Russia said Sunday that its forces had captured the eastern Ukrainian village of Orikhovo-Vasylivka
near the strategic military hub of Chasiv Yar that Moscow is attempting to seize
There is intensive fighting in the frontline town of Chasiv Yar
one of the last remaining urban areas blocking Russia from advancing further into the region
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a daily briefing that "as a result of decisive attack actions
the South group of troops liberated the settlement of Orekhovo-Vasilevka in the Donetsk region," using the Russian name for the village
Orikhovo-Vasylivka is located around 10 kilometres (six miles) north of Chasiv Yar and near the road to the Ukraine-held city of Sloviansk
The latest advance comes as Russian troops are pushing further into the Donetsk region
They claimed the key mining town of Toretsk on Friday
while Ukraine denies Moscow troops are in full control there
said Sunday that it had repelled attacks in the areas of Chasiv Yar and Toretsk and shot down a Russian military jet near Toretsk
Russia had attacked six regions with 151 drones
of which it shot down 70 while a further 74 were lost "without negative consequences."
Russia's Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 35 Ukrainian drones overnight and one in the northwestern Leningrad region on Sunday morning
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“I was standing in water up to my knees inside my house
and two bombs landed just metres away,” Alyna recalls as she shows the damage around her home
was devastated not only by heavy bombardment but also by the catastrophic flooding that followed the Kakhovka dam explosion in June 2023
people are returning to the village – but they need help to make their houses livable again
all Alyna’s furniture was still covered with tarpaulins
as it couldn’t be brought back inside the house until the roof was fixed
Alyna had her roof repaired and new windows installed by Southern Development Strategy (SDS)
a partner of Danish Church Aid and Norwegian Church Aid
The project was funded by the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF)
“My house is once again weatherproof
and that means this winter won’t be as hard,” says Alyna
residents prepared for the cold season after enduring two harsh winters
Sixty-six-year-old Larysa recalls surviving numerous bomb strikes
“I had to sleep in the shed after the explosion,” she says
Larysa relied on a cast-iron stove to stay warm
but her damaged home made it difficult to live normally
3.4 tonnes of solid fuel have been distributed to both Kyselivka and Vasylivka
ensuring the communities can heat their homes as they face cold winter temperatures
Larysa’s neighbour Angela had her windows replaced with new glass
“It’s wonderful to have light in my home again and to see nature outside,” she shares
Adapted from an original story fromDanish Church Aid.
More information about the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund
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Residents of Vasylivka village in southern Ukraine's Mykolaiv region are desperately waiting for support to survive after their houses were flooded due to the explosion at the Kakhovka dam on June 6
Following the explosion at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant
due to which more than 70 houses in Vasylivka were flooded and became unusable
"The water rose above the windows in the house
We were only able to save the cats and dogs in the house
We went as a family to the village of Pavlivka next door
our family is there," Gennady Nezhlukchenko
The homes in the village went underwater three days after the explosion
adding that he and his family are now looking for a new home
We have applied to the state regarding this issue
Nothing was given for the bombed houses either
We may have to rebuild a house,” Nezhlukchenko said
Calling the event a "big disaster," he said the environment was adversely affected by the flooding because the flood water is not clean and could pose a risk to people’s health
It is difficult to overcome this psychologically
I do not know how we will continue our lives," he said
adding that the village was under Russian control for about nine months
told Anadolu that he was now homeless because of the flood and did not know what to do in the future
“We will look for a new house here because it is not possible to renovate our damaged house
adding that he is staying at the house of an acquaintance in a village nearby
told Anadolu that her house was flooded and that she needed a new home
It is no longer possible to live in the house
Neighbors' houses are also in the same situation
and I have no place to stay,” she said
Ukraine and Russia both blamed each other for carrying out strikes on June 6 which led to the destruction of the walls of the Kakhovka dam
an unremarkable civilian car drove slowly toward a Russian checkpoint in the occupied town of Vasylivka
It had passed dozens of checkpoints on its way from the occupied city of Melitopol to the Ukrainian-controlled regional capital Zaporizhzhia
None of its passengers expected what was about to happen
he spotted a teenage boy checking something on his phone
He took the boy's phone and pulled him out of the car
