Some schools in rural Russia are in worse condition than those in occupied eastern Ukraine an official in the republic of Tatarstan said in an interview published Wednesday “I wanted to cry after touring all the schools [in the Verkhneuslonsky district]. In some villages, it seemed that schools were in better shape in Lysychansk,” Yevgeny Varakin, a district head in Tatarstan, told the regional news website Business Online Varakin previously oversaw the reconstruction of the Ukrainian cities of Lysychansk and Rubizhne after Russian troops seized them serving at the time as Tatarstan’s deputy prime minister Tatarstan allocated at least 1 billion rubles ($11.6 million) as of 2024 to repair schools according to the Govorit NeMoskva Telegram news channel Varakin also criticized poor road conditions a lack of small business development and unprofitable public transportation in his district, Verkhneuslonsky “It’s as if we’re the kind of district where people come for a barbecue leave trash everywhere and then go home,” he said The Verkhneuslonsky district is home to the high-tech town of Innopolis sometimes referred to as “Russia’s Silicon Valley.” along with the district’s proximity to the regional capital of Kazan has fueled economic inequality and brain drain as average monthly wages in the district are nearly 30% lower when Innopolis is excluded from calculations Business Online lists Varakin as Tatarstan’s most openly pro-war public figure 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 Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Get all the latest news and stories with Frontline See the latest vacancies and find out about working for MSF UK MSF staff will happily speak about their work at a fundraising or educational event Find a job working overseas with Médecins Sans Frontières raise funds and help our expert teams save lives around the world MSF Ukrainian staff remember the events of 2022 and the lasting impact as the war continues “I woke up to loud explosions on the morning of 24 February 2022 in my home city of Rubizhne and the frontline advanced relentlessly towards my city.  I was sent home along with the other staff and patients at the rehabilitation center for veterans where I had been working as a state nurse.  there was no electricity or water in Rubizhne We couldn’t even step outside our building because the shelling was so intense.  The journey was incredibly dangerous due to constant shelling We attached white flags—and any white fabric we could find—to our cars we witnessed many dead civilians in their vehicles and ashes rained down on our cars; it was terrifying.  where local volunteers assisted my family in finding shelter We were given a single room to accommodate the three of us and our dog.  I couldn’t sit idle for long—I needed to work I started searching for a job and found an announcement stating that MSF was looking for nurses for its medical train With 15 years of nursing in an infectious disease hospital and four years in a rehabilitation centre They inquired how soon I could be in Lviv to join the MSF team and begin evacuating war-wounded patients by train The train transported children from Kharkiv to the safer western regions of Ukraine One family had children with severe injuries—one had lost a limb due to a mine explosion along with abdominal injuries and shrapnel wounds.  as I had never seen such severe injuries before I participated in the response efforts in the recently retaken city of Kherson our team visited the city for the first time after its de-occupation.  We established medical consultations at the railway station which was one of the safer locations in the city de-miners were working to clear the area of mines They informed us that explosions might happen Many patients were suffering from trophic ulcers and old wounds One elderly man had no dressing materials other than two bandages which he rotated to dress his wounds himself I currently work on MSF's early rehabilitation project in Cherkasy Our multidisciplinary team provides physiotherapy I encounter numerous patients with severe injuries who urgently need early rehabilitation.  The war is far from over; I witness its consequences every single day.” “I remember the day of the full-scale invasion vividly I was working as the chief nurse in a hospital in Avdiivka That morning my assistant was scheduled to receive a COVID-19 vaccination—as vaccination efforts were still actively ongoing we have to go—we need to vaccinate people," I replied She urged me to switch on the television.  It was only when I arrived at work and saw the bombed hospital that I fully grasped the reality Small groups of us huddled together in the offices anxiously discussing what might happen next We had already lived through the war in 2014 and we kept asking ourselves: how will this end Only two shops remained open—for a city of 30,000 people we saw a surge in patients with hypertension and many came simply to request medications Only the elderly and the most vulnerable remained I came home and started washing the windows on my balcony I have no idea how I managed to run to the corridor in time—but because I did I first saw MSF in Avdiivka working in frontline areas bringing medical care to people in desperate need I knew then that I wanted to be part of this But I kept searching for a way to help people I had lived through what so many others were now experiencing—I understood their pain.  I travel with a family doctor or a gynaecologist running mobile clinics across Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions Our main patients are elderly people who have stayed behind in frontline towns we treat patients evacuated from frontline cities I’ll never forget one day in particular—an evacuation from Kostiantynivka We received seven wounded patients with shrapnel injuries Their wounds were a day or two old—they had delayed leaving as people always say: “My home is my fortress.” Listening to their stories was heart-breaking I understood them completely—I also want to go home “I was working in Dnipro when the shelling began across the country especially those whose families lived near the Russian border where the frontline was forming I was deeply worried because my parents were closeby.  I knew it must have been serious if they had abandoned their home.  a shell had exploded in front of their building They fled with nothing but their documents looking at photos of their home is painful Recent shelling destroyed the windows and balconies Even though I left at 18 to study in Dnipro I remember summers when my mother’s roses bloomed But I doubt the city will ever be restored to what it once was.  without a place to return to - like so many others That’s why I understand my patients in Kherson so well There are few young people left in Kherson and although we see some war-wounded patients but the majority of our patients come with chronic medical conditions that have reached a critical and life-threatening stage but I already had experience with humanitarian organisations and war-related traumas working in a fully equipped hospital is easier my skills are needed in places where resources are scarce I value that MSF not only provides medical care but also essential supplies This situation creates a kind of hardening — one that affects not just our work We must be prepared for various situations Every patient has a story of loss - loved ones killed families trapped in occupied territories by Russian military forces I listen to all of them because I want to understand Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams were already working in Ukraine before the escalation in February 2022 we have worked to deliver emergency medical aid to people still in Ukraine as well as those seeking safety in neighbouring countries you'll get the best stories and urgent updates from our expert staff worldwide You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed "They [Russian invaders] are coming from all sides and many times stronger aircraft launch strikes on our towns it can be stated that the offensive we have been talking about and waiting for a long time has begun We have ongoing positional battles in the towns of Rubizhne and Popasna the enemy is unable to do anything," Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhiy Haidai said at a press briefing through video conferencing at Ukraine Media Center Kyiv the enemy suffers manpower and hardware losses in these battles On the border between Luhansk and Kharkiv regions they [Ukrainian troops] hold the defense," Haidai said the second phase of a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war has begun in which the battle in eastern Ukraine will be the main one 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 '+n.escapeExpression("function"==typeof(o=null!=(o=r(e,"eyebrowText")||(null!=l?r(l,"eyebrowText"):l))?o:n.hooks.helperMissing)?o.call(null!=l?l:n.nullContext||{},{name:"eyebrowText",hash:{},data:t,loc:{start:{line:28,column:63},end:{line:28,column:78}}}):o)+" \n '+(null!=(o=c(e,"if").call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2PreText"):l,{name:"if",hash:{},fn:n.program(32,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:63,column:20},end:{line:63,column:61}}}))?o:"")+"\n"+(null!=(o=(c(e,"ifAll")||l&&c(l,"ifAll")||n.hooks.helperMissing).call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Text"):l,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Link"):l,{name:"ifAll",hash:{},fn:n.program(34,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:64,column:20},end:{line:70,column:30}}}))?o:"")+" You don't have permissions to access this page Donate Golden Agro was an agro-industrial site for grain storage and processing. The modern facility was opened in 2020 and contained laboratories grain dryers and storage for 30,000 tonnes of grain The destruction of the facility was near-total, with a 25 m wide crater left at the focus of the explosion. The grain storage facilities, laboratories, tanks and railway infrastructure were all impacted. The owner of Golden Agro estimated financial losses of $20 million The neighbouring waste processing site was also destroyed although it has not been possible to determine the exact nature of the site There may have been an even wider blast radius because many adjacent buildings were also destroyed although this may have been the result of the fighting itself Chronic exposure to the smoke from the grain burning over a number of months may have led to health impacts Extinguishing these burns is difficult even in peacetime Information available online provides very little detail and does not mention any environmental recovery or restoration Return to the country map here © 2025 Conflict and Environment Observatory | Charity No: 1174115 | Design by Open & Honest Print RUBIZHNE Ukraine — If your eyes focused on the stage — ignoring the chandelier that had smashed into the theater seats or the maw where the shell had punched through the ceiling or the muddy mix of pulverized masonry and rainwater carpeting the ground — you could almost hear the music in Rubizhne’s Cultural Palace But that was just pretend. War had come swift and brutal to this palace There were no children racing upstairs to dance lessons No seamstresses putting the final touches on a costume There was only the crack of broken glass underfoot and the roar of artillery shattering any illusions of art or culture It has been slightly more than a month since Russian troops advanced on Rubizhne well-appointed city nestled in a verdant slice of land by the Seversky Donets River With the intense rains of the Ukrainian spring above them sending a lethal deluge of ordnance that obliterated