by tyler | Jun 8, 2023 | CNN, europe
Pope Francis was recovering well in a Rome hospital on Thursday, the day after the 86-year-old had abdominal surgery that renewed health fears.
“The night went well,” said Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni, in a statement on the Vatican’s press office Telegram account.
Francis spent a “peaceful night managing to rest for a long time” and is in “good general condition, alert and breathing easily,” a Vatican spokesperson told reporters Thursday.
“The pope is informed of the messages of closeness and affection that have arrived in the last few hours and expresses his gratitude, at the same time asking to continue to pray for him,” said the spokesman.
The pope will spend the remainder of the day resting, as advised by his medical staff.
Francis left for hospital on Wednesday after his general audience at St. Peter’s Square, where he stopped to chat with members of the crowd. The pope then traveled to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, which has a 10th-floor suite reserved for popes, according to Reuters.
“This wasn’t an urgent surgery,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the surgeon who operated on Pope Francis, said at a press conference.
“He continued to feel the pain, so a surgery was decided,” Alfieri said.
There were no reported complications, according to the Vatican. It had earlier said the pope would stay in hospital for several days.
Francis reacted well to the surgery and to the anesthesia, and had already made a joke since the operation, Alfieri said.
“Other pathologies or illnesses were not found,” Alfieri said, adding that the pope has resumed his work from hospital.
This operation is the latest in a series of health scares surrounding Pope Francis.
He was forced to cancel several work commitments in late may after he was debilitated by a fever. He was also hospitalized in March for bronchitis, but recovered after taking antibiotics.
When he left hospital on that occasion, Francis joked that he’s “still alive.”
Wednesday’s procedure – called a laparotomy – involved general anesthesia and is intended to repair a hernia that the Vatican said caused “recurrent, painful and worsening” symptoms.
Medical sources say that the intervention was likely related to the surgery Francis underwent in 2021, which removed half of his colon.
Francis also had one part of his lung removed after a severe bout of pneumonia as a young man. In 2019, he had ocular surgery to treat a cataract. He has also struggled with chronic sciatica pain.
Over the past year, knee troubles have also largely confined him to the use of a cane or a wheelchair.
Should Francis be incapacitated for any length of time, the Vatican could face a constitutional crisis. There is no “vice pope” in the Catholic system, meaning someone who can exercise the pope’s authority in his absence.
The Vatican’s secretary of state, currently Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, can oversee routine day-to-day management, but he has no authority, for example, to appoint bishops or to create or suppress dioceses around the world.
Bruni said before the procedure that the pope was expected to make a “full functional recovery.” The Prefecture of the Papal Household said all of Francis’ audiences have been canceled until June 18.
Tourists and members of the faithful at the Vatican told CNN they were “praying for Pope Francis,” as he left for hospital on Wednesday.
“I went to the audience today and saw the pope. Then we heard the mass and the priest said to say a prayer for the pope. We are praying for Pope Francis now,” Sister Annatuli, 40, said.
Carina, 30, said she had traveled from Mexico to visit her aunt, who is a nun in Rome. “I can comprehend how serious this is. It’s difficult because so many people are devoted to him and the church.
“We hope that he will recover.”
In an interview with Spanish daily ABC in December, Francis said he had already prepared a letter of resignation in the case of permanent medical incapacity shortly after his election in 2013.
Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.
In his first public comments about the letter’s existence, the pope was quoted as saying: “I have already signed my renunciation. The Secretary of State at the time was Tarcisio Bertone. I signed it and said: ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation.’”
Papal resignations are exceedingly rare. In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, the late Pope Benedict XVI, because the first pope to step down in nearly 600 years, citing “advanced age” as his reason.
In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, the late Pope Benedict XVI, made the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing “advanced age” as the reason and startling the Catholic world.
The decision startled the Catholic world. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.
Pope Francis has positioned himself as a more progressive leader than his predecessors during his decade-long tenure.
