,000 people before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 It lies on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river a de facto front line between Moscow's forces on the east bank and Kyiv's forces on the west There was no immediate response from Ukrainian authorities about Monday's attack Russian occupational authorities in southern Ukraine said Saturday that a Ukrainian strike on a Moscow-held village in the Kherson region killed three people the Moscow-installed leader of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Kherson region accused Kyiv of using cluster munitions in a strike on the village of Oleshky Oleshky lies close to the city of Kherson and near the Dnipro river which forms the frontline in southern Ukraine "Ukrainian terrorists shelled Oleshky with cluster munitions and remote mine-clearing systems," Saldo said in a post on Telegram we know about three killed civilians," he added He called on villagers to stay in their homes or in shelters Both sides in the almost three-year war have accused each other of using cluster munitions has supplied cluster munitions — which rights groups say are particularly deadly and have long-term effects — drawing criticism even from its allies said that four people were wounded by Russian attacks in the Kherson region on Saturday Ukrainian soldiers made a symbolic gesture by placing the Ukrainian flag in the temporarily occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region The 124th Territorial Defense Brigade reported that the flag was placed using a drone The message declared: “Planting the blue and yellow flag in the heart of russian-occupied Oleshky on the left bank of the Kherson region is not just a symbol of our resilience and courage but also a clear signal to the occupying forces: Ukraine will inevitably reclaim its territory and every step forward brings us closer to victory Photo: AP PHOTORussia has accused Ukrainian forces of attacking a busy market in Russian-controlled southern Ukraine in a drone strike it says has killed at least seven civilians and wounded more than 20 while Ukraine says the attack had killed only military personnel All articles from our website & appThe digital version of Today's PaperBreaking news alerts direct to your inboxInteractive Crosswords Sudoku and TriviaAll articles from the other regional websites in your areaContinueReuters could not verify either side's assertions the Kherson region's Russian-installed governor said the drones had struck a market in the town of Oleshky about 9.30am on what was a public holiday He and two social media users released videos purporting to show some of the incident Reuters confirmed the location as Oleshky but could not independently verify when they were filmed One of the videos showed an explosion going off beside one in a group of low-slung buildings Another video shows at least two bodies lying on the ground beside the structure; it was not possible to tell who they were said Ukraine had targeted Russian troops in part of the Kherson region and that only military personnel Russia's foreign ministry called on the international community to condemn what it said was an act of terrorism during which they mercilessly killed the survivors and attacked the rescuers who had arrived," the ministry said in a statement Local Russian-installed official Sergei Cherevko said about 30 Ukrainian drones had struck the market in four different attack waves Cherevko alleged Ukrainian forces had used cluster munitions against ambulances gathering at the scene and said two people had been killed - contradicting the death toll of seven given by Saldo and the Russian Foreign Ministry Reuters has requested clarification from Saldo Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of deliberately targeting civilians in the course of the war Civilian casualties have been far higher on the Ukrainian side Russian strikes last month which the Kremlin said had been aimed at military targets killed 19 people in the city of Kryvyi Rih prompting US President Donald Trump to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to "STOP!" a special ambassador for Russia's foreign ministry called the strike on Oleshky a "monstrous atrocity" that made a mockery of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's talk about peace Ukraine says it wants a ceasefire of at least 30 days to open the way for talks on securing a just peace Russia has not agreed to such a truce but Putin has unilaterally announced a three-day ceasefire next week and the Kremlin says he is open to direct talks with Ukraine Today's top stories curated by our news team Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert Your digital replica of Today's Paper Test your skills with interactive crosswords Home page » Topics » War » To escape from occupied Oleshky after the attack on Kakhovka dam This is a report about two people who managed to flee the occupied town of Oleshky amidst the chaos following the Russian explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant Residents of the flooded left bank of the Dnipro River were trapped — the occupiers were blocking the evacuation shooting at those who wanted to get out on their own in Kherson the day after they arrived in the Ukraine-controlled area from occupied Oleshky The couple planned to go to the west of Ukraine to visit their daughter and grandchildren Andrii and Yulia showed me a video of them eating ice cream in Kherson for the first time in a year and a half they recalled the horrors they had experienced and started crying Oleshky is a town on the left bank of the Dnipro River which has been under occupation since the beginning of the full-scale war After Russian troops retreated from Kherson in November 2022 and blew up the Antonivskyi Bridge communication between the town and the right bank of the Dnipro River became impossible As a result of a large-scale Russian terrorist attack on 6 June which blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam dozens of settlements in the lower Dnipro River area were flooded or completely covered with water “The dam has been blown up,” a friend told Andrii by phone It’s about 50 kilometres from Oleshky to the Kakhovka power plant so the sound of the explosion did not reach the town The locals learned about the impending big water from friends who called The occupation administration didn’t inform the locals about the coming flood for the first time since the beginning of the occupation contemplating the disaster he and his wife would soon face their life under the occupation of the Russian Federation They had not dared to evacuate their hometown before as they believed they were too old They did not want to leave their beautiful two-story house with a magnificent garden and believed that the Ukrainian military was to arrive soon lowered it from the carriage and put two oars and a tarpaulin inside then threw the rope into his room through an open second-floor window and secured the other end to prevent the boat from being swept away by the water as they had a fireplace on the second floor To stay updated on the latest news about the flood they relied on Ukrainian television broadcasts accessed via a satellite dish They were trying to understand whether their house would be completely flooded Andrii hopped on his bike and went to investigate the situation It was important to find a hill to escape to he came across an elderly couple standing in the middle of the street The woman was crying and the man was trying to calm her down we’re going to be flooded!” the woman cried out Then Andrii and Yulia watched the news on the TV again: “…the explosion of the dam and the machine room…” “…the disaster occurred at around three in the morning…” “…a particular threat to the lower-lying left bank…” Information about the expected flooding level varied So the couple stayed at home for the rest of the day He opened the window and could hear dogs barking and people shouting in the distance He and his wife went outside and saw the road was flooding a woman with a flashlight stood watching the waves wash over the street The couple decided to return to their house while they could still walk on dry ground — the water was rising too fast and the water in Andrii and Yulia’s yard was already a metre high Andrii went down to the basement to save a few more cans of preserves and retrieve the pumping station the sewer pipe running through the room burst and there was a noise coming from below — water and all the contents of the sewer were washing away the first floor and other appliances were being swept away Andrii made notches on the wall of the house with a knife to mark the water level the water had been rising by five centimetres every five minutes and the boat tied to the house was already drifting Andrii untied the boat and wanted to swim to rescue his neighbours but he could not get out of his own yard as the gate was locked with two bolts submerged under water and while he could already turn on the motor he continued to paddle instead: the Russian military was looking for motor boats and would confiscate either the engine or the entire boat Watercraft without motors was not suitable and inflatable