everything in its path as most of the city’s 55,000 people fled while they still could It wasn’t the first time conflict visited Rubizhne. In World War II, the Nazis occupied it, making it the site of a prison until the Red Army liberated it in 1943 this time with the Moscow-backed separatists who took over for three months before they were expelled by government forces But now it was a new war, a push by Russians to seize a wide swath of eastern Ukraine waging grinding street battles against Ukrainian defenders On a drive through the southern part of the city there seemed a repetitive sameness to it: almost every structure a gutted had hoped cruelty would not visit and fresh graves would not be dug Roughly a dozen people were sheltering here fighting near the city’s train station destroyed the house she was in forcing her to move to her grandmother’s home along with her parents and one grandmother The other grandmother was stuck in Kreminna which had fallen to the Russians this week (()=>{const e=document.getElementById("yt-img-3hc64bstikI");e&&e.addEventListener("load",(t=>{t.target.naturalWidth<=120&&(e.parentNode.children[0].srcset=e.parentNode.children[1].srcset=e.src)}),{once:!0})})() Rubizhne has become a landscape of smashed, scorched buildings and cratered boulevards. “I can’t leave my grandmothers now,” she said, explaining why she didn’t evacuate herself. Down in the basement were others, most of them pensioners too poor or too old to countenance the idea of going anywhere. “My daughter is now in Germany. My mother is here, and she can’t travel. I have nobody to help,” said Luda, a 60-year-old pensioner and former teacher. She came here in the first days of the Russian attack, when a shell whistled through her roof and water fell into her living room. She stood in almost complete darkness, save for the flickering light of an almost-spent candle. Others around her were lying down, swathed in blankets. It was spring, but some nights it felt like winter. One man, a cantankerous 65-year-old miner named Misha, was eating a can of what appeared to be minced meat. Evgenia, 19, was forced to shelter in the Rubizhne Cultural Palace after her parents’ and her grandmother’s houses were destroyed in Rubizhne, Ukraine. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times) No electricity or gas meant they used candles for light and wood for heating water, which was trucked in by aid workers. “We lost signal on our phone a while ago. We get our news via FM radio. Ukrainian,” Luda said. The news wasn’t good. It seldom was these days. So much of the palace seemed like a snapshot of what was now a distant past: a bandoneon abandoned in a debris-filled room, along with some music drawn up on a stave for a lesson now never to be learned; costumes arrayed in the dressing room; and in the theater a wooden cutout of a cartoonish-looking cow for some children’s play that would never have another performance. A caretaker at the Rubizhne Cultural Palace sits at the top of the stairs to the basement, which is acting as a shelter for roughly a dozen people in Rubizhne, Ukraine, on April 20, 2022. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times) Would the palace survive? Would it come back? If it did, would it be the same? It didn’t seem likely. Underground, the people shut the basement door, sitting in the darkness, listening to sounds distant and close. Later that day, the Russian army declared it had taken over Rubizhne. Nabih Bulos is the Middle East bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. Since 2012, he has covered the aftermath of the “Arab Spring” revolution as well as the Islamic State’s resurgence and the campaign to defeat it. His work has taken him to Syria, Iraq, Libya, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen as well as on the migrant trail through the Balkans and northern Europe. A Fulbright scholar, Bulos is also a concert violinist who has performed with Daniel Barenboim, Valeri Gergyev and Bono. California World & Nation Hollywood Inc. Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map A Russian warplane made an “emergency release” of a bomb over a city in eastern Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region, Kremlin-back authorities said Monday marking the second instance this month of a Russian military aircraft dropping its explosive payload over a civilian area controlled by Moscow.  “While carrying out combat operations a Russian Air Force aircraft made an emergency release of a FAB-250 warhead over the city of Rubizhne,” the Kremlin-installed head of occupied Luhansk is located just north of the city of Severodonetsk and around 100 kilometers west of the Russian border Pasechnik said no one was killed or injured in the incident adding that nearby residents were temporarily evacuated from the area where the bomb fell He also said emergency crews were “on-site” and working to disarm the jettisoned warhead suggesting that no explosion resulted in its release Monday’s incident in Luhansk comes less than a week after a Russian warplane made a similar “emergency release” of its explosive payload over a village in western Russia’s Voronezh region Several buildings were destroyed in that incident Russia, under the guise of "rehabilitation" and "health improvement," took 39 Ukrainian children from four occupied cities in the Luhansk region to a health resort in the Moscow region, according to the Center for National Resistance "Under the guise of 'rehabilitation' and 'health improvement,' the Russians continue to deport Ukrainian children 39 children from the temporarily occupied cities of Rubizhne and Svatove were taken to the Klyazma health resort in the Moscow region," the report states It is noted that Russia promises a "homely atmosphere" and "examinations," but in reality The children are being isolated from Ukraine "According to the occupation authorities themselves over 1,200 children from temporarily occupied territories have gone through 'rehabilitation' – this is a large-scale forced operation with all the signs of a war crime," emphasized the Center for National Resistance As reported by Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has deported over 19,500 children from Ukraine More than a thousand Ukrainian children have been successfully returned home The deportation of Ukrainian children was the basis for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights The Russian army is trying to increase the speed of the operation to gain full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine the Ukrainian military said Saturday.  The Ukrainian army and its people continued their “heroic resistance against the Russian military occupation,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement Emphasizing that the Russian army is trying to take control of the cities of Popasna and Rubizhne in the Donetsk and Kherson regions it said the Russians focused on preparing for the attack on the city of Severodonetsk At least 2,435 civilians have been killed and 2,946 injured in Ukraine since the war began Feb with the true figure believed to be much higher More than 5.1 million Ukrainians have fled to other countries with over 7.7 million more internally displaced “The defense of Rubizhne is unbreakable… Russian troops have demolished about 70% of the town by airstrikes and heavy shelling. The Ukrainian military holds the defense and actively destroys the enemy's offensive equipment and infantry," Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhiy Haidai posted on Telegram The heavy fighting in Rubizhne has been going on since March 18 Russian propagandists have repeatedly declared victory and a complete "cleansing" of the city Victory is coming soon!” Haidai emphasized Russian president Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure facilities That’s according to the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Haidai  “Positional battles continue in Rubizhne and Popasna non-stop Orcs are suffering significant losses,” Haidai wrote residential areas are under constant enemy fire six Russian attacks have been repulsed in eastern Ukraine and an anti-aircraft gun have been destroyed Haidai said that the Russians are adhering to their destructive tactics – wiping out the Ukrainian settlements civilians have suffered from Russian shelling 17 times as well as Lysychansk and the towns of the Hirske community were under massive fire The head of the Administration said that Russian troops were firing their heavy weapons on residential areas in Lysychansk while reports on casualties are being verified Contrary to Russian disinformation reports, the Ukrainian military did not blow up a nitric acid tank in Rubizhne, Luhansk province on April 9. According to Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai Russian troops had already twice blown up a nitric acid tank in Rubizhne Blowing up its own chemical storage facility does not give the Ukrainian military any tactical advantage The Ukrainian army has no plans to abandon its positions and leave Rubizhne Ukrainian troops however have no plans to leave their positions in and around Rubizhne and they did not blow up any cisterns containing chemicals said Luhansk province governor Serhiy Haidai Later these Telegram messages were edited out immediately after the explosion occurred Governor Haidai said that it was indeed Russian troops who had blown up the nitrogen tank Directly before the explosions the Russian army had carried out a massive ground attack in Rubizhne but had been repulsed by the Ukrainian army several Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers were destroyed and up to 50 Russian soldiers were killed claims that Ukrainian Armed Forces are leaving the city and surrendering their positions That is why there is no question of surrender surrender of the city or withdrawal of Ukrainian troops the Rubizhne nitric acid explosion has affected an area of no more than 550 meters and created problems for the city Wind conditions were such that vapors from the explosion were carried to the Russian troop positions around the towns of Kudriashivka and Varvarivka Russian forces made minor advances in the ongoing offensive in eastern Ukraine on April 19 seizing several small towns and advancing into the key frontline towns of Rubizhne and Popasna Russian forces continued major assaults with heavy air and artillery support but are continuing to build the logistics and command-and-control capabilities necessary for a larger offensive Russian forces have not achieved any major breakthroughs nor have they demonstrated any new capability to conduct multiple successful Russian forces additionally made grinding progress against remaining Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol’s Azovstal Steel Works and announced plans for a May 9 Victory Day parade in the city – indicating Russian forces will declare victory in Mariupol by that date at the latest Russian forces may be preparing to conscript Ukrainian citizens amid continuing recruitment challenges The Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported on April 20 that Russian occupation forces are planning to hold pseudo-referendums in occupied Zaporizhia and Kherson Oblasts to declare a forced mobilization and “throw ‘mobilized’ Ukrainians to the hottest parts of the front.”[1] If confirmed this effort is highly unlikely to generate meaningful combat power and will provoke an uptick in protests and partisan actions against Russian forces in these regions The GUR additionally reported that Russia’s FSB is conducting a purge of the political leadership of the LNR in retaliation for its failure to achieve military objectives since February 24.