Mea Culpa: the Ukrainian army's modern version of ancient heroics
An article about the changing tactics of the Ukrainian armed forces featured a former computer programmer with the call sign 'Grumpy', and said: 'Grumpy is the sort of warrior that young people enjoy pretending to be in video games and nostalgic tales of SAS daring-do from the Second World War.'
A couple of readers commented that they expected to see 'derring-do' there, an old-fashioned construction meaning daring deeds or daring action, associated with Biggles and similar fiction. In fact, it is a much older compound than that, and it literally meant 'daring (to) do', so our spelling was true to its origins.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Chaucer used 'dorrying don', from Middle English durren, to dare, and don, infinitive of do, to mean 'daring to do' what is proper to a brave knight. It was spelt derrynge in the 1500s and was mistaken for a noun by Spenser, who took it to mean 'manhood and chevalrie'; before being picked up from him by Sir Walter Scott and passed on to the Romantic poets as a pseudo-archaism. All we were doing was modernising it, just as Grumpy was.
Angel Digits: A striking instance of spurious accuracy cropped up in our report of the case of the British couple accused of drug smuggling in Indonesia. We reported: 'Mr Umbara told the district court in Denpasar, Bali, that a lab test result confirmed that 10 sachets of Angel Delight powdered dessert mix in Collyer's luggage, combined with seven similar sachets in his partner's suitcase, contained 993.56 grams (2.19 pounds) of cocaine, worth an estimated 6bn rupiah (£271,743).'
Thanks to Iain Brodie, who found the use of five, three and six significant digits discombobulating. No doubt the first number was what was reported to the court, in a faintly comical attempt to make the lab results seem properly scientific and ungainsayable. But to a normal person, we are talking about a kilo of cocaine, which does not need to be converted into pounds and ounces, as our readers are familiar with kilograms. And the 6bn rupiah is obviously a rough estimate, so £270,000 would have been more than enough detail for the sterling equivalent.
Best of three: In an article about Donald Trump's use of pardons, we said: 'With well-known rappers including Kanye West, Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne, the latter of whom himself received a pardon from Trump…' Thanks to Teri Walsh for suggesting that we should have said 'last', because 'latter' refers to the second or 'later' of two things.
Backing and forthing: In a news story about the strategic defence review, we reported that, 'just two weeks out from the review's publication, there was still some toeing and froing over which department would foot the bill', referring to a dispute between the foreign office and the Ministry of Defence over the cost of the Chagos treaty.
Thanks to Roger Thetford for pointing out that this is usually spelt 'toing and froing', because otherwise it looks like toeing as in 'toeing the line'. The departmental squabble has nothing to do with feet, but with the phrase 'to and fro', meaning back and forth.
Incidentally, Roger asked if 'fro' is one of those words that is only ever used with one other word. It is, so I have added it to my list, which started as a Top 10 but now has 21 entries: amok, askance, aspersions, bated, betide, clarion, dudgeon, dulcet, figment, forfend, fro, halcyon, hale, inclement, knell, petard, shebang, shrift, scot, serried and squib.
Not the dog show: Sometimes one of our writers uses a word I don't know and it is fine because it is guessable from the context, and I come away feeling that I have learned something. Thus it was with our article about the threat to Google's dominance of internet search, which said that one of the things holding back the company's artificial intelligence rivals is 'the unnecessary cruft that comes with the current overly verbose AI answers'.