"Should I shoot you right now or smash your phone?" he shouted
The furious soldier dragged the boy to the backyard of a nearby cafe where Russian troops were based
leaving those in the car speechless and terrified
Russian soldiers realized the detainee was a "jackpot" for them
The boy they captured was Vladyslav Buryak
the son of one of the region’s highest-ranking Ukrainian officials – Oleh Buryak
the head of the Zaporizhzhia District State Administration
Buryak was a member of the Russia-friendly Opposition Bloc political party
The following 90 days in Russian captivity would become nothing but unimaginable horror for the 16-year-old Vladyslav Buryak
Locked in a tiny dilapidated prison cell in Vasylivka's pre-trial detention center
the boy heard the harrowing screams of Ukrainian prisoners of war being tortured by Russian soldiers
He watched as some of them died after enduring hours of torture and was forced to clean the "torture room" awash with their blood
"Every minute there was a very severe challenge because every minute could have been my last," the boy told the Kyiv Independent during an interview alongside his father
He is not the only Ukrainian minor who has spent a long time in Russian captivity since Russia’s all-out war began on Feb
24: According to Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Oleksandr Starukh
Russians have held captive five minors in Zaporizhzhia Oblast
Two of them remained imprisoned as of the end of July
A total of 203 children have been recorded missing in Ukraine as of the beginning of August
Most of them went missing in the war’s hotspots
Russia's war has also killed at least 358 children as of Aug
The numbers are expected to be higher since they don't include casualties in the Russian-occupied territories and areas where hostilities are ongoing
Among all of Russia's atrocities against Ukrainian children
Vladyslav Buryak’s "normal and happy" teenage life came to a halt when Russia began its all-out invasion on Ukraine
where he lived with his mother and younger sister
was occupied by Russians in the first days of the full-scale war
Even though his father had urged Vladyslav and the family to evacuate
the boy wanted to stay in the occupied city to take care of his grandfather
"I was with him almost all the time," he says
Leaving the city in early March was also too risky since there were too many Russian troops everywhere
and street fights became a part of Buryak's everyday life in Melitopol
In between supporting his grandfather and hiding from Russia's attacks
Buryak shared information on local collaborators
and other machinery movements with his father
"We agreed that if (Vladyslav) sees that I read the message
he should wait 10 minutes and immediately delete it," Oleh Buryak says
the two also called themselves by different names so that Russians couldn’t identify them
"I forbade him to call me father or dad," Oleh says
"I was worried from day one that sooner or later they would be captured."
As he was looking for ways to get his son out of the occupied city
Oleh's friend from Melitopol found some local women with whom Vladyslav could evacuate
The boy’s mother and sister fled the city a week before him
But he didn't want to leave his grandfather behind until the end
the day the women were planning to flee Melitopol
Oleh was at a work meeting when he received a call from a friend
The earth slipped beneath his feet when he heard that Russian soldiers had abducted his son
"I instantly started thinking of what I could do
the Russians didn’t give Buryak any food or water
Five days later they brought Vladyslav some food and water for the first time
the Russian soldiers allowed him to take a shower
And only one month after he was imprisoned
Vladyslav was finally allowed to wash his clothes
I couldn't understand why someone was screaming so loudly
Later he would realize they were Ukrainian prisoners screaming in agony while being tortured by Russian soldiers
"Most Ukrainian prisoners kept there were members of territorial defense units or civilians
who the Russian military tortured and interrogated to get information," he says
He remembers that on the fourth day of his imprisonment the Russians threw a 24-year-old man into his prison cell
That man told Vladyslav he was a local priest
Russian troops detained him along with members of a local territorial defense unit
The Russian troops tortured the young priest for several hours a day
they beat him on the genitals," Buryak says
He was stammering and couldn’t say anything properly
He used the toilet every three to five minutes
and he practically didn't have a face," he says
Vladyslav says he had tried to talk him out of it
and stopped him when he tried to hang himself in the cell
"He didn’t think he’d get out of there alive
He thought it would be better to die than endure the torture again," Buryak says
a 16-year-old boy tried to comfort a man who had just slit his wrists with a can lid
A Russian soldier entered the cell shortly and called a doctor who bandaged his hands and took him away
He says that man became one of the reasons he found the strength to survive the horrors of captivity
'Get out from this captivity and tell about everything we've been through," Buryak says
"'Tell my story so that my death is not in vain.'"