In 2016, he urged priests around the world to be more accepting of LGBTQ communities, but later walked back on comments declaring support for civil union for same-sex couples.
He has made historic visits to Myanmar and Iraq, and was also the first pontiff to celebrate Mass in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, in 2019.
The pope has also been a vocal supporter for peace in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met the pope at the Vatican in May.
Francis has also taken steps to address clerical sexual abuse – an issue that has dogged the Catholic Church around the world – saying in 2018 that young Catholics have been “scandalized” by the church’s “monstrous” abuse crisis.
by tyler | Jun 8, 2023 | CNN, europe
Children were among six people injured Thursday in a knife attack in Annecy, in southeast France, triggering a wave of panic in the small alpine town.
Four children sustained wounds following the incident, according to the prefecture of Haute-Savoie. All of those injured were taken to hospital.
“Emergency services and security forces intervened very quickly,” a statement from the prefecture said.
Local authorities said earlier that at least eight people had been injured.
A Syrian asylum-seeker was suspected of carrying out the attack, but his motive is unclear, Bonnet-Mathis said. There is no apparent terrorist motive, she added.
The four children injured in the attack are between the age of 22 months and 3 years old, the Annecy Prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said in a press conference Thursday. The children are in critical condition, the prosecutor added.
One of the four children wounded is a British national, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a speech at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD in Paris.
Local officials reported earlier that the suspect had been detained in connection with the attack. He was slightly injured but did not need hospital treatment.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne will travel to Annecy with Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Thursday, according to the interior ministry.
One eyewitness, Ferdinand, told CNN affiliate BFMTV that the attacker was “repeatedly hitting” passersby with a knife.
“He jumped (in the playground), started shouting and then went towards the strollers, repeatedly hitting the little ones with a knife,” Ferdinand said.
“Mothers were crying, everybody was running,” said another eyewitness, named George, according to Reuters.
French President Emmanuel Macron said “the nation is in shock,” following the attack.
“Absolute cowardice this morning in a park in Annecy. Children and an adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock. Our thoughts are with them, their families and the emergency services,” Macron tweeted.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the attack was “a truly cowardly act.”
“My thoughts are with all of those affected by the shocking attack in Annecy this morning,” he tweeted. “The UK and France have always stood together against acts of violence, and we do so again today.”
Health Minister François Braun tweeted that his thoughts were with the victims of the knife attack. “All my thoughts go immediately to the people injured by an individual armed with a knife in Annecy, and to their loved ones,” Braun tweeted.
“I salute the rapid mobilization of the emergency services to take care of the victims, and notably the Urgent Medical Aid Service (SAMU).”
The mayor of Annecy, François Astorg, asked residents to avoid the area where the knife attack took place to ease the work of authorities.
“Appalling attack this morning on the Pâquier in Annecy. All my thoughts to the victims and families,” he tweeted. Astorg said he would be addressing the public Thursday afternoon, along with representatives from police and the local prosecutor’s office.
Lawmakers in the French National Assembly observed a minute’s silence for those injured in the attack.
by tyler | Jun 7, 2023 | CNN, europe
The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has sparked fears of an ecological catastrophe, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky describing the situation as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction.”
Water levels on Wednesday continued to rise after the Russian-occupied dam and hydro-electric power plant was destroyed early Tuesday, forcing more than 1,400 people to flee their homes and threatening vital water supplies as flooding inundated towns, cities and farmland.
Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the dam’s destruction, without providing concrete proof that the other is culpable. It is not yet clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the breach was the result of structural failure.
Zelensky, however, said Russia bears “criminal liability” and Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the dam incident as a case of “ecocide.”
“The consequences of the tragedy will be clear in a week. When the water goes away, it will become clear what is left and what will happen next,” he said.
Concerns are now turning to the dangers to wildlife, farmlands, settlements and water supplies from the floodwaters and possible contamination from industrial chemicals and oil leaked from the hydropower plant into the Dnipro River.