[2] We do not report in detail on Russian war crimes because those activities are well-covered in Western media and do not directly affect the military operations we are assessing and forecasting We will continue to evaluate and report on the effects of these criminal activities on the Ukrainian military and population and specifically on combat in Ukrainian urban areas We utterly condemn these Russian violations of the laws of armed conflict and humanity even though we do not describe them in these reports ISW has updated its assessment of the four primary efforts Russian forces are engaged in at this time: Subordinate main effort – Mariupol (Russian objective: Capture Mariupol and reduce the Ukrainian defenders) Russian forces made marginal gains in assaults against the Azovstal Steel Plant on April 20.[3] Video footage depicted Russian Naval Infantry and other mechanized units fighting on the outskirts of the plant.[4] Russian aircraft continued to heavily target the Azovstal plant.[5] Pro-Russian Telegram channels claimed that DNR militia and potentially Russian Special Operations forces are "clearing" the Azovstal Plant of Ukrainian sources but we cannot confirm if Russian forces have been able to take portions of the plant itself.[6] Notably DNR-appointed occupation authorities of Mariupol announced on April 20 that Russian and DNR forces will hold a ”Victory Day” parade in Mariupol on May 9.[7] Russian forces may undertake hasty and poorly-organized offensive actions to clear Azovstal before this date Subordinate main effort – Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts (Russian objective: Capture the entirety of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts the claimed territory of Russia’s proxies in Donbas) Russian forces continued offensive operations concentrated on Rubizhne and Malinka and likely captured several outlying suburbs of Severodonetsk on April 20.[8] Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov claimed that Chechen and LNR troops took full control of Rubizhne on April 20 but ISW is unable to independently verify this claim and the Urkainian General Staff reported Ukrainian forces remained in control of Rubizhne an hour before Kadyrov’s claim.[9] The Ukrainian General Staff reported on April 20 that Russian forces are actively fighting in Torske and Zelena Dolyna two towns west of Russian positions in Rubizhne.[10] Pro-Russian sources additionally claimed that Russian forces took control of Kreminna and Stara Krasyanka Russian forces continued attempts to advance into Popasna and reportedly captured residential sectors of the city.[12] A Ukrainian officer and military blogger posted images of what he claimed to be dead Libyan mercenaries in Popasna on April 20 and Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov reported that Ukrainian forces killed 20-25 ”Libyan and Syrian mercenaries” in Popasna.[13] Danilov stated he thinks Russia has deployed only 300-500 Syrian and Libyan mercenaries to the frontline ISW has not observed any deployments of cohesive units of Syrian or Libyan fighters and these recruits are likely individual fighters operating under the umbrella of the Wagner Group Russian forces additionally conducted unsuccessful attacks north towards Temirivka and Hulyaipole on April 20 likely attempting to begin an encirclement of Ukrainian forces near Donetsk city.[14] Russian forces are continuing to deploy reinforcements to eastern Ukraine and prepare for further offensive actions The Ukrainian General Staff reported on April 20 that elements of Russia’s 90th Tank Division and 232nd Rocket Artillery Brigade deployed into Ukraine from Russia.[15] The General Staff additionally reported that Russian forces are reconnoitering routes to prep for further offensives towards Lyman and Sloviansk (west of Severodonetsk).[16] Supporting Effort #1—Kharkiv and Izyum: (Russian objective: Advance southeast to support Russian operations in Luhansk Oblast; defend ground lines of communication (GLOCs) to the Izyum axis) Russian forces continued to shell areas of Kharkiv Oblast and partially block Kharkiv city on April 20.[17] The Ukrainian General Staff stated that Russian forces mounted attacks south and southwest of Izyum with ”partial success,” indicating localized advances.[18] Russian forces are continuing to take losses over the course of such attempted offensives in Kharkiv Oblast and the Ukrainian General Staff reported that a battalion tactical group (BTG) of the 237th Tank Regiment of the 3rd Motorized Rifle Division withdrew from Kharkiv Oblast back to its permanent deployment point in Belgorod Supporting Effort #2—Southern axis: (Objective: Defend Kherson against Ukrainian counterattacks) Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions in Oleksandrivka and may have secured minor advances on April 20.[20] Russian forces are likely conducting localized attacks to reduce Ukrainian pressure on Kherson city rather than resuming major offensive operations towards Mykolayiv Supporting Effort #3—Sumy and Northeastern Ukraine: (Russian objective: Withdraw combat power in good order for redeployment to eastern Ukraine) There was no significant change in this area in the past 24 hours [1] https://gur.gov dot ua/content/putin-planuie-provesty-prymusovu-mobilizatsiiu-na-okupovanykh-terytoriiakh-zaporizkoi-ta-khersonskoi-oblastei.html [2] https://gur.gov dot ua/content/na-foni-nevdach-na-fronti-moskva-rozpochala-chystky-kerivnykiv-lnr.html [3]https://twitter.com/GeoConfirmed/status/1516793740580605962;  https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/299092695737149; https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1516742253926137857; https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1516742253926137857; https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1516739932039041024; https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1516689834580103169; https://t.me/anna_news/28924; https://t dot me/izvestia/86285 [4] https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1516742253926137857; https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1516742253926137857; https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1516739932039041024  [5] https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/298791202433965; https://t dot me/zvezdanews/77210 [6] https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1516482896890056705; https://twitter.com/zcjbrooker/status/1516211346609778695/photo/3  [8] https://t.me/stranaua/37559; https://twitter.com/GeoConfirmed/status/1516815244160606214; https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/299092695737149 [9] ttps://t.me/istorijaoruzija/56852; https://t.me/RKadyrov_95/1938; https://t.me/readovkanews/31468; https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/299092695737149 [10] https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/298791202433965 [11] https://t dot me/nm_dnr/7682; https://t.me/RKadyrov_95/1935 [12] https://www.radiosvoboda dot org/a/situaciya-v-popasniy/31812758.html?nocache=1; https://t.me/stranaua/37606 [13] https://t dot me/a_shtirlitz/17714?single; https://t dot me/a_shtirlitz/17714 [14] https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/299092695737149; https://t.me/stranaua/37606; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk4DIUY9RsY [15] https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/299092695737149 [16] https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/299092695737149 [17] https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/298791202433965 [18] https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/299092695737149; https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/298791202433965; https://t.me/stranaua/37545 [19] https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/298791202433965 [20] https://t.me/stranaua/37606; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk4DIUY9RsY; https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/298791202433965; https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/299092695737149; https://t.me/stranaua/37606; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk4DIUY9RsY Home page » Topics » Business Owners » Lviv-Rubizhne This is a story of how a creative business may sew the country together IT-specialists from Lviv and sewing factory owners from Luhansk would have never met if it wasn’t for the military conflict in the East of Ukraine and Roman decided to create their own socks startup because of the occupation of the territories and the loss of their customer base the workers of the Rubizhne Stocking Manufactory were looking for new customers outside of Donbas and Slobozhanshchyna socks for one of the most famous Ukrainian brands from Halychyna are created in the East Following the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity there was a “business revolution” in Ukraine whose products were loved both on the domestic market and abroad The brand was founded by the entrepreneurs from Lviv who decided to quit their stable IT jobs in order to create their own product Marta Turetska and Andrii Pliasun worked together for an IT company At some point they got bored with the office work and started searching for a job for pleasure together with Marta’s husband Roman Shuper they began manufacturing socks of their own design was allocating funds for the needs of Anti-Terrorist Operation Marta and Andrii were assigned to buy winter socks at the manufacturing plant where they first met the director of the enterprise they commented on social media that the designs of those socks were too depressing the director suggested that they create their own design: so the second batch of socks was sold out in two weeks let’s make a logo to put some label on them we realized that we had to choose: either IT the “Dodo Socks” owners had to look for alternatives because the factory was small and equipped with old machinery Lack of raw materials in winter sped up the search for socks are bought the most during the cold season: Our storage was empty because everything was sold out on Saint Mykolai (Nicolas) Day there was a shortage of raw materials all over western and central Ukraine We called raw material suppliers in western Ukraine you’ve seen our socks – they are so colorful the team started searching for a colorful thread supplier They came across Rubizhne Stocking Manufactory by accident Rubizhne Stocking Manufactory started out with a pretty small room there are over 140 workers and up to 60 working machines at the manufactory In addition to cooperating with “Dodo Socks” the manufactory also produces over 40 types of hosiery products of such trademarks as: “Lady May” then worked as a machinery supervisor at the factory and later bought the equipment needed to produce them My brother did equipment service and knitting Then I would go to the market and sell them He would go out for lunch; and I would start knitting the socks Rubizhne Stocking Manufactory is one of the market leaders; it also boasts several awards and quality certifications Product quality is a priority for the manufacturers They explain this by saying that the bright advertisement and package may get you to buy the product just once Raw materials and machinery for the manufactory is brought from abroad Natural and synthetic fabrics are ordered from India; the equipment used for work is from Germany and the goods should be made before the high season begins This is one of the major production challenges Another problem is a lack of personnel and a long process of specialist training but equipment adjuster training takes 3 years The future professionals train right at the factory The war became yet another