The Russian soldiers never tortured Buryak since he was considered a "valuable" prisoner they could use in an exchange
and collected trash around the prison," Buryak says
Vladyslav was forced to clean the so-called torture room up to five times a week
The room was a slightly bigger prison cell where Russian soldiers interrogated Ukrainians
severely beating them with "iron fittings
Buryak saw a special tool with wires used for electrocution
He says that Russians often tortured their prisoners by pushing needles underneath their nails
sometimes connecting the needles to the electrocution tool to increase the pain
He heard Russian soldiers discussing how they would torture their prisoners
he heard them laughing when torturing someone
(Torturing people) is like fun to them," Buryak says
One day when he came to clean the torture room
He saw a man hanging from the ceiling with his hands tied with cables
A small bucket with blood stood next to them
“It was one of the days when I saw (the torture) myself,” he says
He often heard Russians saying they had come to "save Ukraine and liberate it from Nazism.” Buryak says they called themselves the "army of good" and claimed they were “doing everything for the Ukrainian nation to live well."
Vladyslav was allowed to spend 10 minutes outside
the boy either worked or was locked alone in his prison cell
Vladyslav spent a total of 48 days in prison
he hoped he wouldn’t become the soldiers’ next victim
Oleh says he was doing everything he could to never let that happen
His strategy was to publicize the case so that Russians would value Vladyslav as a prisoner and save his life
He knew the horrors that his son was exposed to
At one point during the boy’s three-month captivity
Oleh was shown a transcript of the testimony of a former prisoner of the jail where Vladyslav was kept
That person had survived two weeks of torture that included sexual violence
Almost immediately after his son was captured
a Russian officer contacted Oleh to begin what would be an arduous process of negotiations to free Vladyslav
The officer wanted to exchange the boy for a specific person
"an adult citizen of Ukraine," Oleh says
including whether that exchange took place
the Russians transferred Vladyslav to a hotel in occupied Melitopol
While the conditions were much better — there was a toilet and a shower in the room — Vladyslav was still a prisoner
and it wasn't clear whether they would agree to set him free
a Russian negotiator agreed to release Vladyslav – three months after he was captured
Oleh was worried that the Russians might change their mind
Even when Vladyslav called him late on July 6
saying the Russians said they would let him go the following day
The video of Vladyslav Buryak meeting his father Oleh Buryak after spending three months in Russian captivity
Vladyslav was put into one of the civilian cars evacuating from Melitopol
When he saw his son getting out of the car in the Ukrainian-controlled area of Zaporizhzhia Oblast
Oleh said he felt that “a piece of his heart returned home.”
There, on the road not far from the Russian-occupied settlements, the two stood for several moments, hugging and crying. Vladyslav had made it back home
he will never forget the horrors of captivity he endured
destruction — this is what (Russia) represents,” said Vladyslav
Seeing his son alive and at home with him feels like a personal “victory” for Oleh
“Now we need a victory for the country,” Oleh said
you can help us continue telling the world the truth about this war
Daria Shulzhenko is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent
She has been a lifestyle reporter at the Kyiv Post until November 2021
She graduated from Kyiv International University with a bachelor’s in linguistics
specializing in translation from English and German languages
She has previously worked as a freelance writer and researcher
has come with news of the killing of the mayor of Hostomel
In the south-eastern oblast of Zaporizhzhia
six towns have been taken by Russian forces
as Moscow has promised a humanitarian corridor to Russia to civilians in strategic cities defending themselves against the invaders
Ukrainian public media Ukrinform and British public broadcaster BBC report
Ukrinform announced the killing of the head of the Hostomel community
was killed while handing out bread to the hungry and medicine to the sick
comforting the burnt and consoling the desperate
along with his comrades-in-arms Ruslan Karpenko and Ivan Zoria,» the statement unveiled
Read also: Polish Ambassador to Ukraine continues to work in Kyiv as last one
In Zaporizhzhia oblast, the towns of Polohy, Vasylivka, Tokmak, Enerhodar, Berdyansk and Melitopol are temporarily occupied, according to the military administration of the south-eastern region
It added that near the settlements of Huliaipole
Orikhiv and in the direction of Vasylivka-Balabino
the Armed Forces of Ukraine are conducting a defensive operation and called on local population to join territorial defence forces
Russia claimed on Sunday that it took control of another village amid its ongoing offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region
A statement by the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces captured the village of Orikhovo-Vasylivka
located about 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) east of the city of Kramatorsk
the region's provisional seat since Moscow seized control of Donetsk city in 2014
Ukrainian authorities have yet to comment on Russia's claim
and independent verification of the claim is difficult due to the ongoing war
which will be three years old later this month
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article