The head of Ukraine’s main hydropower generating company told CNN the environmental consequences from the breach will be “significant” and damaged equipment at the plant could be leaking oil.
“First of all, the Kakhovka reservoir is likely to be drained to zero, and we understand that the number of fish will gradually go down,” said Ihor Syrota, the CEO of Ukrhydroenergo.
“Four-hundred tons of turbine oil is always there, in the units and in the block transformers that are usually installed on this equipment,” Syrota said. “It all depends on the level of destruction of the units and this equipment… If the damage is extensive, then all the oil will leak out.”
Ukrainian Environment Minister Ruslan Strilets said at least 150 metric tons of oil from the dam have leaked into the Dnipro and the environmental damage had been estimated at 50 million euros ($53.8 million), according to Reuters.
One environmental expert warned of the potential damage that the oil spill could cause. “Just 1 litre of oil can contaminate 1 million liters of water. So 150 tons will have numerous impacts on Ukrainian water resources and the environment,” said Yevheniia Zasiadko, Head of Climate Department at Kyiv-based environmental non-profit Ecoaction. “Oil spreads over the surface in a thin layer that stops oxygen from getting to the plants and animals that live in the water,” she said.
As the Dnipro River flows to the Black Sea, some of the oil will end in the ocean where it “will affect the marine ecosystem,” she told CNN.
Gas stations and sewage treatment plants along the river also pose an additional risk of water pollution, Zasiadko said.
Strilets said downstream wildlife species found nowhere else in the world were in jeopardy, including the sandy blind mole-rat. Ukraine’s Black Sea Biosphere Reserve and two national parks were also likely to be heavily damaged, he added, Reuters reported.
The flooding has already killed 300 animals at the Nova Kakhovka zoo, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday the dam collapse was an “ecological catastrophe” with the destruction of newly planted crops and massive flooding “another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Before its collapse, the critical Nova Kakhovka dam was the largest reservoir in Ukraine in terms of volume.
It’s the last of the cascade of six Soviet-era dams on the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine, and supplied water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014.
There are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, the UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said its collapse is possibly the “most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure” since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The dam, Griffiths said, is a lifeline in the region, being a critical water source for millions of people in Kherson as well as the Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia regions, and a key source of agricultural irrigation in southern Kherson and the Crimean peninsula – impacting farming and food production.
The Ukrainian Agricultural Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of agricultural land are expected to flood on the right bank, the west side controlled by Ukraine, following the collapse. “It was several times more on the left bank,” the statement added.
The collapse has left 94% of irrigation systems in Kherson, 74% in Zaporizhzhia and 30% in Dnipro regions “without a source of water,” according to the Ukrainian Agricultural Ministry. The ministry added that the dam will lead to “fields in southern Ukraine perhaps turning into deserts.”
Severe impact is also expected in Russian-occupied areas where humanitarian agencies are still struggling to gain access, he added.
“The damage caused by the dam’s destruction means that life will become intolerably harder for those already suffering from the conflict,” Griffiths said.
Between 35 and 80 settlements were expected to be flooded due to the breach, Zelensky said, and aid efforts are ongoing to get drinking water, hygiene kits and other supplies to affected neighborhoods.
In the low lying districts of Kherson, a CNN team on the ground saw residents evacuated from their homes carrying their possessions and pets in their arms as rising floodwaters penetrated one city block in less than an hour.
As the area is on the front lines of the conflict, the rising water brought with it an added danger of mine and explosive ordnance contamination.
“This is both a water element and a mine hazard, because mines float here and this area is constantly under fire,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson’s regional military administration, who has been overseeing rescue efforts.
Griffiths said projectiles like mines risk being displaced to areas previously assessed as safe.
Mohammad Heidarzadeh, senior lecturer in the department of architecture and civil engineering at the University of Bath in England, said the Kakhovka reservoir is one of the largest dams in the world in terms of capacity.