boats could be easily punctured Andrii was busy transporting people from smaller houses to houses with two or more floors and many people were sitting on their roofs without any shade the shelling continued: Russian artillery on the outskirts of Oleshky was firing on Kherson Then he heard a woman’s voice come from an old house The man saw a grandmother looking out from the attic from the triangular cut-out of the mansard and the woman jumped out of the door on the other side of the attic Andrii started rowing to the neighbouring house the house was too high for Andrii to transfer the grandmother there safely he suggested placing her on another nearby tall building where the ascent would be easier then it’ll be in my house,” she said and agreed with Lyuba that some man would come by boat and take her from the attic having neither the strength nor the time to argue Andrii primarily saved women with children or the elderly waiting for them to gather their belongings and finding a way to safely disembark all took up precious time there was no time to discuss rescuing animals even though many people pleaded to save their cats and dogs Andrii swam past the tall rose hedge that lined the road It was then Andrii saw two boats with Russian soldiers sailing past the drowning people in Oleshka One guy made a raft by tying empty plastic bottles to a pallet he even managed to pull a hedgehog out of the water Residents of the city called their relatives friends and acquaintances directly from the rooftops and begged to be rescued Andrii sat at home with Yulia and the neighbours again illuminating the front wall with a flashlight He was looking at the last mark he had placed a few hours ago He looked again and at half past one in the morning he shouted: and in the morning it fell by 50-60 centimetres There was no thought that dry areas could still remain in Oleshky because it seemed as if water had flooded the entire city Andrii swam in the direction opposite the Dnipro River and discovered that there was still land near the hospital starting with the neighbours who had been in his house only the crowns of trees and the roofs of houses protruded above the surface others clinging to bits of land or any objects that had accumulated One of the neighbouring houses was torn loose and drifted out to the open sea Andrii noticed that the current had carved out a wide corridor leading to the river due to the one-metre difference in water level Yulia was terribly afraid of water and even before the war hardly ever got into a boat so she didn’t want to entertain her husband’s suggestion of getting out of Oleshky using the newly emerged path saying they just needed to cross the riffle “It’s like we’re in Venice!” he joked After looking at the faeces floating among the children’s toys The final decision was made on Friday morning Andrii launched the backup inflatable boat into the water and tied it behind the motorboat with a sturdy television cable there were still two neighbours left in the house Two people could fit into the inflatable boat But they categorically refused — it was too dangerous They asked to be dropped off near the hospital he and Yulia hastily gathered their belongings and toy dog ​​that their grandchildren used to play with into the rubber boat Andrii grabbed the branded box from his phone — in the chaos it was difficult to rationalise the decision we’ll use them as beacons,” joked Andrii Their drinking water wasn’t in bottles so Yulia wrapped them in white towels and handed them down to Andrii from the window The towels could serve as white flags if needed They also took three guns with ammunition as a “gift” for a Russian patrol Yulia sat in the boat wearing a pink t-shirt adorned with plastic pearls and jeggings Both of them wore wide-brimmed beach hats on their heads They set sail around half-past seven in the morning Beach hat in which Yulia travelled from Oleshky to Kherson Yulia and Andrii put walnuts in a bag and took them on their way and we’ll live,” Andrii said in case they were washed out to sea On the roof of one of the buildings they were passing by Yulia looked at her and silently pointed towards the Dnipro River “I understand,” the woman’s expression shifted between understanding and despair and the channel itself widened by 20 metres Andrii grabbed onto an electric wire stretched between two poles and slowly descended downstream — away from the whirlpool This caused the inflatable boat to collide with its thorny top But Andrii couldn’t help but think that if they had taken two more people with them Andrii swam into the forest and moved further between the trees so that Russian patrols or snipers would not see them Now Yulia realised that no one was waiting for them near the riffle — Andrii reassured her to convince her to get into the boat Then they had to paddle to the other side on their own And the fear of water completely disappeared To make it more difficult for the Russian military to shoot them and the second boat began to drift downstream Yulia grabbed the television cable to hold the boat with the belongings there were islands with summer cottage communities including two-story houses visible from the water The couple feared that Russian military personnel might be lurking there While Andrii attempted to hold onto the motorboat “The land is floating!” Both of them watched as the entire island began to drift with the current Andrii tried to steer away from the whirlpool that swept the entire island away the land continued to float along with trees and rocks – straight into the sea But in a minute it turned out that it was not the island floating but the boats being carried in the opposite direction but the current turned out to be so strong that it still carried them downstream They looked to see if it was armed with a grenade but they could not see clearly — the “iron bird” hovered against the sun Andrii steered the boats further towards Kherson they encountered a swift current that began to carry them away along with the rapids They had to turn back and anchor near a concrete pillar with a blue and yellow flag They anchored and waited for rescuers to notice them Andrii untied the ship and began to slowly drift between the trees hiding in the bushes: if the drone came with a grenade A snake fell from one tree directly into the boat while Andrii threw it overboard with a light swing they spotted a military boat heading toward a concrete pillar with a flagpole Identification marks were not visible from afar Another “bird” flew up from the Kherson side and hovered over the pole with the flag It turned out to be a Ukrainian military boat “This is what freedom looks like,” he said looking at the green slope of the port city Involved in the preparation of the material 13 volunteers Project support: Fundacja Euromaidan-Warszawa Use of materials is only permitted upon providing the source: Ukrainer.net Дизайн — Артем Зубкевич Розробка — Deluxcode Mandy Taheri is a Newsweek reporter based in Brooklyn You can get in touch with Mandy via email: m.taheri@newsweek.com either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Russia's military destroyed a bridge on Saturday in Ukraine's southern Kherson region in an effort to prevent a potential Ukrainian offensive according to reports by a Ukrainian partisan movement in the region The United States and many Western allies said the Crimea annexation was illegal and Washington and much of Europe placed sanctions on Russia Western countries did not provide Ukraine with military aid to fight back in 2014 the Atesh group wrote in Ukrainian on its Telegram channel Russians destroyed a bridge over the Konka River in the Kherson region." The reported bridge is in the city of Oleshky Newsweek could not independently verify the report and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email for confirmation Atesh, whose X (formerly Twitter) biography says has a goal of destroying "the Russian army from the inside," at times receives intelligence from individuals who work for Russia's military the group reported that "an agent with the 61st Marine Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces reports that this may be due to a possible offensive by the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the Kherson sector." saying Russian forces blew up the bridge because they were "anticipating a UAF offensive." However it also noted that there could be other reasons for the destruction of the bridge Newsweek reached out by email to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for comment on Saturday The group's Telegram post said that Russian soldiers in that brigade "have repeatedly received intelligence information about a possible offensive by Ukrainian forces It is also reported that all units up to 15 kilometers deep have been put on full combat alert." The Kherson region is one of the four regions of mainland Ukraine that Russia has said it has annexed Ukraine pushed Russian forces back to the east bank of the Dnieper River and established pockets of control in settlements like Krynky Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all On the morning of October 18, russians destroyed a bridge over the Konka river