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International correspondent Bel Trew has spent weeks covering the war in Ukraine
she recounts some of the most indelible scenes from her time in the country
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All of a sudden, moving through Ukraine became a stumble through the sick dreamscape of your worst nightmare
Under a railway station in the northern town of Trosytanets
where artillery has blasted suburban mundanity into a muddy moonscape
men emerged with their stories of being tortured for information they didn’t have
In a quiet wood, over 350km (220 miles) west, near the capital Kyiv
we found the body of an unknown Ukrainian teenager
He was just metres from a Russian trench camp where an abandoned cafetiere
chicken coop and pair of socks drying on trees spoke of a hasty retreat
and an escape route out for those fleeing the besieged city of Mariupol
a woman whose legs were stuttered with shrapnel recalled watching her bed-ridden aunt burn to death because no one could get her to a bomb shelter in time
In the southern city of Mykolaiv at a hospital
who picked up an unexploded banned cluster munition bomblet
All along an 8,500km odyssey through Ukraine
As Putin’s invasion grinds past the miserable milestone of two months they only get more bloody and more awful
These testimonies show that despite Moscow’s protestations of good faith and innocence
we have only just scratched the surface of the horrors that have already happened or are going on right now as I write this
and his forces turn their attention to the east
“It was a nightmare – it was the worst thing they has ever happened to me and I worry it is happening again elsewhere,” said Dima
one of the civilians I spoke to who who survived several days of torture in Trostyanets
He is too gentle a person to shrug off the violence he was subjected to: his hands
who was shot and tortured in a different basement by Russians several hundred kilometres away in a village north of Kyiv
He spoke to us from a hospital bed where doctors are trying to save his mangled foot
“I feel like I was lucky to have survived as I did,” he told The Independent
“I met a guy who was kept captive for 20 days without light
It even took some time for him to get used to the sunlight again
We will likely never know the true scale of what has happened
Maxar Technologies published images showing mass graves so vast in Russian-occupied territory near Mariupol that they appear in satellite imagery
The British Ministry of Defence had previously released footage of it says are mobile crematoriums “to evaporate” one human body at a time and so erase the worst crimes
President Putin who has focuses his forces on consolidating the east and south of Ukraine
But Dima shows the scars on his legs and wrists as evidence
‘There were bits of corpses all over the ground’
“I realised I had a choice,” said 22-year party planner Marina
as she coordinated a makeshift conveyer belt of people making sandbags on the beach of the coastal city of Odesa
Against the soft whomp of outgoing anti-aircraft fire
hundreds of volunteers continue the back-breaking work of making over 10,000 sandbags a day which are sent across the country to reinforce buildings
In the background a young drummer accompanied the Arctic Monkeys on a speaker and so the teams intermittently broke to dance
this one begins with the present continuous of grief: a rollercoaster of hope and horror
resilience and despair as people go through the process of dealing with the ambush of a new past
For many this immediately translated into rallying to the war effort
I met grandmothers weaving military camouflage netting in community centres in the western city of Lviv
construction workers welding Czech hedgehogs in the central city of Khmelnytskyi
young fashion designers forging bulletproof vests out of truck springs in the port city of Mykolaiv
and party planners like Marina filling sandbags at the beach in Odesa
In multiple towns there were queues around the block and waiting lists for people to join the army
Gyms and town halls across the country became civil and territorial defence training grounds for civilians
learning how to use everything from molotov cocktails to rifles
And so the invasion rather than breaking spirit has had the adverse consequence of uniting the country
At the bewildering number of checkpoints that now carve up the country
the repeated phrase “glory to Ukraine” has become synonymous with “hello”
Homemade billboards telling the Russians to eff off back home (or to The Hague) litter the roads
As do ones glorifying particular strategic wins
the alleged battle cry of Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island
is such a popular epigram it is now commemorated on Ukraine’s newest postal stamp
And at the helm is populist President Volodymyr Zelensky
who with his 21st-century mix of Dancing with the Stars and battlefield videos
has one of the most recognisable faces of our time
a tech start-up nation famous for its call centres
harnessed that knowledge to help deal with the nightmarish consequences of war
together with a team of computer programmers
launched the Prykhystok website – which is a bit like Airbnb or couch-surfing for refugees
as it maps 5,000 shelters across the country
Two of the developers then pivoted to partnering with car-sharing and taxi apps – the Ukrainian equivalents of Uber – to organise carpools and rides for civilians fleeing some of the worst conflict zones
Someone else built an app that notifies you of every air raid siren
while others developed web-based programmes offering detailed maps of local bomb shelters and hospitals
Across the country these resources became a lifeline for those forced to forge the new refugee trail