“It is obvious that the failure of this dam will definitely have extensive long-term ecological and environmental negative consequences not only for Ukraine but for neighboring countries and regions,” Heidarzadeh told Science Media Centre on Tuesday, adding the facility was an “embankment” dam, which means it was made of gravel and rock with a clay core in the middle.
“These types of dams are extremely vulnerable, and are usually washed away quickly in case of a partial breach… a partial damage is sufficient to cause a complete collapse of the dam because water flow can easily wash away the soil materials of the dam body in just a few hours,” he added.
Both Moscow and Kyiv noted the humanitarian and environmental consequences, while blaming each other for the dam’s destruction.
The Russian-appointed acting governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said the collapse of the dam led to “a large, but not critical” amount of water flowing down the Dnipro which resulted in the washout of agricultural fields along the coast and disruption of civilian infrastructure.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the dam breach “has caused devastating damage to the farmland in the region and the ecosystem at the mouth of the Dnieper river.”
“The inevitable drop in the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir will affect Crimea’s water supply and will hinder the improvement of agricultural land in the Kherson region,” it said.
Several Ukrainian regions that receive some of their water supply from the reservoir of the Nova Kakhovka dam are making efforts to conserve water.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, where about 70% of the city of Kryvyi Rih was supplied by the reservoir, Ukrainian authorities have asked people to “stock technical water and drinking water” and businesses to limit consumption and banned the use of hoses.
The reservoir also supplies water to the upstream Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk” at the plant, water from the reservoir is used to cool its reactors and emergency diesel generators.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the UN nuclear watchdog’s staff on site have been told the reservoir is draining at 5 centimeters (2 inches) an hour and it is “estimated” that water used for the mainline of cooling “should last for a few days.”
However, should the reservoir drop below the pumping level there “are a number of alternative sources of water,” Grossi said, with the main one being the “large cooling pond next to the site.”
“It is estimated this pond will be sufficient to provide water for cooling for some months,” he added.
by tyler | Jun 7, 2023 | CNN, europe
Pope Francis underwent a successful, three-hour operation on his abdomen, the Vatican said Wednesday, after renewed fears over the 86-year-old’s fragile health.
There were no reported complications, the Vatican said. It had earlier said the pope would remain in the hospital for several days.
The pope was forced to cancel several work commitments in late May after he was debilitated by a fever. He was also hospitalized in March for bronchitis but responded well to antibiotics. Leaving hospital on that occasion, Francis joked that he’s “still alive.”
Technically called a laparotomy, Wednesday’s procedure involves general anesthesia and is intended to repair a hernia that the Vatican said was causing “recurrent, painful and worsening” symptoms.
According to medical sources, the intervention is likely related to the surgery Francis experienced in 2021 to remove half of his colon.
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said before the procedure that the pope was expected to make a “full functional recovery.” The Prefecture of the Papal Household said all of Francis’ audiences have been canceled until June 18.
Francis left for hospital on Wednesday after his general audience at St. Peter’s Square, where he stopped to chat with members of the crowd, Reuters reported. The pope then traveled to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, which has a 10th-floor suite reserved for popes, according to Reuters.
Tourists and members of the faithful at the Vatican told CNN they were “praying for Pope Francis,” as he left for the Italian capital.
“I went to the audience today and saw the pope. Then we heard the mass and the priest said to say a prayer for the pope. We are praying for Pope Francis now,” Sister Annatuli, 40, said.
Carina, 30, said she had traveled from Mexico to visit her aunt, who is a nun in Rome. “I can comprehend how serious this is. It’s difficult because so many people are devoted to him and the church.
“We hope that he will recover.”
In addition to his colon surgery two years ago, Francis had part of one lung removed after a severe bout of pneumonia as a young man. More recently, in 2019, he underwent ocular surgery at Rome’s Clinic of Pius XI to treat a cataract. He has also struggled with chronic sciatica pain.
Over the past year, he experienced knee troubles that have largely confined him to the use of a cane or a wheelchair.