in the Kherson region. This was reported by the Atesh partisan movement on Telegram a movement agent from the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade of the russian Armed Forces informed that this could be related to a likely offensive by Ukrainian forces in the Kherson sector It is known that personnel of this brigade had previously received intelligence information about a possible offensive by Ukrainian forces It is also reported that all units up to a depth of 15 kilometers have been placed on full alert "This also confirms the information of our agents from the Kherson region about the movement of about 1,000 russian troops towards the Dnieper river the occupiers are seriously considering the likelihood of offensive by the Defense Forces of Ukraine in this area And they wouldn't blow up such a strategically important bridge without good reason," the statement reads the Atesh claims that this is only one of the versions russian occupiers could have blown up the bridge for another Agents of the Ukrainian partisan movement within the russian Armed Forces continue to record the activity of Putin's army All their information is promptly transmitted to the Defense Forces of Ukraine Earlier Defense Express reported that a secret location of russian forces had been discovered by the Atesh movement partisans including Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones located about 70 kilometers northwest of Donetsk remains one of the most fiercely contested sectors of the front where Russia has concentrated its main offensive efforts since March  (Updated:  May 6, 2025 11:41 am)Ukraine's drones target Moscow second night in a row, Russian official claims, ahead of Victory Day parade. Debris from one of the drones reportedly fell on the Kashirskoye Highway The reported attack comes just days before Russia's Victory Day parade and three-day "truce." Vice President Mike Pence said Putin "only understands power." About 800 million euros ($905 million) will be allocated for the acquisition and installation of anti-tank mines to deter potential aggression  (Updated:  May 6, 2025 9:36 am)War analysisFrance is sending Ukraine more AASM Hammer bombs — here's what they can do Polish President Andrzej Duda said the United States has tools that can effectively influence the Kremlin arguing that only President Donald Trump has real leverage over Russian President Vladimir Putin The number includes 1,430 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day "To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement" by Benjamin Nathans which covers dissent in the Soviet Union and Russia today Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on May 5 announced they had facilitated Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash's escape from Russia to France after she fled house arrest on April 21 A Russian drone attack on Odesa Oblast on May 5 killed one and caused damage to local infrastructure "We appreciate that Germany plays a pivotal role in supporting Ukraine throughout the years of war Ukraine is also grateful for your personal commitment," President Volodymyr Zelensky said MPs will be able to ask questions and learn more about the details of the agreement in meetings with Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko May 6-7 MP Serhii Sobolev told the news outlet Suspilne The ratification vote is scheduled for May 8 by Elsa Court, The Kyiv Independent news deskMaxar satellite imagery of the flooded homes in Russian-occupied Oleshky (Satellite image: Maxar Technologies)The situation in Oleshky in occupied Kherson Oblast is deteriorating under Russian occupation and some villages in the region "no longer exist," Tetiana Hasanenko the exiled head of Oleshky's military administration Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson Oblast up to the western bank of the Dnipro River in November 2022 Russian forces still occupy the other side of the bank and carry out attacks against the western bank from the towns and villages they occupy on the eastern bank "Some villages of the community no longer exist on the map at all," Hasanenko told Radio Svoboda describing constant shelling and a complete lack of essential services 21 civilians have been wounded and seven have been killed under Russian occupation describing the situation as "simply catastrophic." these are only those people we have become aware of," Hasanenko said "Civilians are constantly dying." Oleshky was also hit by Russia's destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on June 6 While Russia has claimed that 59 people died in floods caused by the dam explosion in the territory it controls, an Associated Press investigation discovered that in Oleshky alone Journalists talked to medical workers who kept records of the dead in Oleshky and Ukrainian informants who provided intelligence from the area to the Ukrainian Security Service as well as other residents and recent escapees from the occupied area Ukraine's National Resistance Center put the number of flood victims in Oleshky at over 500. Rather than evacuating the population, Russian forces reportedly prevented locals in Oleshky from leaving and later confiscated humanitarian aid. Floodwater from the breached Nova Kakhovka Dam in the Russian-occupied Kherson province of southern Ukraine is said to have submerged the house museum of the late devastating the region and prompting fears of a humanitarian disaster At least eight people have died from flooding in the region so far according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials On Tuesday the Ukraine army’s southern military command alleged that Russian forces blew up the dam; Ukrainian president Zelensky later accused Russia of committing ecocide the local Russian-installed mayor has called it a “terrorist act” Investigations into the cause of the dam collapse are ongoing The museum, in Rayko's hometown of Oleshky, contains decades of work by the artist, who overcame personal tragedy by painting fantastical visions of flora and fauna across the surfaces of her home. A video interview with Rayko in 2003 “As of now (7/6/23 6:00 p.m.), I know that the house with the frescoes is under water,” wrote Simon Khramtsov, the head of a foundation that promotes Rayko’s heritage,in a Facebook post "The house is totally flooded," Khramstov tells The Art Newspaper Witnesses from neighbouring houses said their houses are flooded For now it’s not clear what will remain of it At one point it was said it has a bad foundation We know for sure it is made up of two parts Maybe it will flow out if there is a big current Maybe the water will stand there for a long time.” Khramstov remains hopeful that not all of the museum will be lost: “Rayko painted in enamel and enamel is strong Maybe the parts on the ceiling for example will be preserved if the house is not totally swept away If it remains in place we will lose only what she painted on wallpaper." As floodwaters closed in on Oleshky, the Ukrainian art historian Oksana Semenik wrote of the museum on Twitter: “The walls and garage gates served as canvases for the rural artist Polina Rayko loved to draw birds of different shapes and species.” Semenik is a specialist in art related to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster The Nova Kakhovka breach has raised new safety concerns about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which is also in Russian-occupied territory even Raiko" until people are saved from the flood interview16 July 2024‘These are terrible crimes’: A Ukrainian museum director’s fight to recover artAlina Dotsenko of the Kherson Art Museum explains how her team is working to find stolen objects news23 August 2024Release of Olena Pekh highlights plight of other Ukrainian cultural workers languishing in Russian prisonsThrough Vatican mediation the museum researcher was freed alongside nine others earlier this summer news28 February 2022Ukraine museum reportedly burns down in Russian invasion, destroying 25 works by folk artist Maria PrymachenkoThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the Museum of Local History in Ivankiv had been set on fire by Russian forces Over 500 residents of the temporarily occupied Oleshky on the left bank of Kherson Oblast died due to the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP. These are the preliminary reports of the National Resistance Center The Russians refused to evacuate those who did not receive a Russian passport Civilians had no chance to save themselves from the flood and damage the explosion brought on “Violating all norms of international humanitarian law and ordinary humanity the Russians simply left the locals to die The actions of Russians against civilians have all the hallmarks of genocide and anyone who joined the abuse of Ukrainians will be justly punished,” the National Resistance Center states It is impossible to establish the exact number of dead and injured in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast. Russia has rejected the UN’s request for access to the left bank of the region affected by the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP The humanitarian mission cannot reach flooded towns and villages