Second World War-like scenes of child evacuees layer over the technicolour nightmare of what was unfolding
All roads ultimately culminate in the last gruelling stretch to countries like Poland or Romania
where I watched a stream of figures emerge ghostlike through the darkness
carrying their children and the pets and their hastily packed suitcases: the last quick summary of their former lives
And through them we started to hear the drip-feed of horror
would eventually stumble into in areas liberated from Russian forces
“A rocket hit a queue of people waiting for humanitarian aid
there were just bits of corpses all over the ground,” said Ruslan
who escaped the besieged city of Mariupol with his wife and daughter to Zaporizhia
the worst hit area of the city that has recently become a last stand
Right now hundreds of civilians – they may well include Ruslan’s family members – are holed up in the Azovstal steel factory on the left bank
“We lost contact with them after the first week of the war
Behind Ruslan was a white board of desperate messages from families like his asking for help trying to find or get to missing loved ones
It is just one of dozens of boards I saw in different shelters and meeting points across the country as well as hundreds of WhatsApp and Facebook groups built for that purpose
And so divided families will be the lasting legacy of this war
which the cast and backstage staff had turned into a makeshift shelter
As a man of fighting age he cannot leave Ukraine and so was spending the last few moments with his children
before he said goodbye to them indefinitely
“I try not to think about being separated,” he told me
quietly as his boys watched Sonic the Hedgehog
“I’m just trying to do the best I can with everything without panicking.”
They have a kind of celebrity status among the civilians desperate to get their families trapped under the most ferocious bombardments of the war
The volunteer drivers who go back into besieged places like Mariupol and Donetsk braving shelling
airstrikes and Russian soldiers to shuttle people out to comparatively safer towns like Zaporizhzhya
who have made several trips back into Mariupol
who has apparently retrieved over 100 people
was last heard heading back to Mariupol before he vanished a few weeks ago
who the day we spoke to him was joining a group of other cars to head to areas under bombardment in Donetsk now in the eye of Putin’s storm
“I saw with my own eyes how the Russians fired on a Ukrainian Red Cross humanitarian aid convoy – there is no one else who can do this,” he said
while sticking a poster reading the word “children” in Russian on his car to protect against the worst onslaught
“We planned to go to our house to find belongings and if we see anyone we will bring them back.”
Andre and the drivers was just one example of the extraordinary kindness of strangers across Ukraine during the journey as civilians have adjusted to the new normal
where unexploded rockets bristle the ground almost comically
an accountant who had taken in a newly orphaned 11-year-old boy whose mother was shot dead by Russians in early March as she drove to get supplies
who was pinned under his mother’s dead body
and took him to their home while they spent weeks trying to find his father
but the boy would write to his mother in his diary every day,” she said in tears
during a month long bitter siege and bombing
a local pizza chain sourced and fixed three generators as well as an industrial drill to dig a well
to provide water to thousands who were cut off
“We also had to find a way to feed people,” said Igor
And so he said they pooled together resources across the city and
with the bridges bombed and roads into the city under fire
a wedding venue provided shelter for a night
random families welcomed us as we stumbled into their bomb shelters
We were also welcomed into reception centres where - during one particularly heavy day a 9 year old boy who fled the front line in Zaporizhzhya taught me Russian via Google translate
the resilience and kindness is partly why Anatoliy
a former soldier who came out of retirement for the war
thinks Ukraine will ultimately be victorious
he helped clear up after Chernobyl and has now survived a month-long Russian occupation of his home town
he thinks Putin’s war is far worse and more dangerous for Ukraine and Europe than the world’s most famous nuclear disaster
He spoke as he took us around the trashed main administrative building of the town which had become the headquarters for Russian forces who have inexplicably left piles of excrement
smears of blood and half-drunk bottles of alcohol everywhere
But there is no certainty to Anatoily’s belief, which is echoed by many Ukrainians. Western officials still think Russia might “win” this – telling British media last week that the Russian army outnumbers Ukrainian forces in the east by three to one and could even march on the capital again.
And so the predictions are that the future will be a bloody and long one. And in the interim families will be riven apart.
On the 13-hour train ride from Kyiv to Poland – the final leg out of the country – I watched the men accompanying their families start to drop off as carriages approached the final stop in Ukraine before the border.
“Look after your mother,” one father told his little girl as he waved goodbye. Possibly forever.
“I’ll see you soon,” he added, lying with love.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Women react during the funeral of Ukrainian army officer Vyacheslav Vyacheslavovych Dimov, who was killed on 16 April in battle in the Vasylivka district of Zaporizhzhia region
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