Should Francis be incapacitated for any length of time, the Vatican could find itself facing something of a constitutional crisis. There is no “vice pope” in the Catholic system, meaning someone who can exercise the pope’s authority in his absence.
The Vatican’s secretary of state, currently Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, can oversee routine day-to-day management, but he has no authority, for example, to appoint bishops or to create or suppress dioceses around the world.
In an interview with Spanish daily ABC in December, Francis said he had already prepared a letter of resignation in the case of permanent medical incapacity shortly after his election in 2013.
Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.
In his first public comments about the letter’s existence, the pope was quoted as saying: “I have already signed my renunciation. The Secretary of State at the time was Tarcisio Bertone. I signed it and said: ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation.’”
In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, the late Pope Benedict XVI, made the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing “advanced age” as the reason and startling the Catholic world.
It marked the first time a pope had stepped down in nearly 600 years. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.
The pope has positioned himself as a more progressive leader than his predecessors during his decade-long tenure.
In 2016, he urged priests around the world to be more accepting of LGBTQ communities, but later walked back on comments declaring support for civil union for same-sex couples.
He has made historic visits to Myanmar and Iraq, and was also the first pontiff to celebrate Mass in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, in 2019. The pope has also been a vocal supporter for peace in Ukraine.
Francis has also taken steps to crack down on clerical sexual abuse, an issue the Catholic Church has been plagued by in several countries around the world.
by tyler | Jun 7, 2023 | CNN, europe
Pope Francis will have surgery on his abdomen and remain in a Rome hospital for several days, the Vatican said Wednesday, sparking renewed fears over the 86-year-old’s fragile health.
The pope was forced to cancel several work commitments in late May after he was debilitated by a fever. He was also hospitalized in March for bronchitis but responded well to antibiotics. Leaving hospital on that occasion, Francis joked that he’s “still alive.”
Technically called a laparotomy, Wednesday’s procedure involves general anesthesia and is intended to repair a hernia that the Vatican said was causing “recurrent, painful and worsening” symptoms.
According to medical sources, the intervention is likely related to the surgery Francis experienced in 2021 to remove half of his colon.
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, added the pope was expected to make a “full functional recovery.”
Francis left for hospital on Wednesday after his general audience at St. Peter’s Square, where he stopped to chat with members of the crowd, Reuters reported. The pope traveled in a white Fiat 500 to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, which has a 10th-floor suite reserved for popes, according to Reuters.
In addition to his colon surgery two years ago, Francis had part of one lung removed after a severe bout of pneumonia as a young man. More recently, in 2019, he underwent ocular surgery at Rome’s Clinic of Pius XI to treat a cataract. He has also struggled with chronic sciatica pain.
Over the past year, he experienced knee troubles that have largely confined him to the use of a cane or a wheelchair.
Should Francis be incapacitated for any length of time, the Vatican could find itself facing something of a constitutional crisis. There is no “vice pope” in the Catholic system, meaning someone who can exercise the pope’s authority in his absence.
The Vatican’s secretary of state, currently Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, can oversee routine day-to-day management, but he has no authority, for example, to appoint bishops or to create or suppress dioceses around the world.
In an interview with Spanish daily ABC in December, Francis said he had already prepared a letter of resignation in the case of permanent medical incapacity shortly after his election in 2013.
Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.
In his first public comments about the letter’s existence, the pope was quoted as saying: “I have already signed my renunciation. The Secretary of State at the time was Tarcisio Bertone. I signed it and said: ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation.’”
In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, the late Pope Benedict XVI, made the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing “advanced age” as the reason and startling the Catholic world.
It marked the first time a pope had stepped down in nearly 600 years. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.
The pope has positioned himself as a more progressive leader than his predecessors during his decade-long tenure.
In 2016, he urged priests around the world to be more accepting of LGBTQ communities, but later walked back on comments declaring support for civil union for same-sex couples.