to help people Russian troops detonated the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant on June 6. The disaster provoked ecocide, as well as the flooding of about 80 settlements. As a result of the destruction of the plant, 18 people died These are data only from liberated territories The exact number of victims will be established after the de-occupation of the entire region [email protected] [email protected] FB: @uwcongress 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 Lire la version en français With the flood waters from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam rising around them They gathered what personal belongings they could and hopped into cars to head for higher ground Russian soldiers told them: “Haven’t you been waiting it out The dam was destroyed in the early morning of June 6 Russian forces had essentially locked people inside the flood zone Volunteers came to help Oleshky’s residents but Russian soldiers blocked them from entering the town One volunteer who tried to enter Oleshky on June 8 described the scene to HRW Senior Researcher Yulia Gorbunova in a heartbreaking new article: “We told them we were bringing food and water for the people and that we were unarmed They [Russian soldiers] told us to turn around Then they shot [their guns] in the air for good measure.” a town on the Dnipro River’s left bank that Russian forces have occupied since April 2022 with some areas practically disappearing underwater and they had no way of connecting with the outside world as a few residents with boats started rescuing people Russian emergency services were nowhere to be seen Only a week later did occupation authorities apparently conduct some sporadic evacuations but people in Oleshky are still in dire need Most parts of the town are still without electricity Humanitarian needs will only increase in the coming days and weeks All they need is a security guarantee from the Russian authorities so the people of Oleshky – and the entire flood zone under occupation – suffer alone Last month in this newsletter, we examined one of the worst atrocities in Burkina Faso in recent years men in Burkinabè army uniforms carried out what can only be described as a massacre Today’s update brings no relief, unfortunately. A new report further details the upsurge in crimes by Islamist armed groups in the country and forced thousands to flee in attacks across the country since late 2022.  All this is on top of their earlier, documented atrocities: summary executions, rapes, abductions, and pillage. The groups have also attacked students, teachers, and schools The armed groups have also besieged several towns and humanitarian aid – adding to the misery of civilians caught up in the fighting We’re hoping the country’s transitional authorities and concerned governments will work together to provide better protection and greater assistance for them (written by Lisa Maier) You’ve probably shared a YouTube link on social media before Did you get three years behind bars for it That’s what happened to Jahongir Ulugmurodov a 20-year-old university student in Uzbekistan He was convicted by a Tashkent court on charges of “sharing materials threatening public safety and public order.” a song that generally refers to Islamic beliefs Nasheeds are popular throughout the Islamic world but some Islamist armed groups have created and distributed their own versions for propaganda purposes.  The song Ulugmurodov shared does not constitute imminent incitement to violence which should be the standard for these things Unfortunately, Uzbek law does not really distinguish between violent and nonviolent extremism, and “extremism” charges are used against people even for peaceful religious activity. As we’ve written here before and as several recent cases highlight Uzbekistan’s authorities see religion as a threat Ulugmurodov’s conviction violates his right to freedom of religion His appeal was supposed to start yesterday but has been postponed.  (compiled by Lisa Maier) At least 79 people have died at sea – almost certainly more – when an overcrowded boat with migrants capsized off the coast of Greece Yet again, we see the horrific, predictable impact of the EU’s anti-migrant policies, which we have discussed many times in this newsletter My quick take: Mass drownings at sea are to the EU what mass shootings are to the US yet keep in place the government policies at the root of the problem Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808 Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova and her sister are deporting disabled Ukrainians from occupied territories against their will — an act which may constitute a war crime PHOTO: SOFIA LVOVA-BELOVA’S VKONTAKTE PROFILE“With tears in their eyes and hope in their hearts. The Kvartal Louie team welcomed new arrivals from Kherson,” — this is how members of the Russia’s Penza-based charity, Kvartal Louie, described the arrival of four people from the occupied Kherson Oblast in November 2023 these individuals had resided in a boarding school for children with disabilities in Oleshky all four have been declared legally disabled — meaning the law does not allow them to independently manage their own property and money Nor do they have a say in which country they live and which citizenship they hold having been notified of their departure for Penza only a day prior One of the disabled residents taken to Penza explains to IStories: “I tell them straight: yes I have friends there; I have foster parents there you were born there.” He now lives thousands of kilometers from his home and the possibility of returning seems out of the question in collaboration with the Ukrainian war crime investigators The Reckoning Project reveal how Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner and her sister Sofia are deporting disabled Ukrainians into Russia IStories have previously reported on how Russia kidnaps orphaned Ukrainian children and places them in Russian families. Read our coverage of the case via this link students displaced from boarding schools in the occupied Ukrainian territories were presented as the “new residents of the unique art estate.” The Noviye Berega villagePHOTO: Kvartal LouieNoviye Berega is the most ambitious project of the Penza-based charity Kvartal Louie and a beauty salon have been built on the site 56 people with disabilities were living there According to Kvartal Louie’s financial reports the construction of Noviye Berega cost over 208 million rubles ($2.25 million) and local businesses invested heavily in the large-scale construction project. Donors included Roman Abramovich billionaire nickel tycoon Vladimir Potanin businessman Konstantin Malofeev and Vladimir Putin’s close friend Gennady Timchenko Kvartal Louie’s projects received almost 160 million rubles from the presidential grants fund — making it the second-largest recipient in the “social protection” category since 2017 In 2022, Lvova-Belova and a resident of the Noviye Berega facility, presented the project to Vladimir Putin who promised to “charge the government with replicating the initiative as widely as possible.” Kvartal Louie and Noviye Berega were headed by Maria Lvova-Belova almost all her relatives have managed to work for the organization: her father Alexey Lvov-Belov and brothers Pavel and Fyodor (both of whom currently work at Kvartal Louie’s Krasnodar branch) was the architect and designer behind the project she took over the headship of the foundation Shortly before the grand opening of Noviye Berega, Russian media outlets reported the arrival of residents from the “new regions” (a euphemism referring to the Russian-occupied Donetsk Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts of Ukraine.) “Despite being at Noviye Berega for only 5 days, they have already managed to settle in and fall in love with their surroundings. Six people with mental disorders from the Shakhtarsk orphanage in the Donetsk People’s Republic and four wheelchair-bound children from the Kherson Oblast now live in this unique art complex,” GTRK Penza reported Four young adults from the Kherson Oblast were taken on a journey to see “how interesting it is in Russia”: Oleksandr Danylchuk They had spent much of their lives in the Oleshky boarding school for children with special needs being declared legally disabled and deprived of parental care I didn’t know yet that we were leaving [for Russia] But where we were going — nobody said anything,” recalls Oleksandr Danylchuk “Alla [Barkhatnova] comes and says: ‘My dears no one had actually inquired about their willingness to relocate Danylchuk recalled a conversation that took place once in Penza: “I told them that I wanted to leave Oleksandr adds that they began receiving Russian passports and were issued bank cards for allowances while still living in the occupied territory They think we belong to them,” he wrote to his former tutor Publicly, Sofia Lvova-Belova asserts that the wards brought to Penza from the “new regions” have no desire to return home. “No one wants to go home; we’ve already accepted them into our big family. It was immediately clear to me that they would stay. We’re not keeping anyone prisoner; the doors are open. I say, ‘Guys, who’s ready to go back?’ Everyone says, ‘No, we’re not going anywhere,’” she claims people in boarding schools located in the occupied territories are lining up for the chance to stay at Kvartal Louie a scheme initiated by the American foundation he saw this as his home,” says the head of the foster family who was set to become Oleksandr’s legal guardian at Stephen’s Home Due to difficulties in processing documents for the transfer of a disabled person from an institution to a family Oleksandr periodically returned to the Oleshky boarding school and formally remained its resident I brought Sasha back to the boarding school because mandatory sanitary procedures were taking place there and we were separated,” Shchirsky recounts along with his family and the residents of Stephen’s Home “Sasha is considered legally disabled because of his diagnosis This is a very lengthy process that can take several years a medical board convened in Mykolaiv to assess Sasha’s case but the final decision rests with the court,” explains Anna Kobzar legal consultant at the Oleshky boarding school this process is complicated by the fact that many documents have been lost: some were taken by the Russians during their retreat from Kherson Oleksandr DanylchukThe reason why only four people were removed from the boarding school remains unclear “I think they were taken precisely because they are the most transportable IStories interviewed several experts in the field of disability rights who note that students can be transferred from one boarding school to another within the same region moving incapacitated individuals between regions is not in their practice (from the Russian perspective the Oleshky residents were moved from one region to another since Russia annexed the territory) as well as to represent their interests in court The institution receives 75% of the ward’s pension as payment for their residence pension deductions constitute a small part of their total income the foundation received just over one million rubles from pensions out of a total revenue of 125 million rubles ($1.3 million) those wishing to become guardians can apply to the guardianship department and demonstrate that despite their different nationality they want to ensure that this person lives with them The department should then act in the interests of the disabled individual Nobody knows,” says a disability rights expert one option is to try assigning them full legal autonomy allowing them to travel independently to their families By the onset of the war, just over a hundred people lived at the Oleshky boarding school. In October 2022, before Ukraine regained control of the Kherson Oblast, they began evacuating the facility. Some were transferred to institutions in Crimea and the Krasnodar Krai, before being returned to the occupied territories Minors continued living at a facility in Skadovsk, a city in the Kherson Oblast [under the control of Russian forces]. Vitaliy Suk, the head of the institution, and former manager of a driving school, admitted “that he could never have imagined that he would one day be the director of a children’s boarding school.” As of April 2024 43 children with developmental disabilities live under his stewardship Adult wards were sent to the village of Strilkove in the Henichesk district (also under Russian control), where the Dnipro-based Psychoneurological Boarding School was relocated It was from here that the four students were chosen for deportation to Penza Estimates suggest that there are currently 27 adults from the Oleshky boarding school still living in Strilkove IStories and The Reckoning Project were able to establish just eight cases in which relatives managed to return the children taken from the Oleshky boarding school Marina (name changed to preserve anonymity) was able to retrieve her 13-year-old disabled daughter Veronica from Simferopol Hospital No Veronica and 11 other children were sent there three weeks prior and hospital staff questioned whether she really wanted her back They didn’t want to give me her wheelchair claiming it was the property of the boarding school,” the woman recalled the mother of an adult boarding school resident could not collect her daughter for over a month due to bureaucratic issues related to being forced to accept Russian citizenship they issued her a Russian passport but told her that to leave she needed a Russian foreign passport which took us a month to get,” she explains Maria Lvova-Belova herself spoke about Polina Kindra’s fight to retrieve her grandson which saw the woman wait nearly three months for the results of a DNA test to prove her relation to the boy “When I came to Skadovsk in the summer of 2023 [institution director Vitaliy] Suk said there were some errors in the documents and that they wouldn’t give me my grandson I lived in Dzhankoi in a shelter for parishioners of the local church and was forbidden from seeing my grandson all that time It was very painful,” the grandmother recounts an international law expert and researcher at the University of Copenhagen asserts that the forced displacement of civilians without valid cause may constitute a war crime could also be deemed a crime against humanity Maria Lvova-Belova during a visit to the Kherson Oblast in September 2023PHOTO: KREMLIN.RU“International law generally prohibits the displacement of civilian populations from occupied territories regardless of whether they are children or disabled individuals – it’s forbidden” the fact that the students taken to Penza were disabled serves to confirm that their displacement was involuntary Russian authorities are obliged to facilitate the return of displaced persons and oversee their reunification with families “The mere fact that certain technicalities weren’t totally formalized (as in the case of Oleksandr Danylchuk and his guardians from Stephen’s Home - Ed The interests of the person being reunited with their family must take priority It’s clear that international laws are still being violated and no significant efforts have yet been made to stop this practice.” The Oleshky boarding school has changed beyond recognition And then there was also flooding because of the dam explosion Our school no longer exists,” say former employees of the institution who witnessed the removal of students and property from the facility IStories sent requests for comment to Sofia Lvova-Belova Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova and Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the occupied Kherson Oblast Aleks joined Newsweek in 2023 from the Daily Express and previously worked for Chemist and Druggist and the Jewish Chronicle You can get in touch with Aleks by emailing aleks.phillips@newsweek.com Ukrainian forces have successfully established positions along the eastern bank of the Dnieper River in the past few days in a sign that Russian forces are losing their defensive positions in the south the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said The Washington D.C.-based research organization said that Russian military bloggers had been able to provide enough geolocated footage and reports to confirm the presence of the Ukrainian military on the other side of the natural boundary as of Saturday sits above Crimea and has been largely under Russian control since the early phases of the war which it heralded as a key victory and left Russia holding none of the country's major cities The ISW could not confirm the scale or the intentions of the landings which appear to have occurred north of Oleshky a town opposite Kherson on the other side of the Dnieper River Footage reportedly recorded on April 18 shows Ukrainian amphibious vehicles landing on the eastern bank of the river Bridges across the river had previously been destroyed as Ukraine sought to cut Russian supply lines into Kherson It added that evidence suggested the Russian forces had no control over the islands within the nearby Kinka and Chaika rivers The ISW said Russian military bloggers "claimed on April 20 and 22 that Ukrainian forces have maintained positions in east bank Kherson Oblast for weeks established stable supply lines to these positions and regularly conduct sorties in the area—all indicating a lack of Russian control over the area." BREAKING:Ukraine has released a video of its amphibious landing on the left bank of the Dnipro river, establishing the first bridgehead east of Kherson.It was recorded on April 18th. pic.twitter.com/E7nMp2Pl6f Leaked Pentagon intelligence which began circulating online a few weeks ago appeared to show U.S support and plans for a Ukrainian counteroffensive One document purported to argue that Ukraine would only be able to secure "modest territorial gains" in a spring counteroffensive Ukrainian officials have said the leaked documents contained "a mix of truth and falsehoods." The leaked documents suggested that as of March 1 most of the Russian forces south of the Dnieper River were located further upstream near Dniprovka and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which remains under Russian control and has been a focus of alarm for international leaders "Russian forces may be prioritizing maintaining defenses