challenge for the factory and the enterprise moved to a bigger place the factory in Rubizhne worked mostly with Donetsk and Luhansk and some goods were also shipped to Kyiv and Odesa the factory began offering their products to the western regions High demand led to a shortage at the factory which became an impetus for the enterprise to expand their activities to the whole country Hennadii and Oleh Misiurenko ventured to invest in the development of the factory and an active cooperation with the manufacturers from western Ukraine head of sales in the manufactory in Rubizhne explains why their cooperation is special: — We enjoy working with them and it’s mutual we’ve created a new sock for them that should be worn inside-out because they set high standards for everything The colleagues from Lviv also like that their partners from Rubizhne self-develop — We liked the fact they had full control over the production in case of defect they know exactly who did that After visiting the manufactory in Rubizhne “Dodo Socks” founders were astonished by the working conditions at the enterprise: because it’s so clean there and it’s all so large And now he (director – Auth.) is constructing They have their own café there; they really do their best with an old modest car; but as for the employees smiling and they do enjoy their job – it’s really nice they didn’t know what to expect from this cooperation they even googled what side of the front Rubizhne is For almost a year they communicated remotely so it was difficult to get some idea of the partners But it was very interesting that after a while Olia who was kind of our manager and was accommodating “Dodo”- related activities started talking to me in Ukrainian some time later the guys from Lviv visited Rubizhne for the first time It was one of the first trips of the team to the extreme east of the country They were pleasantly surprised by the friendly people and calm atmosphere of the city when hearing that “Dodo Socks” are sewn in Rubizhne since they were thinking in stereotypes about the East of Ukraine the entrepreneurs from Lviv even emphasize their cooperation — I like the idea itself – that there is Lviv and Rubizhne For “Dodo Socks” it’s not enough to produce just a good sock They try to make it interesting and give the owner an emotion Prints for the “Dodo” socks are very diverse You can find anything here: sets with dinosaurs mushrooms or borshch – it’s the absolute flight of imagination most of the ideas are generated by the team and preferences are also taken into account The guys from Lviv say they do not even try to compete with the mass-market producers They don’t have their own production for it and then there is a market for more interesting socks because they have to create not just a good-quality sock Though the team is happy when they see people in their socks and you see lots of people wearing those “Artista” or “Kunsht” sets Andrii and Marta say that not everyone is ready to take such products seriously in Ukraine — Most manufacturers think this is some sort of an online joke shop and that we sell 10 pairs of socks a month finding out that we left IT for the sake of socks Colorful “Dodo Socks” are bought by a very diverse audience: we like selling there by ourselves to look at the audience Both chemistry teachers and older scientists with briefcases visit the shop “Dodo Socks” are proud that their products are worn by such respectable people were presented to the Prime Minister of Canada (and a great lover of socks with flashy prints) The partners from Rubizhne have also been wearing designer socks lately: — I remember I had never worn such socks before I was sitting in colorful socks with my friends why are you wearing socks for children?” I say As “Dodo Socks” gradually enter new markets they are not going to limit their production to the socks and are planning to expand the range of products I have a dream that our socks will be known all over the world Cause we opened our shop on Etsy with no advertisement how awesome!” The “Kunsht” set is another story we saw a woman running in our socks with Maria Prymachenko (Ukrainian folk-art painter – Transl.) printed on them who often share photos from their travels with them wearing those socks Involved in the preparation of the material 16 volunteers Project support: Fundacja Euromaidan-Warszawa Use of materials is only permitted upon providing the source: Ukrainer.net Дизайн — Артем Зубкевич Розробка — Deluxcode Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, said this in a Telegram post, Ukrinform reports.   "Rubizhne and Popasna are under the greatest threat. Because they simply will not break through Zolote, because our line of defense is very strong there. They have been shelling it from morning till night for almost two months, and they still can't make a breakthrough there. But as to Popasna and Rubizhne, they have accumulated enough heavy military equipment and personnel there, and that is where the main direction will be,” Haidai. Haidai earlier stated that Russian invaders captured the city of Kreminna, the fighting continues. As Ukrinform reported, Luhansk region is constantly under attack by Russian forces. Many residential buildings, infrastructure, educational institutions have been destroyed in the region. All region’s hospitals have been damaged. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure facilities, conducting massive shelling of residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and ballistic missiles. Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421. © 2015-2025 Ukrinform. All rights reserved. "Russian invaders once again wanted to capture Rubizhne, Severodonetsk, and Lysychansk in Luhansk region. The enemy continues to cynically fire on civilians. The occupiers strike both at night and during the day ... dozens of houses caught on fire during the night," the State Emergency Service posted on Telegram. Many civilians have been killed and injured in Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, and Lysychansk, the rescuers added. “Rescuers from the Luhansk Regional Department of the State Emergency Service continue to help people get out from under the rubble, bring people water, and help the authorities to evacuate people to safe places. But Russian army wants to take more civilians hostage and makes evacuation impossible. The shelling continues. There will be no humanitarian corridor today," the Service added. As Deputy Prime Minister – Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk said earlier, as of March 16, the Ukrainian side has not received consent to opening humanitarian corridors, and currently, there are no guarantees of the safe evacuation of residents. As of March 14, almost 150,000 people in Ukraine used humanitarian corridors and are now in a safe place. Ukraine has been at war with Russian invaders since February 24. An infantry officer of the ‘Rubizh’ Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine ‘Metis’ recounts how the full-scale war started in February last year, where the crucial battles took place, what was happening in Rubizhne, and the current situation in the Bakhmut direction. A soldier of the ‘Rubizh’ Rapid Reaction Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine ‘Metis’ was born in the Kharkiv region. He has been fond of military art since he was a child. First, he studied at a military school, then – entered the National Guard Military Academy of Ukraine. In 2004, his uncle returned from military duty, and his godfather was serving in the special police. In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, his uncle volunteered to go to war. That was the moment ‘Metis’ decided to pursue a military career. So, he started training to professionally defend his homeland. He was 23 when the full-scale war broke out. The soldier became an infantry commander during the battles of Irpin and Rubizhne. After sustaining an injury, he occupied the position of press officer of his brigade, which is currently deployed in the Bakhmut direction. He tells the RBC-Ukraine about his participation in battles, mobilization, and attitude to the National Guard. What follows is the story in his own words. The soldier’s real name is not mentioned for reasons of safety. That night I was sleeping. I was going to have a day off. At about 5:30 my phone rang and a soldier said: - Senior lieutenant, alert!- A drill?- No, a red one. Irpin is being shelled, the Russians crossed the border. So, I took my survival kit and went to the military unit. While entering, I saw my colleagues running and handing out weapons. I walked up to them. I did not realize what was happening yet. When I came to the battalion location site, a rocket hit the military unit. It was so close to me. At that moment, I realized how serious it was. We gathered all guys at the site and started thinking about what to do. Telegram channels were bursting with the news about the Russians invading different regions of Ukraine. The first thing that came to my mind was to call my mother in Kharkiv and tell her to hide all my military staff to avoid problems in case of occupation. In a few hours, a ‘world-renowned air assault on Hostomel’ began. The sky was full of enemy aviation, helicopters started landing on the take-off runway of Antonov Airport and near the unit. Russian paratroopers were backed by fighter jets, firing at everything caught in their sights. The guys at Antonov Airport held off the attack, and give us some time to regroup and retreat. We were running out of ammunition and could not fight against a superior enemy anymore. There was a group, including me and up to 10 soldiers, a couple of officers, and a staff clerk. I had a powerful group in the Kyiv campaign. For instance, Hena from Bucha – a huge man, call sign ‘Henotsyd’ (‘Genocide’). An awful tragedy happened to him. When we were fighting in Irpin, his wife was volunteering. She was rescuing women and children, but her car was shot by the Russians. Hena was left alone with two kids. Also, there were former reconnaissance officers of the 128th Brigade in our group. Professional soldiers who underwent several rotations and fought in Debaltseve. They taught me many things. Denis, a staff clerk, and I were always joking that together with Dany, an Australian guy, we were the most combative staff section. I occupied the position of squad commander/BTR-70 (armored personnel carrier) crew commander. On March 5 our troop entered the city of Irpin. We bumped into the enemy on one of the streets. I can’t even tell you how many Russians there were. They were moving in columns: lots of vehicles, infantry, and tanks. One of the enemy sub-unit began to drive at an intersection in front of us. There were BMD (airborne combat vehicles) and tanks there. Without any hesitation, our guys opened fire. One of the BMD was damaged, and the combat began. During the combat, our BTR broke down. Very quickly we decided to continue fighting. At this moment, an RPG grenade was already flying in our direction. Fortunately, it got right underneath the armored carrier. And the cherry on the cake – an enemy tank came up and started a duel with our tank of the 72nd Brigade. It was a spectacular battle. Having caused as much loss as possible, our sub-unit began to retreat. I can’t remember how many BMDs were destroyed, but more than 5. This is the merit of our infantry troops who accepted the fight with dignity and didn’t lose their heads. ‘Metis’ and comrades (Photo: Press Service of the ‘Rubizh’ Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine) We left the city of Irpin. After a day of rest, we left for the village of Liutizh, Vyshhorod district. It was the place