He has made historic visits to Myanmar and Iraq, and was also the first pontiff to celebrate Mass in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, in 2019. The pope has also been a vocal supporter for peace in Ukraine.
Francis has also taken steps to crack down on clerical sexual abuse, an issue the Catholic Church has been plagued by in several countries around the world.
by tyler | Jun 7, 2023 | CNN, europe
Nadejda Chernishova breathes a sigh of relief as she steps off a rubber dinghy, moments after being rescued from her flooded home in Kherson.
“I’m not afraid now, but it was scary in my home,” the 65-year-old retiree said. “You don’t know where the water is going, and it was coming from all sides.”
Her house in one of the lower lying districts of Kherson was flooded after the Nova Kakhovka dam, 58 kilometers (36 miles) up the Dnipro river in Russian-occupied Ukraine, was destroyed earlier on Tuesday.
“[The water] went up in an instant,” she added. “In the morning there was nothing.”
Chernishova left most of her small world behind, bringing only what she was able to muster: two suitcases and her most prized possession.
“This is my cat Sonechka, a beauty,” she said, lifting the lid of a small her pet carrier and revealing a frightened animal. “She is scared, she is a domestic cat who has never been outside.”
Chernishova is one of hundreds being evacuated by Ukrainian authorities in Kherson, where the water has spread across several blocks and into the center of the city, cutting off some areas entirely.
“Civilians are being evacuated from the Karobel district. More than 1,200 people have already been evacuated from this area [on Tuesday],” the head of Kherson region military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin told CNN at the scene.
Prokudin, who has been overseeing rescue efforts in towns and cities downstream from Nova Kakhovka, said the operation has become more difficult with time as flood waters continue to rise.
“If in the morning we could do it with cars, then with trucks, now we see that big cars can no longer pass,” he explained. “The water has risen so much that we are now using boats. About eight boats of various types are currently working to evacuate people from the area.”
CNN witnessed the speed at which the waters kept rising, with the water penetrating one block into the city in less than an hour. The flow of water visibly increasing to the naked eye.
The search and rescue operation in Kherson remained in full swing on Wednesday.
CNN saw authorities and volunteers using wooden boats and rubber dinghies to evacuate people – and a large number of cats and dogs – who were left stranded as water levels continued to rise overnight. They had been working relentlessly since the city started to flood and now, exhausted and overwhelmed, are very much a facet of this tragedy.
The people coming off the boats were visibly shaken by the ordeal, with some breaking down into tears as they finally reached dry land. The animals also seemed distressed, constantly howling and meowing as operations were ongoing.
Several areas that were accessible on foot on Tuesday became submerged underwater, with some locations flooded up to four meters deep. There is, however, a sense from authorities that water levels, although still rising, are now doing so at a slower pace.
The war is ever present and Kherson remains very much a frontline city.
Outgoing and incoming artillery including rockets and mortars could be heard every hour throughout the day on Tuesday, and then through the night into Wednesday morning.
The Ukrainian government nonetheless promised the rumbles of war would not affect search and rescue operations.
“We have to keep going even if the shelling is ongoing as you can hear,” interim interior minister Ihor Klymenko told journalists at the scene, as artillery fired of in the distance. “Our people have the necessary protective equipment.”
“It is always very dangerous here. This checkpoint is usually under shelling,” Produkin said. “You see a crowd of people and I think the hit will happen soon.”
Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the destruction of the dam but neither side has provided concrete proof that the other is culpable. But while responsibility for the incident remains as murky as the debris-filled waters now flowing down the Dnipro, its impact is much clearer.
Before the dam collapsed, a potential Ukrainian offensive across the Dnipro to the Russian-held side of the river was unlikely due to difficulty of crossing the river. That seems almost impossible now. Both sides have been severely impacted by the collapse — even more so on the Russian side — leaving the terrain in very difficult condition.
And as she packs her belongings into a car, Chernishova is perfectly clear on who she blames – even if Russia denies it.
The Russians “flooded us,” she said. “Everything is drowning.”