in urban areas such as Oleshky and Nova Kakhovka leaving the islands in the Dnipro River delta unmanned," the ISW suggested ET: This article was updated with further details throughout ET: This article and its headline were updated for clarity Ukrainian troops have established positions on the east bank of the Dnipro river implying that Russia's defensive positions are weakening The Washington-based think tank said that it is now marking the territory as Ukrainian-held only after reviewing footage geolocated by Russian military bloggers and other reports about the Ukrainian presence The Ukrainian positions have been established north of Oleshky Ukraine freed the city of Kherson from Russian control in November 2022 but large parts of Kherson Oblast on the other side of the river are still occupied The new reports suggest a lack of Russian control of the area as Russian military bloggers claimed this week that Ukrainian forces had maintained positions on the east bank and are regularly conducting sorties in the area Some of the military bloggers suggested that Ukrainian forces were able to land on the east bank because of the slow rate of Russian artillery fire which they blamed on the over-centralization of the Russian military command The institute could not confirm the extent or the intentions of the Ukrainian positions Military bloggers also suggested that Russia might not have control over some islands in the Kinka and Chaika rivers and some Dnipro delta islands Russian forces might be prioritizing maintaining defenses in urban areas such as Oleshky and Nova Kakhovka A video posted online appears to show Ukrainian amphibious vehicles landing on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river and establishing a bridgehead These reports come amid expectations that Ukraine is soon to begin a counter-offensive to push back on Russian positions and reclaim as much territory as possible Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Deputy Director of the Center for Middle East Studies Serhii Danilov wrote about this on Facebook "Mercenaries from the African continent were spotted at the market in Oleshky," Danilov wrote the comments remind him that African mercenaries were spotted in Chaplynka even earlier when they bought warm clothes and blankets at the market the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated the right-bank part of the Kherson region located on the left bank of the Dnipro River 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 Reports say Moscow’s forces preventing volunteers from rescuing people in town badly affected after collapse of Nova Kakhovka dam Russian forces in control of a Ukrainian town on the occupied southern side of the Dnipro River near Kherson have been accused of preventing evacuation efforts after flooding caused by the Nova Kakhovka dam bursting. The town of Oleshky appears to be the worst-affected area in territory controlled by Russia. Videos and photographs from the scene have depicted severe flooding and residents stranded on the roofs of their cottages. Reports have emerged indicating that Russian forces were preventing local volunteers from evacuating people in Oleshky by setting up checkpoints around the town. an organisation that provides aid and services to Ukrainians fleeing the war said it had been unable to organise evacuations “They are not allowing volunteers on boats to enter,” a representative from the group told the Guardian “[Russian] emergency services are carrying out some evacuation but it’s very selective and it is not enough.” At least five people have died in Russian-occupied parts of southern Ukraine since the dam burst 1:27Drone footage shows extent of damage to Ukraine dam – videoRussian emergency services on Thursday said that evacuations were under way but some residents and human rights groups criticised Russia’s efforts “The Russian emergency services are evacuating a small percentage of people but judging from the volume of evacuation requests we are receiving absolutely not as many as they should,” the Helping to Leave representative said The representative said their organisation had received more than 350 evacuation requests from people stuck on the Russian-controlled southern bank of the river came at midnight from three pensioners who were floating around the town on inflatable mattresses A woman and her pet being helped to safety in Kherson Photograph: Ed Ram/The Guardian“There is almost no contact with the people there No one is allowed into the town and those who make it out on boats are placed into buses and driven away,” he said “We tried reaching Oleshky but checkpoints have been set up all around the town A lot of people are waiting to be evacuated but we can’t confirm because there is no access.” There appeared to be no phone signal in Oleshky on Thursday leaving many relatives to frantically search online for information about their loved ones an Oleshky native who moved to Kherson after the city’s liberation last autumn told the Guardian her mother and aunt remained in the town Local Telegram channels were also full of desperate messages from relatives and her husband have been sitting on their roof since morning Everyone in the Red Army district is sitting on the roof The Kazkova Dibrova zoo on the Russian-held riverbank was completely flooded and all 300 animals were dead a representative said via the zoo’s Facebook account There appeared to be isolated reports of Ukrainian volunteers on boats performing daring rescue operations in Russian-occupied land to rescue stranded locals In one video on social media, a mother and her young son are seen being evacuated by boat and brought across the Dnipro to Kyiv-controlled territory. The mother and son are then seen thanking the Ukrainian volunteers The Ukrainian president visiting the flood-hit southern region of Kherson Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesIn an address on Wednesday evening Zelenskiy said it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied parts of Kherson due to the flooding urging a “clear and rapid reaction from the world” to support victims He also severely criticised the UN and the Red Cross who he said were not helping the relief effort similarly called on international humanitarian organisations to provide assistance on the occupied southern bank “We appeal to you to take charge of evacuating people from the territory of Kherson oblast occupied by Russia We must save the lives of people whom the occupiers have condemned to death,” Shmyhal said Zelenskiy visited the flood-stricken section of Kherson The Ukrainian president said more than 2,000 people had been rescued from the flooding Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces attacked Russia’s hold on the southern city of Kherson on Thursday while fighting intensified in the country’s east The battles came amid reports that Moscow-appointed authorities in the city have abandoned it joining tens of thousands of residents who fled to other Russia-held areas Ukrainian forces were surrounding Kherson from the west and attacking Russia’s foothold on the west bank of the Dnieper River As the battles unfolded, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow has no intention to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine “We see no need for that,” Putin said at a conference of international foreign policy experts The Russian leader also sought to cast the conflict as part of efforts by the West to secure global domination and its allies of trying to dictate their terms to other nations in a “dangerous and bloody” domination game WATCH: Russia holds first nuclear drills since invading Ukraine has described Western support for Ukraine as part of broad efforts by Washington and its allies to enforce what they call a rules-based world order that only foments chaos Russia warned that Moscow could target Western commercial satellites used for military purposes in support of Ukraine and a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman accused the United States of pursuing “thoughtless and mad” escalation Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova argued that Washington should take an approach more like it did during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 when the Cold War superpowers stepped back from the brink of nuclear confrontation is drawn into supporting the Kyiv regime on the battlefield the more they risk provoking a direct military confrontation between the biggest nuclear powers fraught with catastrophic consequences,” Zakharova said Ukraine has pushed ahead with an offensive to reclaim the Kherson region and its capital of the same name which Russian forces captured during the first days of a war now in its ninth month More than 70,000 residents from the Kherson city area have evacuated in recent days the region’s Kremlin-installed governor Members of the Russia-backed regional administration also fled along with the remains of Grigory Potemkin the Russian general who founded Kherson in the 18th century Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described reports of Russian troops’ possible withdrawal from the city as disinformation “I don’t see them fleeing from