where I learned what fighting in wooded areas and trenches was, and how artillery influenced not only your physical condition but your mental state as well. We held the line near Huta-Mezhyhirska. This part was challenging and crucial. Russians were trying to build river pontoons in that area. Sometimes they managed to do that, sometimes – not. The enemy was strong, prevailing in the number of electronic warfare, drones, and ‘Orlans’. The defense of the city of Kyiv was not the easiest period of my life. I was at the same time inspired and surprised by the territorial defense forces: guys from Liutizh, Novi Petrivtsi, and Stari Petrivtsi. They barely had anything – some of them did not even have bulletproof vests. Nevertheless, they fought till the end. They were ready to give away the shirt off their back to help us somehow. I felt such an exaltation. That atmosphere unbelievably motivated me. When I saw those people, so dedicated to their country, I understood – we were fighting for them. Our nation was strong and united more than ever before. Then I was in Rubizhne, leading a group of foreign volunteers. At a certain point, I began forgetting how to speak Ukrainian. We spoke English all the time. We performed various tasks, blocked dangerous parts of the front, and worked at different positions. Everybody who was in Rubizhne has only one thing to say about it: Rubizhne is a living hell. It seemed the enemy had an inexhaustible amount of artillery ammunition, their tank crews and infantry soldiers did not sleep at all. The obliterated city resembled a landfill of wall and roof debris. Everything was damaged by shrapnel. For my team, who had only worked in the Kyiv region before, Rubizhne was an apocalypse. We were constantly training and adapting, which, probably, helped us to survive. It was hard, but our guys were holding on. There was combat at the oil refinery in Rubizhne. A guy from the 24th Brigade and I were leaving positions. Suddenly, there was an explosion. A mortar bomb. My comrade was 2-3 meters away from the epicenter, and me – 5 meters away. When the bomb fell, I was standing right behind him. He was wounded in the face by a fragment of the bomb, and I was thrown back and fainted. When I recovered, I saw our guys coming for us. My soldiers evacuated that guy. Together with other soldiers from my brigade, we decided to take up our positions, because the combat started. I still think that the guy from the 24th Brigade saved my life. I would like to find him and say thank you. Currently, I can’t serve in the infantry due to my health state. My job now is civil and military cooperation and informational support in the active combat zone. My colleague and I are working with journalists to show the situation on the front. Getting to know about the war from a ‘couch expert’ is not the same as from a soldier working in a specific part of the front. There is a bloody war in the Bakhmut direction. Both sides are determined: Ukraine wants to defend its territory, the Russian Federation – to seize it. And nobody is going to give up on their goals. Our soldiers proved that we can not only defend Bakhmut but also advance and attack. And succeed in it. Now, the enemy is attacking all the time. Imagine, 10 soldiers are running, we kill them. In 10 minutes, everything repeats. The enemy is smart, but sometimes poorly prepared and demoralized. Their command can think and plan. Even though they devalue their soldiers’ lives. Ukrainian forces never leave their positions. It is easy to give it away, but difficult to get back. And the price of getting back a position can be much higher than of its defending. We will protect our people and do everything possible to put them in the most advantageous position. Now we are preparing for larger offensive actions. Bakhmut will withstand. Most probably, it will become a culminating point, after which our offensive and liberation of territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will begin. What motivates me the most is my comrades and their professional growth. During the war, they grew up and work as lions. Sometimes, I think I don’t have as much fortitude as they do. And I wanted to be on a level with them. Although I don’t work in trenches anymore, I try to help soldiers with my informational activity. I feel my usefulness. I see us holding off this Horde invasion. I am from the Kharkiv region, have been to de-occupied cities, and saw the consequences of the ‘Russian world’. I do not want my house to be on the territory of the Russian Federation. And I do not want to live by their thieves’ code of law. I do not want my children even to know this Russia. I have an interesting story regarding this. Once, my comrade with a call sign ‘Bordiur’ (‘Curb’) was severely wounded. He was taken to the hospital, where guys from the Armed Forces of Ukraine were undergoing treatment. ‘Bordiur’ was cut with lots of fragments. When he recovered, a guy from the Armed Forces asked him if he was a paratrooper. He denied it and said he was an infantry soldier and had attacked positions with the National Guard of Ukraine. They were extremely surprised. I don’t know why the National Guard of Ukraine is rarely mentioned as a fighting unit. Every brigade has its special purpose: maintaining public order, ensuring the security of the President, guarding state bodies, and city patrolling. The Rapid Reaction Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine is fighting along with mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For instance, my brigade fought on the first line at Svitlodarsk Arc in 2019. Moreover, we fought side by side with the air assault brigade in Rubizhne. Now we are all working towards one goal – the liberation of Ukrainian territories from the Russian invasion and keeping them away from the Ukrainian border. Luhansk governor says the region may face a new large offensive by Russian troops Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice One civilian was killed in Russian shelling of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region over the past 24 hours He said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that three trains would be offered on Wednesday to residents who wanted to leave the region which he said was under constant shelling and may face a new large offensive by Russian forces Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on 24 February and has said Ukrainian and Western allegations of war crimes are fabricated. Ukraine’s state railway company said in a separate statement on Wednesday that a train station in central Ukraine had been shelled overnight. Ukraine has been warning that Russia plans intensified attacks in the country’s east and south after withdrawing its troops from areas to the north of the capital, Kyiv. The US said last week that Moscow probably planned to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers in eastern Ukraine. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies govt and politics/politics","score":0.707736},{"label":"/law governor says","description":"Luhansk governor says the region may face a new large offensive by Russian troops Luhansk Oblast was already a troubled rust belt region when 80 percent of its urban territory was seized by Russian and separatist forces in 2014 For the past four years the foundation of the industrial economy in the oblast’s government-controlled areas (GCA) has been steadily eroded by the armed conflict and accompanying trade war with Russia the separatist authorities “nationalized” all remaining enterprises Severed economic ties within the country and between Ukraine and Russia have idled all three of the factories that provided three-quarters of pre-war GDP in the oblast In separatist-controlled Alchevsk the largest metallurgy plant in Europe is cut off from global markets and is operating at a fraction of capacity In the GCA the Severodonetsk Azot chemical plant and Lisichansk oil refinery are barely operable after the flow of Russian oil and gas dried up Even if these huge idled factories in the GCA returned to production the province’s electricity system could not support them Today the oblast is powered by a single war-damaged power plant located directly on the front line and the power company is so overloaded with debt it is not clear it can keep the lights on for the oblast’s residents Conditions in the GCA are dire. The situation is, however, much worse in the half of the province under separatist control, the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic.” Even sympathetic observers such as the pro-separatist journalist Sergey Sakadinsky[2] note the dim prospects for reviving factories and mines in the occupied territories due to economic isolation But the GCA of Luhanska Province is falling drastically short of becoming the showcase of economic recovery that the government would like it to be and for this Kyiv deserves its share of the blame The Ukrainian government has no strategy commensurate to the scale of the crisis and a diverse range of policies have made it even worse There are bright spots in this bleak picture such as dynamic small manufacturers who have adapted to the wartime economic conditions But they should not be left to deal with the profound crisis alone Before the war the Severodonetsk Azot fertilizer plant was as a cog in the hugely profitable natural gas empire of oligarch Dmytro Firtash But today Firtash is hiding out from American and Ukrainian authorities in Vienna and his Russian gas contracts are in tatters The Ukrainian chemical fertilizer industry that he nearly monopolized is teetering on the edge of collapse The shuttering of the Azot plant casts a deep pall over Severodonetsk,[3] which is the new capital of Luhansk Province while the region’s namesake city is under occupation Residents of the “City of Chemists” fear they are on a death watch for the plant and anxiously monitor for the trucks full of metalolom (scrap metal) that have marked the end of so many Donbas factories Valeriy Chernish, the head of the factory’s labor union, has seen hundreds of engineers and laborers leave Severodonetsk, mostly for chemical plants in Russia and Kazakhstan or simply as part of Ukraine’s enormous low-skilled labor migration. He told me that he worries the outflow of specialists has been so extensive that it may not be possible to restart production if conditions improve.[4] The fate of Severodonetsk Azot and its 7,000 jobs largely hinges on which side Kyiv picks between competing economic and political interests.[5] On one side is the chemical industry clamoring for protective tariffs against Russian fertilizers made with subsidized natural gas On the other are farmers who hunger for cheap fertilizer even if it comes from the aggressor to the east For four years Kyiv has vacillated between them managing to cause instability for both farmers and industry and shut downs and layoffs at Severodonetsk Azot he will likely use the resulting profits to pay back loans to Russian banks that financed his business empire That thought disgusts Ukrainians who believed the 2014 Euromaidan revolution would lead to genuine “de-oligarchisation” of the economy Industrial collapse began well before the war in neighboring Lisichansk which is nicknamed the “Cradle of the Donbas” because it hosted the first coal mines in the Russian Empire The city’s plight shows the complexity of pre-war economic relations between the Ukrainian Donbas and Russia which were a mixture of Soviet-era interdependence and bare-knuckle competition On the eve of the Euromaidan protests in 2013, Lisichansk saw angry protests over the shutdown of most of the city’s industrial employers.[12] The protestors blamed Russian oligarchs who bought up factories just to shut them down and reduce competition the historic Lisichansk Soda Plant was literally blown up by a Chechen businessman who owned soda lime factories in Russia Another sore spot was the Lisichansk oil refinery bought by Rosneft in 2000 and operated for 10 years with Siberian crude but idled abruptly in 2012 Anger was also directed at the ruling Party of Regions politicians like former governor Aleksander Efremov (currently on trial for separatism)[13] who allegedly drove factories into bankruptcy by forcing them to buy overpriced natural gas from utility monopolies and then seizing their assets to cover the resulting debts One journalist described the city as “on the edge of revolution.”[14] Interestingly some of the most active protestors against Russian oligarchs and local pro-Russian politicians in Lisichansk were Communists who just six months later would participate enthusiastically in the Russian-backed separatist uprising in the city Today the only giant left stirring in the city is Lisichansk Coal the state-owned firm left over after the most profitable mines were privatized in the 2000s and taken over by the separatists in 2014 One of the company’s four mines is operating normally “we’ve returned to the Stone Age,” as an engineer who preferred to remain anonymous explained “We are getting the coal out with jackhammers like in the 1930s,” he said Attempts by the Cabinet of Ministers to mandate the transition to brown coal have been continuously held up by political maneuvering. The most recent attempt was blocked when Russian-owned energy distribution firms denied the national energy board the quorum needed to adopt the policy.[19] This exasperating situation clearly demonstrates how many levers of influence Russia still maintains over economic policy in Ukraine.  An attempt is being made to stave off the conversion of another historic factory to metalolom. Lisichansk city council member and war veteran Vitaliy Shvedov successfully appealed to Kyiv to cancel the contract under which the state-owned Proletariat Glassworks had been run into bankruptcy by powerful local politicians.[20] Today the glassworks is under crisis management by the Ministry of Economy and Trade undergoing a thorough inventory in preparation for new managers Shvedov told me that the factory’s owner, the Ukrainian government, should make the first investment to help revive the plant.[21] This would contradict the neoliberal and austere zeitgeist in post-revolution Kyiv; the dismal record of subsidizing the unprofitable Lisichansk Coal is a cautionary tale But with Lisichansk locked in an economic spiral is Kyiv prepared to consider more direct measures When I first visited the small railroad city of Popasna in March 2015 its residents were just emerging from their basements and root cellars after four months of intense shelling Entire city blocks were without windows and many apartment buildings and private homes had taken direct hits from heavy artillery Three years later Popasna is tidy and well repaired, but the outskirts of the city are still occasionally shelled. In May two members of a family of four were killed and two left in intensive care when a nearby village came under fire.[22] So it is surprising that one of the few large enterprises still operating in the GCA is found in this front line city: the Popasna Railcar Repair Plant (PRRP) Before the war PRRP was almost exclusively focused on the enormous Russian market but in 2012 Russia imposed an import substitution policy and reduced purchases from Ukraine to a tenth of earlier levels When Moscow launched its war in 2014 it cancelled the licenses for all Ukrainian railcar manufacturers that allowed their products on Russian railroads This effectively shut them out of connected markets in the Commonwealth of Independent States as well “we’d gladly license your factory if it was only in the Luhansk People’s Republic.” But Russian licenses did not help the Stakhanov Railway Car Building Works 25 kilometers away in separatist-held territory like many factories that learned quickly that Russia would not liberalize trade with the “People’s Republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk When around 50 shells landed in and around the PRRP during the worst of the fighting in 2014–2015, its workforce shrunk from 2,300 to a core of 800 employees. “They saved our factory,” Netiukhailo told me at his office in Popasna.[23] The director left the gates of the factory open at all times if employees wanted to flee but many got used to a cycle of assembly line/bomb shelter/assembly line.    Today PRRP employs 1,200 workers in a city of no more than 15,000 residents The factory has re-oriented entirely to the domestic market and is working at full capacity on railcar repairs but only at one-third capacity for producing new cars “we need contracts from Ukrzaliznitsia [Ukrainian Railways] like oxygen.” After two years of dismally small purchases Ukrzaliznitsia put out several large orders for freight cars in 2017 PRRP produced 250 gondola cars for the national rail company and is presently fulfilling contracts for private shipping firms Factory director Netiukhailo expresses guarded optimism about future state contracts and describes plans to enter the European market as a parts supplier But this promising new direction requires significant investment and Popasna has even more of an uphill climb than Lisichansk in attracting bank credit or private investors Netiukhailo points out that PRRP has adapted to extreme market conditions few competitors face (temporary occupation and logistical near-collapse) and provides an economic lifeline to war-torn Popasna but it receives no special attention from Kyiv in the form of preferences in contracting Nowhere are the consequences of policy drift in Kyiv more visible than in Luhansk Oblast’s energy sector Electricity has been an expensive and rationed commodity since heavy fighting in 2014 knocked out the lines connecting the oblast to the national energy grid and seriously damaged the region’s only power plant in frontline Schastia.[26] The trade blockade imposed in 2017 deepened the crisis since the plant is dependent on anthracite coal that is now legally inaccessible in the occupied territories.    Large factories like Azot and the Lisichansk oil refinery would easily swamp the power plant if they were to resume production But four years into the crisis the authorities have still not finished erecting the single power line that would reconnect the oblast to the national grid through neighboring Kharkiv Oblast On top of this is one more layer of policy absurdity The electricity produced in Schastia is sold to the government energy utility which in turn sells it to the privatized Luhansk Energy Company (LEO) for distribution to households and businesses In 2014 the Cabinet of Ministers forbade LEO from shutting off electricity to Luhansk and other occupied cities for humanitarian reasons but failed to offer any kind of compensation to the private company LEO was able to collect only around 10 percent of payments for electricity in the occupied territories The company soon found that even factories and mines with Ukrainian owners were shirking their payments as well as water companies in the GCA that send water to Luhansk LEO director Volodymyr Hritsai describes this policy as “paying for communism in the Luhansk People’s Republic.” [27] Ukraine sent free electricity to the separatists who in turn collected utility payments from the population Soviet-style low utility prices have been one of the main propaganda points for the Luhansk People’s Republic while electricity in the Luhansk GCA is now the most expensive in Ukraine After the imposition of the trade blockade in 2017 Kyiv finally cut off electricity to the occupied territories, which now get their power from Russia instead.[28] But despite multiple appeals, Kyiv failed to acknowledge that LEO’s plight was the direct result of state policy, and the company has racked up more than $200 million in debt to the government utility.[29] It is inconceivable that the central government could ignore this festering policy disaster for so long in the most vulnerable and alienated corner of Ukraine.   Kyiv must address the structural problems undermining the Luhansk Oblast’s industrial base and should develop a realistic economic survival plan until a semblance of market normalcy returns self-inflicted energy crisis by freezing the debts the oblast power company has accumulated as a result of non-payment in the occupied territories The re-connection of Luhansk Oblast to the national grid should be accelerated and the feasibility of switching the Schastia power plant from Russian anthracite to locally available brown coal should be seriously investigated In the longer term Kyiv should invest in diversifying the region’s energy production, taking advantage of material and technical assistance offered by countries like Denmark[33] to develop alternative energy The Oblast could generate 25 percent of its electricity from agricultural waste alone There is much talk in Ukraine about “de-politicizing” the economy and liberating market forces by zeroing out market-distorting subsidies and privatizing state firms but it is not clear that laissez-faire is appropriate for a region experiencing profound economic shock and fundamentally unnatural market conditions If there was a genuine industrial strategy in place for the Donbas a number of policies could be aligned to help support enterprises reeling under the pressure of war and economic collapse including preference in state contracting (i.e. railcars in Popasna) or the provision of subsidized Ukrainian gas At the very least such a strategy could hold off more “own goals” like the disastrous trade blockade or the electricity crisis Not every traditional industrial sector can be saved But the residents of this war-torn region cannot be blamed for thinking that their government is not even trying [1] Christian Neef Pro-Russian Separatists Harden Split from Ukraine,” Spiegel Online http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/little-russia-pro-russian-separatists-harden-split-from-ukraine-a-1159642.html [2] Aleksandr Chalenko “Sergey Sakadinsky: The idea of Unification of Donetsk and Luhansk is Viewed Negatively by Luhansk Residents.” Ukraina.ru https://ukraina.ru/exclusive/20170809/1019010921.html [3] Brian Milakovsky an Embattled Oligarch and Ukraine’s Industrial Drift,” openDemocracy Russia https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/brian-milakovsky/a-frontline-factory [4] Personal interview [5] Brian Milakovsky [6] “Cabinet of Ministers Forbids Import of Fertilizer from the Russian Federation,” Ukrainska Pravda https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2018/03/14/7174563/ [7] “Ukraine in the Framework of the WTO Lost its Case Against Russia Regarding Fertilizer,” Kommersant [8] “Parliamentarian: Tariffs on Fertilizer from the Russian Federation Allow Ostchem to Maintain Inflated Prices in the Ukrainian market,” RBC-Ukraine https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/rade-prosyat-proverit-zakonnost-antidempingovyh-1497251687.html [9] Oleksiy Vinohradov Old Roads and Lack of Investment: How is the Free Industrial Region of Luhansk Living?” Radio Svoboda https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/donbass-realii/29284014.html [10] Personal interview [11] “Roads in Luhanska Oblast are the Worst in Ukraine,” Pervaya Polosa http://1polosa.net/news/dorogi-v-luganskoy-oblasti-khudshie-v-ukraine/ [12] Stanislav Kmyet “The Reality of ‘Improvement.’ Lisichansk on the Edge of Revolution,” Ostro https://www.ostro.org/general/politics/articles/420724/ [13] Anastasia Vlasova “Court Arrests Ex-Yanukovych Ally Suspected of Separatism for Two Months,” Kyiv Post https://www.kyivpost.com/multimedia/photo/efremov-trial-420016 [14] Stanislav Kmyet [15] Taras Tkachuk “’Black Holes’ of the Country: Why Subsidize State Mines,” Ekonomichna Pravda https://www.epravda.com.ua/rus/publications/2018/01/10/632715/ [16] Anna Artemeva and Elena Kostiuchenko Aren’t Slaves!’ Gukovo Miners Refused ‘Hand Out’ from the Rostov Governor and Continue Their Hunger Strike,” Novaya Gazeta https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/08/25/69680-my-ne-raby-ne-raby [17] Vitalii Atanasov “Undermined: How the State is Selling Out Ukraine’s Coal Workers,” openDemocracy Russia https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/vitalii-atanasov/faded-glory-ukraines-miners [18] “Almost 79 Percent of Ukraine’s Coal Imports in 2017 Came from Russia,” 112 International https://112.international/finance/almost-79-percent-of-ukraines-anthracite-coal-imports-in-2017-came-from-russia-27534.html [19] Vitaliy Kulik “Hybrid Anthracite: How Russia is Strengthening its Position in the Ukrainian Energy Sector,” Hvylya http://hvylya.net/analytics/economics/gibridnyiy-antratsit-kak-rossiya-ukreplyaet-pozitsii-v-energetike-ukrainyi.html [20] “Lisichansk Glassworks ‘Proletariat’: The Latest Patient of Dunaev is Practically Dead,” Vostochniy Reporter http://v-reporter.com.ua/lisichanskij-steklozavod-proletarij-ocherednoj-pacient-dunaeva-prakticheski-mertv.htm [21] Personal interview [22] Oksana Grytsenko Two Wounded Overnight by Shelling in Luhansk Oblast,” Kyiv Post https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/three-civilians-killed-overnight-shelling-luhansk-oblast.html [23] Personal interview [24] “Ukrzaliznitsia Plans to Use its Own Facilities to Build Around 4,200 Freight Cars in 2018,” Interfax Ukraine http://interfax.com.ua/news/economic/456949.html [25] “Critical Situation with Freight Cars of Ukrzaliznitsia is Hitting Metallurgy and the Hyrvnia Exchange Rate,” Sevodnya https://www.segodnya.ua/economics/transport/kriticheskaya-situaciya-s-gruzovymi-vagonami-ukrzaliznyci-bet-po-metallurgam-i-po-kursu-grivni-1063858.html [26] “As a Result of Artillery Strike Luganskaya Power Station Partially Ceased Operation,” Vesti https://vesti-ukr.com/donbass/72599-v-rezultate-artobstrela-luganskaja-tjes-chastichno-prekratila-rabotu [27] Volodymyr Hritsai “Why Are Ukrainians Paying for Communism in the ‘LPR’ and a Few More Questions for the President,” Censor https://censor.net.ua/blogs/3070415/pochemu_ukraintsy_oplachivayut_kommunizm_dlya_lnr_i_esche_neskolko_voprosov_k_prezidentu_ukrainy [28] Anna Trunina https://www.rbc.ru/politics/25/04/2017/58fe7e5e9a79471d4bcc8113 [30] “LEO Started Picketing Debtor Enterprises,” Comments.ua https://donbass.comments.ua/news/134853-leo-nachalo-piketi-predpriyatiy-dolzhnikov.html [31] “LEO Left More Than 47,000 Residents of Lisichansk and Borovskoe Without Water,” O6452.com.ua [32] Maryana Deikun “Klimenko Called LEO Terrorists: The Reaction of the Energy Monopolist,” V Chas Pik http://vchaspik.ua/region/445923-klimenko-nazval-leo-terroristami-poyavilas-reakciya-energokompanii-monopolista [33] Ukraine Denmark Energy Center [34] Oleksiy Vinohradov Головна Сторінка » English stories » Five days of interrogation: how a Ukrainian woman with two children fled the war through Russia to Estonia Slidstvo.Info recorded the story of a Ukrainian woman who has passed several circles of hell to escape from the war and compulsory settlement in Russia She has four children: two older daughters who had moved to other city to study before the war and two sons – 5-year-old Ivan and 11-year-old son Matthew who were living with her in Luhansk oblast when the war began is located near the demarcation line in Donbas but the city remained controlled by Ukraine Yulia says that she had hoped that this time the war would bypass her home and the authorities would do everything to prevent people from being harmed Russian shells are destroying houses and industrial facilities Yulia recalls the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine She worked as a saleswoman in the store of “Nasha Ryaba” and noticed that people were buying up food Due to the beginning of hostilities at the end of February poultry farms that supplied them with the products could not deliver the cargo on time Yulia’s working day was reduced to four hours and the woman started having only morning shifts the shelling of Yulia’s street has started I was coming home and I saw six corpses and many wounded people on the way,” Yulia says The Enemy Attacked Residential Buildings In Rubizhne / Photo t.me/luhanskaVTSA A woman with two sons and her friend with three children went to the basement where three entrances were damaged,” the woman recalls The Russians started shelling the Ukrainian rescuers who were initially coming to disassemble the destroyed buildings and rescue people “There are about 12 graves near our house These are elderly people whose heart gave out people who were just wandering around and got under the shrapnel from explosions – some hit the artery some ripped the legs off,” the woman says the children have not gone out at all for about two weeks They were sitting in the basement and the food was running out “We learned to determine the type of shelling by its sound We even have joked: if we heard that it flew far we said “the message is gotten” and if it was close – near our house or near the school – then we said “we have been reached”,” says Yulia Their house appeared to be on the frontline the headquarters of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic was located right across the street As the military of the quasi-republic went for the water they turned on the generator and people could also draw some water The territory controlled by Ukraine was quite close advised her mother to call the volunteer hotline who had taken people out of Rubizhne before there is no access to the part of the city where she lives Russian humanitarian aid was delivered to the town Julia have taken it for the whole entrance – for 12 people half a kilogram of pasta for each,” Yulia recalls The Kadyrovites together with the military of the Luhansk People’s Republic were robbing the apartments “They were sweeping the houses – removing the doors if the apartment was closed Everything valuable was taken out of the apartment: computers the Ukrainian military uniform and flags were also burned was also taken out,” the woman recalls Yulia approached the Russian military from the Luhansk People’s Republic with the callsign Khoma and asked how to leave the city “He said that it is possible to contact the school on this issue but I thought I will not succeed in getting my children there – it was too far and the shelling took place there He said he would come up with something,” the woman recalled Khoma came to Yulia’s house and gave her four minutes to get ready “You do understand what a person can pack in 4 minutes My children’s belongings were already packed in a bag the documents hung on me all these 30 days and have already grown to the body,” says Yulia Screenshot from the Evacuation of Ukrainians Video published by the Luhansk People’s Republic Together with children and a neighboring family they left with the residents of the Luhansk People’s Republic to Starobilsk a city 50 kilometers from Rubizhne that was controlled by Russians a village that until recently was controlled by Ukraine but with the beginning of a full-scale invasion There is a checkpoint between Ukraine and Russia “We were taken to the station by bus and then had to walk to the Russian border There was a queue of about 1.5 thousand people and cars were in line with a length of 6–7 kilometers children and disabled people were allowed to pass quickly,” Yulia says The woman recalls that her friend and her husband were kept at the border for almost a day He was questioned – after that there was almost no contact with them “Her husband is 36 years old and has been questioned for about 20 hours That’s why we lost each other at the border and she with her children waited for him to be released from the interrogation The men were kept at Russian customs for 10-20 hours,” Yulia says It seems that these are the so-called filtration camps where Russians interrogate Ukrainians and decide who to release who to send to the so-called «army» of the Luhansk People’s Republic One more interrogation by the Russians was waiting for the Ukrainian woman and her children ahead They were waiting for departure for another 15 hours “Then we were taken to the Rostov oblast We were placed in the local House of Creativity the children were asked if I was really their mother,” Yulia says In the morning they were told that they would be taken towards St a woman hid her mobile phone and was able to take it to Russia “I got in touch with my daughter and said that we were in Russia She told me there was an opportunity to get home And she told me to somehow “get lost” I couldn’t go to the place where they were taken Petersburg not to wander around Russia,” the woman says Petersburg traveled 36 hours – a day longer than planned Julia approached the head of the train and found out when the final stop would be “The head of the train asked why I needed that information I lied that there were some relatives in St Petersburg and that they contacted me via the Internet,” Yulia recalls Immediately at the station the police chief stopped them “They asked which relatives I was going to I told him an address that didn’t exist,” the woman said with whom the eldest daughter had agreed on saving her mother was waiting for Julia and her children on the platform He confirmed that the woman has relatives in St and due to the large number of people and chaos on the platform “There were 650 Mariupol residents and 47 Rubizhne residents in the train And they had to take photos and record every person They simply did not have time to interrogate me,” Yulia says The police chief gave the woman a phone with a Russian SIM-card so that she could be contacted When she arrived at the local people who were hiding her she received several calls from the police “They called me three times at night and asked for the exact address of my location They said that they wanted to provide me with some aid and should know my address,” Yulia says a daughter’s acquaintance took the woman to the border with Estonia There was the last checkpoint that Yulia had to pass Her documents were again photographed and their stuff was carefully checked the Russians checked my belongings for a very long time – twice I don’t know what they were looking for about an hour and a half these documents were not taken out They asked why I was leaving the Russian Federation They called my eldest son and asked him his date of birth who was on her way to a safe place for the fifth day Yulia’s Family is Safe in Estonia / Photo Jaanus Lensment from Ekspress Meedia The most terrible things among everything that happened to Yulia during these 5 days which she and her sons spent moving through the occupied and Russian territories are called “filtration” conversations “The hardest part was looking into their eyes and having no ability to say anything because you know you could say something and then be killed for that Or been kept in the “hoosegow” for 10–15 years for only one word,” says Yulia Julia begins to worry: “I still can’t calm down… What was I rescued from Slidstvo.Info agency traced the path of the 27-year-old Viktoria uncovering the conditions of her detention in .. who for the first time shared her experience of imprisonment and what is .. The Command of the Ground Forces told Slidstvo.Info that Oscar was captured in Luhansk Oblast and has been .. 