Kherson,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper transfer troops from other dangerous directions there.” Zelenskyy also dismissed as “theater” recent attempts by local Kremlin-backed officials to persuade the city’s civilian residents to relocate deeper into Russian-held territory ahead of the Ukrainian advance READ MORE: Russia bombards Ukrainian cities, refuses to drop widely discredited ‘dirty bomb’ claims “Their most trained soldiers are in position We see this and do not believe them,” Zelenskyy said Russian forces continued to bombard the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region The deputy head of Russia’s delegation at a U.N and other Western commercial satellites for military purposes during the fighting as “extremely dangerous.” “The quasi-civilian infrastructure could be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike,” Vorontsov warned As they have all month, Russian forces carried out attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure which have caused increasing worry ahead of winter A Russian drone attack early Thursday hit an energy facility near the capital of Kyiv He said the latest attacks inflicted “very serious damage.” “The Russians are using drones and missiles to destroy Ukraine’s energy system ahead of the winter and terrorize civilians,” Kuleba said in televised remarks Kuleba announced new rolling blackouts and urged consumers to save power He said authorities were still pondering how to restore power deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office said rolling blackouts would also be introduced in the neighboring Chernihiv Zelenskyy has said that Russian attacks have already destroyed 30 percent of the country’s energy infrastructure In a likely response to Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure a power plant was attacked just outside Sevastopol a port in the Russian-annexed region of Crimea The plant suffered minor damage in a drone attack according to city leader Mikhail Razvozhayev He said electricity supplies were uninterrupted was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014 It has faced drone attacks and explosions amid the fighting in Ukraine a powerful truck bomb blew up a section of a strategic bridge linking Crimea to Russia’s mainland on Oct WATCH: Ukraine warns Russia may be plotting dirty bomb attack A senior Ukrainian military officer accused Russia of planning to stage explosions at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and blame them on Ukraine in a false-flag attack the chief of the main operational department of the Ukrainian military’s general staff pointed to Moscow’s repeated unfounded allegations that Ukraine was plotting to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb as a possible signal that Moscow was planning explosions at the plant Russia took control of the Zaporizhzhia plant in the opening days of the invasion Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of attacking the plant which had its reactors shut down following continuous shelling Gromov also charged Thursday that Russian forces may have set off explosions at residential buildings in the city of Kherson before retreating from the city The war in Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis is likely to cause global demand for fossil fuels to peak or flatten out according to a report released Thursday by the Paris-based International Energy Agency largely due to the decline in Russian exports “Today’s energy crisis is delivering a shock of unprecedented breadth and complexity,” the IEA said in its annual report The report said the crisis was forcing the world’s more advanced economies to accelerate structural changes toward renewable energy sources Ukrainian authorities said they were launching a criminal case against Russia’s children’s rights commissioner accusing her of enabling the abduction and forced adoption of thousands of vulnerable Ukrainian children Maria Lvova-Belova said this week that she herself has adopted a boy seized by the Russian army in the bombed-out city of Mariupol UK and other Western nations over allegations that she masterminded the removal of over 2,000 vulnerable children from the embattled Donetsk and Luhansk region in Ukraine’s east she also orchestrated a new policy to facilitate their forced placement with “foster families” in Russia © 1996 - 2025 NewsHour Productions LLC PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization Subscribe to Here's the Deal with Lisa Desjardins Dear Reader,Unfortunately our comment platform isn\'t available at the moment due to issues with our paywall and authentication vendor Ukraine (AP) — Before-and-after images of the area downstream from a dam that collapsed Tuesday vividly show the extent of the devastation of a large KHERSON, Ukraine — Before-and-after images of the area downstream from a dam that collapsed Tuesday vividly show the extent of the devastation of a large Before the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River broke farm fields appear green and crossed by peaceful streets and farm roads and dotted with trees only metal roofs and treetops poke above the murky water Greenhouses and homes are almost entirely submerged The pre-collapse satellite photos were taken in May and early June Photos of the same area taken after the dam collapsed clearly show how much of it has become unlivable Brown water as high as people covers much of the territory captured in the images Paired with exclusive drone footage of the Ukrainian dam and surrounding villages occupied by Russia the before-and-after satellite images illustrate the profound changes wrought by the disaster Ukraine has warned since last October that the hydroelectric dam was mined by Russian forces and accused them of touching off an explosion that has turned the downstream areas into a waterlogged wasteland Russia said Ukraine hit the dam with a missile But while the AP footage clearly shows the extent of the damage to the region it offered a limited snapshot of the partially submerged dam making it difficult to categorically rule out any scenario Experts have said the structure was in disrepair Tanya lives on Nizhnyaya Street in Oleshky a town on the Dnipro’s left bank that Russian forces have occupied since April 2022 Tanya is one of the 16 people – residents from Oleshky and nearby areas and volunteers from the right bank who have been trying to help – I spoke with by phone in recent days They said that by late afternoon on June 6 Russian occupation authorities shut the town down for entry and exit they turned around those who tried to flee in cars saying things like: “Haven’t you been waiting it out hoping for Ukraine to come back Go back and wait some more.” Russian soldiers also blocked volunteers and others wanting to help from entering the town A volunteer who tried to enter Oleshky on June 8 told me: “We told them we were bringing food and water for the people and that we were unarmed Volunteers and residents repeatedly told me that in the hours and days immediately following the dam disaster Russian authorities did not warn people of the impending dangers or carry out timely evacuations Russian cell networks stopped working and the only information residents were receiving came from Ukrainian Telegram channels swiftly set up by townspeople and volunteers those who were stranded had no way of connecting with the outside world Residents who had boats started rescuing people who were yelling for help from the rooftops of their flooded houses Town of Oleshky on June 3 2023: © 2023 Planet Labs PBC Town of Oleshky on June 6 2023: © 2023 Planet Labs PBC Satellite imagery comparison between June 3 and June 9 2023 shows the extent of the flooding in the town of Oleshky Ukraine after destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam on June 6 People said that with no official information or public announcements from the occupation authorities it was hard for them to immediately understand the degree of the danger initially thought that she could wait things out when she looked out the window and saw the water levels on her street rising quickly she ran outside in her housedress and slippers with her two small dogs and rushed to her son’s house she saw Russian soldiers riding in a jeep with Russian emergency service markings on it She pleaded to them for help but they ignored her and drove off after asking her where they could find a local official Several residents said that they repeatedly tried calling the Russian emergency services number in Oleshky but no one picked up she and another neighbor sheltered in the attic while the water continued to rapidly rise When a family friend finally came to rescue them in a rubber boat a shell fragment killed Tanya’s husband in their garden and another house her husband owned in Oleshky A Ukrainian official told me that at least nine people died in Oleshky from the flooding as of June 16 Russian occupation authorities apparently started conducting sporadic evacuations from Oleshky almost a week later on June 13 Most residents whom I spoke with wanted to leave but had no information about this One man told me he would go to a Ukraine-controlled area if he