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 The fighter under the callsign Aryets during the period from the beginning of the full-scale invasion took part in the battles for Rubizhne and now fights on the outskirts of Bakhmut Ariets received his first combat experience in the Svitlodar arc even before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation At Svitlodarka we had a distance of about 700 meters to the enemy only occasionally there were shelling from large-caliber weapons and periodic shelling from artillery but it was still clear that the enemy was preparing for something bigger the enemy only occasionally shelled the city But when we had already gone directly to Rubezhnaya through the window of my car I saw a real blockbuster: the city was on fire everything around was burning and exploding something I had not yet encountered in my life introduced me to the course of affairs and told about the enemy,” Ariets shared his memories the defense of Rubezhny for the “Rubezh” brigade became a symbol of the indestructibility and resilience of the fighters who for more than two months in cooperation with other units held this city Ariets is already acting as a unit commander and with his fighters they hold the lines and fight back against the enemy we are on the defensive and the enemy here is different Often you meet poorly equipped Russian mobilizers who sometimes do not fully understand what they are doing here But sometimes we meet very prepared and militarily literate opponents who know tactics know how to move correctly and look for weaknesses I personally met the enemy grenade launcher knew how to pick the moment and hit our positions well,” the fighter noted Motivation in the Aryan is the complete victory over the enemy and the expulsion of him from our land I have seen our warriors ruthlessly stop the enemy They have something to fight for and who to defend — that helps us a lot we do not feel sorry for ourselves and we try to make it easier for others to follow us We will win when we take all our land and liberate our people but we will not give ours,” the National Guard said We use cookies to provide you with better navigation on our website you automatically agree to the use of these technologies Zemlyak - an officer of the 15th Slavic regiment told about the battles of his unit in Donetsk and Luhansk region The man decided to defend Ukraine when he was only 17 years old Then he entered the National Academy of the National Guard of Ukraine he received the rank of officer and went to the East I joined the rifle battalion of the 15th Slavic Regiment located in the Rubezhny Luhansk region [now a Russian-occupied city] He took part in the battles not only for Rubezhnaya then in the Majorsk direction,” Zemlyak says the guys have to constantly repel the actions of small assault groups the situation is so aggravated that they had to call artillery fire on themselves Peeked out - the enemy was still around the dungeon asks: “Do we surrender to captivity?” I answered him: “We do not surrender load the cartridges!” - recalls the compatriot how he repelled one of such attacks of the enemy The compatriot dreams of the only thing - after the victory to return home to Severodonetsk "The Russians damaged 11 houses and fired on their own positions from a mortar in Popasna Enemy losses are currently being determined Ukrainian troops continue to drive the Russian army out of Rubizhne and Popasna, where the occupier partially managed to gain a foothold. Street fighting continues in some areas of these towns. In Popasna, the enemy tried to storm using artillery but suffered losses. The enemy fired mortars on its own positions," Head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration Serhiy Haidai posted on Telegram According to the Head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration three more high-rise buildings and eight private houses were damaged by Russian fire in Severodonetsk the infrastructure of an ambulance station in Severodonetsk and two wholesale warehouses in the town also came under fire As a result of the aggressor's actions two people were injured and four were rescued from the rubble Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine has been going on since February 24 The aggressor shells and destroys key infrastructure facilities The agglomeration of the temporarily occupied Luhansk region, including Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, and Rubizhne, has reportedly been transferred to the control of Tatarstan, a republic of the Russian Federation, according to Sprotyv A delegation from the Republic of Tatarstan led by its Prime Minister Oleksey Yesoshin has made an unauthorized visit to the temporarily occupied Luhansk region the Kremlin has placed the agglomeration of Severodonetsk-Lysychansk-Rubizhne under the full control of Tatarstan Sprotyv reports that the delegation officially claimed to be implementing showcase projects aimed at demonstrating the "reconstruction of infrastructure" and initiating construction projects in the region "Local occupation administrations are providing housing for workers arriving from this region which was previously considered neglected by the occupiers," the report further adds Tatarstan is overseeing a program aimed at re-educating the local youth and transforming them into modern "janissaries." In October alone around two hundred children were transported to the Kazan camp Zarechye where digital competitions combining virtual gaming environments with real-world physical games were conducted alongside initiatives to alter their national self-identification these children will be recruited into drone control units on the battlefield Tatarstan will finance the opening of testing centers under the Ready for Labor and Defense program," writes Sprotyv adding that this represents a contemporary Russian form of sports and paramilitary youth education with mandatory propaganda and promotion of participation in paramilitary organizations such as Yunarmiya and the youth wing of Putin's party Tatarstan is actively involved in the patriotic education of schoolchildren during the celebration of February 23 in Kazan students were compelled to sing Soviet patriotic songs and make the Nazi-style salute several hundred Russian students from the Alabuga Polytech College in Tatarstan were involved in the assembly of Iranian drones There are also reports of the deportation of 50 schoolchildren from the Luhansk region to Tatarstan The Russian occupiers are isolating other frontline towns, following Rubizhne. The access regime has been tightened in Kreminna and Severodonetsk, reported by the Luhansk Regional State Administration "The occupation authorities of the frontline towns set themselves the task of minimizing the movement of the population searching for those who assist the Armed Forces of Ukraine The access regime has been strengthened not only in Rubizhne but also in the neighboring towns of Kreminna and Severodonetsk," the statement said entry to these settlements is allowed only with local registration or a pass personally obtained from the occupation administration Documents are thoroughly checked at checkpoints to identify possible forgeries The community has significantly reduced the amount of vacant housing which the collaborators and Russian military consider suitable for their residence," the Regional State Administration added Heavy fighting occurs on the frontline between Svatove and Kreminna in the Luhansk region Battles are also occurring in Serebrianske Forest the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the Russian forces in the Luhansk region are experiencing very low morale due to significant losses They reportedly want to withdraw their units and return to Russia Ukraine (Reuters) – People in the eastern Ukrainian town of Rubizhne have started exhuming bodies that were hastily buried in courtyards at the height of fighting anxious to be able to lay them to rest with dignity Rubizhne is part of the Luhansk region of Ukraine where Russian forces established full control in early July more than four months after President Vladimir Putin launched what he called his “special military operation” in Ukraine Men with spades removed sandy soil on Friday outside a damaged apartment block in the town of 50,000 people watched as the workers pulled out a blanket covering her mother who had been quickly interred after attacks that started in March and divided the town in two Ai-Talatini said the fighting at that time had prevented her for 10 days from reaching her parents’ apartment “Mother was already dying … her hands were blue there were circles under her eyes,” she said “The next day mother passed away.” She and her husband had no spades and therefore had to drag the corpse to an open trench in the ground “It’s easier for me because she’s not outside … buried in inhuman conditions The breakaway Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) one of Moscow’s proxies in eastern Ukraine said a team had been working in Rubizhne for 10 days and exhumed 104 sets of remains “It’s clear that shrapnel wounds predominate but there are also bullet wounds,” she said estimating there were a total of 500 unofficial graves in the city A total of six bodies were dug up close to the badly damaged apartment building and placed into a van before being examined by specialists elsewhere in town a forensic expert from the southern Russian region of Rostov said examples of genetic material would be stored to help identify unknown corpses Powered by PageSuite Rebels from the breakaway Luhansk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region are now in control of government buildings in the city of Rubizhne Luhansk and Donetsk are the two separatist regions backed by Russia this time he is seen standing in the Rubizhne mayor’s office where he later mounted the LPR flag on the roof of the government building In the clip posted to his Telegram channel Serhiy Haidai said the enemy(Russia) is simply destroying all the cities Earlier they were shelling more or less selectively Falana dares police to arrest Ebele Obiano Russia concerned by India-Pakistan tensions – Kremlin Ukraine forces repel 42 drones from Russia Russia says willing to help resolve India-Pakistan differences War: I’ve had good discussions on Russia Russia: I’m always thinking about who’ll take over when I step down — Putin Copyright © Daily Post Media Ltd  Russian troops on Monday captured the east Ukraine town of Kreminna as Kyiv's armed forces launched salvos on Russian forces in the nearby settlement of Rubizhne "There was a major attack in the night" from Sunday to Monday in Kreminna the Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a statement on social media "The Russian army has already entered there with a huge amount of military hardware .. Our defenders have retreated to new positions," he added with a pre-war population of nearly 20,000 people is around 50 kilometres (31 miles) northeast of Kramatorsk and is a strategic target for invading Russian forces which is under control from Russian forces was under intense fire from Ukrainian artillery and mortars Powerful explosions could be seen in Rubizhne sometimes followed by fires and plumes of white or black smoke Russian forces have stepped up their offensive to capture the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine having pulled back troops deployed around the capital Kyiv at the beginning of the invasion in late February please register for free or log in to your account.