could but he couldn’t imagine moving to Russia or another Russia-occupied area and was afraid to leave his house behind but people in Oleshky are in dire need of humanitarian aid told me she had to walk six kilometers to the town center only to have supplies run out before her number was called She then went to a friend’s house to boil some water and carried it six kilometers home to make tea for her 83-year-old mother Two other older women said that they were unable to get humanitarian aid because the distribution point was too far away Most parts of Oleshky are still without electricity Those who have running water worry about water contamination and infection due to flooded cemeteries and water filtration points Humanitarian needs will only get more acute in the coming days and weeks Older people and people with disabilities being supported at home pending security guarantees from the Russian authorities that The longer Russian authorities fail to act the greater the risks for people in places like Oleshky International law of occupation requires Russian authorities to ensure that the humanitarian needs of the population in the areas they effectively control are met In Oleshky and other Russia-occupied areas the authorities are failing at that obligation Attacks on Schools and Military Use of Schools in Ukraine Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser The first reporter to reach Mylove hears how special forces swept in and Russian troops blew up the local school before leaving At 5am on Wednesday Serhii Melnikov heard a noise outside. The Russian soldiers who were living in the house opposite – number six, Shevchenko street – were packing up to leave. They had occupied the village of Mylove in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region for eight long months as part of a humiliating pull-out from the right-bank of the Dnipro river and the city of Kherson Melnikov opened the neighbouring gate and showed off the open shed where the Russians had cooked their meals and hung out in the evenings cigarette butts and a glass jar of tomatoes Rubbish and green army ration packs were strewn around “They had a radio transmission set with antennae and used a storeroom to keep their mortars,” he said The last moments of occupation were tinged with vindictiveness On their way out Russian troops blew up the village’s school and nursery buildings On Saturday the nursery resembled a concrete heap; a sign placed outside read: “Mines” They detonated Mylove’s crossing over a tributary of the Dnipro river A woman greeting a Ukrainian soldier in the village of Mylove The writing on the gate reads “People – Children” Photograph: Jelle Krings/The ObserverUkrainian special forces swept in on Thursday night By Friday morning residents had put out blue-and-yellow flags and were celebrating their first hours of freedom They hugged Ukrainian soldiers sporting yellow armbands and offered them homemade pastries God looked after us,” Melnikov’s mother in law Liudmyla said I didn’t get my pension or tablets for my blood pressure.” There were similar scenes of jubilation in Kherson which Moscow seized during the first days of March Locals danced around a bonfire outside the regional administration building the initials of Ukraine’s triumphant armed forces Cars tooted their horns; citizens waved banners adorned with watermelons The last few days have been a disaster for Moscow They suggest Putin’s audacious military plan to conquer Ukraine has failed shot through as it was with hubris and magical thinking His army was unable to conquer Kyiv and Kharkiv It has now lost control of its only functional major city Demonstrators protested in spring against Russian rule and on Friday were back on the streets The Russian retreat last week was a shambolic affair, announced by Putin’s hapless defence minister Sergei Shoigu The last soldiers disabled the Antonivskiy Bridge which Ukraine had targeted with US-supplied Himars missiles and ran in panic across a pontoon crossing Another bridge was severed at the Kakhovka hydroelectric station which leads to the occupied city of Nova Kakhovka loud booms could be heard across the Dnipro river Russian soldiers – many of them newly mobilised – have been digging defensive positions on the left bank The two armies now face off over an expanse of water stretching for hundreds of kilometres Russia still controls the southern chunk of Kherson province and a land corridor stretching to Mariupol and the eastern Donbas Serhii Demchuk pointed across the Dnipro to Russian-controlled territory Visible in the haze was the village of Hornostaivka on the other side of the Kakhovka reservoir came a whoosh from a Ukrainian grad missile “You get used to the explosions,” Demchuk said A large column of Ukrainian vehicles including several T-72 tanks trundled across a late autumnal landscape of black sunflower fields The dirt track went past abandoned Russian trenches and piles of artillery shells The Russians had left behind broken infantry fighting vehicles Trashed civilian cars marked with a “Z” – the letter representing Putin’s faltering invasion – lay in a grassy ditch This is our land,” 28-year-old Serhii said He said his home town of Oleshky – across the river from Kherson – was still under Russian occupation “We will take back Oleshky and everything else,” he predicted Next to his checkpoint were two burned-out Russian tanks and the village’s council building Damage done to the former local administration building in Mylove Photograph: Jelle Krings/The ObserverMelnikov said the village was originally home to 1,000 people Between 300 and 400 stayed after the Russian takeover They replied: ‘To make your lives better.’ By the time they exited we had gone back in time 30 years Putin could have fixed the roads and hospitals in his own country.” The first enemy troops stationed in Mylove were Russian proxies from the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic Their Armenian-born commander was sacked for illicitly selling petrol allocated for his vehicles In Kherson city and in other settlements the Russians tortured and executed civilians Melnikov said they arrested two teenage boys in March after they tore down three new Russian communist and DNR flags from the Soviet war memorial “An officer put them up against a wall and shot over their heads They were made to dig trenches as punishment,” he said Serhiy Milnikov in Mylove Photograph: Jelle Krings/The ObserverHe said about 10 villagers actively collaborated with the Russians She advised the soldiers where they could live and gave them the addresses of properties that were empty They included a local woman who fell in love with a Russian officer and married him over the summer A few people were members of the resistance Melnikov said he would sit on his roof – overlooking a yard of geese – and watch Russian military hardware as it rolled past He sent the coordinates by mobile phone to his son who lives in the city of Dnipro He then forwarded them to the Ukrainian army “On one occasion I spotted a Russian rocket-launcher system Ten minutes later it was destroyed,” he said Putin’s attempt to bring Russkiy Mir or the Russian world to Mylove lasted for 245 days “I was here from the beginning until the end What amazed me is how many of Putin’s warriors seemed unfamiliar with toilets and asphalt roads By the time they left it was clear to everyone they were the Nazis This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media The raid by fighters of the 501st separate battalion of marines was carried out the day before But these trucks were supposed to supply the enemy with ammunition and now they have been destroyed," Bratchuk says disrupting the logistics routes of the invaders is one of the tasks of the Ukrainian Defense Forces on the left bank of the Dnipro River in the region as a result of which the enemy suffers losses in manpower and equipment "We need to be very careful about informing about the left bank These events are happening and will continue shortly," Bratchuk says The officer also said that the settlement of Krynky "actually does not exist today" because the Russian troops are trying to destroy the bridgeheads that hold the Ukrainian marines The enemy is using everything they have for fire damage as much as possible but our positions are being held," he emphasizes Bratchuk adds that now there is also a counter-battery fight not only between the right bank and the left but "the bridgeheads of the left bank can respond to the enemy." Operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the left bank of the Kherson region On November 17, the Defense Forces of Ukraine announced that they had conducted a series of successful actions on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region. The Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to gain a foothold on several bridgeheads The General Staff of the Armed Forces explained that the defenders wanted to push the Russian invaders away from the right bank of the Dnipro River This will reduce enemy shelling of civilian objects the representative of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine noted that the work on the left bank continues