I didn't know that 'cruft' is slang for 'badly designed, unnecessarily complicated, or unwanted code or software', but I could guess and now I do. The sum of human knowledge has been increased.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Families of Ukraine's missing fear peace will not bring them home
Tatyana Popovytch had contacted every agency she could think of. She had walked every step her son Vladislav could have taken after the Russians opened fire at his car, leaving him to flee with a bullet in his leg. She had looked in mass graves, reviewed pictures of the dead, watched exhumations. And after a month, she knew no more than when she had a stranger had just been released from a Russian prison in Kursk. At morning roll call, the prisoners could not see one another, but they could hear each person state their full name and home village. Serhii memorised as many names and places as he could – 10 in total, he said – and on 9 May 2022 he called Tatyana to say that he had heard her son's Vladislav, Serhii was a civilian captured from Bucha at the start of the war, when hundreds of civilians were taken from this area. Vladislav was 29 at the time. Now 32, he is still in the prison in Kursk. Serhii couldn't explain to Tatyana why he had been released and Vladislav hadn't. Tatyana was just glad to hear that her son was alive. "I was so overjoyed I lost the stutter I'd had since he was taken," she years later, to the day, Tatyana was sitting in a café in Bucha, not far from where her son was abducted, looking over the scant evidence that he was still alive: two letters from him – short, boilerplate texts, written in Russian, telling her he was well fed and well looked after. Each letter had taken around three months to reach Tatyana, making it hard for her to feel very connected to her son at any point in time."My son is very gentle and sensitive," she said, with the pained expression of a parent who cannot protect their child. She was looking at pictures of Vlad ballroom dancing – a hobby from a young age. "He is so vulnerable," she said. "I worry that he will lose his sanity there." According to Ukrainian authorities, nearly 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are still in captivity in Russian prisons after being abducted by the invading army – not counting the more than 20,000 Ukrainian children estimated to have been taken to Russia. There are growing fears now among their many thousands of loved ones, amid the apparent progress towards peace talks, that they could be forgotten or lost in the process. And those fears appear to be justified. Under the Geneva Convention, there is a recognised mechanism for exchanging prisoners of war, but no such mechanism exists for the return of captured civilians, leaving even top Ukrainian and international officials searching for an explanation as to how they might be brought home."When I attend official meetings, at the ombudsman's office or elsewhere, no one talks about getting the civilians back in the event of a ceasefire," said Yulia Hripun, 23, whose father was kidnapped early on in the war from a village just west of the weeks after learning of her father's captivity, Yulia used Facebook to contact another daughter of an imprisoned Ukrainian and the pair launched a new organisation to campaign for all the civilians' release. The group has met representatives from the UN, the European Parliament, the governments of several EU countries and the US embassy in Ukraine."We spoke with them but it came down to the fact that they honestly don't understand what's going to happen," Yulia said, of meeting the Americans."The only thing they said is that Trump is interested in the issue of deported children and that maybe civilians could somehow fit into that category. But they are actually different categories that can't be combined."Worryingly for Yulia and other relatives of the captured civilians, top Ukrainian officials are not pretending to have a stronger idea."I do not see the real, effective approach to returning the civilian detainees to Ukraine," said Dmytro Lubinets, the country's human rights ombudsman. "We do not have a legal basis or the mechanisms for returning them," he said, frankly. Further complicating the problem is Russia levelling criminal charges against some of those captured during the invasion. "And when you see these charges, it is often 'actions against the special military operation'," Lubinets said. "Can you imagine opening an investigation against a Ukrainian civilian for simply resisting the invading Russian army, on Ukrainian territory?"In May, Russia released 120 civilian detainees as part of a larger swap of prisoners of war, and further exchanges are expected. But the numbers are still vanishingly small compared to the tens of thousands said to have been seized – adults and children. And great uncertainty remains over the path towards a negotiated peace."You want to believe he is coming home, at the same time you can't believe it," said Petro Sereda, 61, a bus driver from Irpin, near Kyiv, whose son Artym was taken prisoner more than three years ago. "It is extremely difficult." Petro and his wife live in shipping container-style temporary accommodation in Irpin, because their home was destroyed in the invasion. Even three years on, every time the phone rings Petro thinks it might be Artym. "It is one thing to have a letter saying he is alive, but to hear his voice… That would be the joy that he is really alive."The families live like this, in desperate hope. The dream is that they get to see their loved ones again. It is not a straightforward dream, though – some fear that Russian captivity will have caused lasting damage. Tatyana, whose ballroom-dancing son Vladislav was abducted from Bucha, said she shuddered to hear the Russian language now "because it is the language my son is being tortured in."There is also the issue of what is missed. During Vladislav's detention, his father passed away unexpectedly at just 50, carrying a well of guilt that he was not able to protect his Tatyana can do is prepare mentally for Vladislav's return. She expected to "feel every possible emotion," she said. "It is all I think about. All the time, every day."Daria Mitiuk contributed to this report. Photographs by Joel Gunter
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Ukraine denies postponing prisoner swaps as Russia attacks Kharkiv
Russia attacked the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv at night and in the evening with drones, missiles and guided bombs, killing several people and injuring more than 60, local officials said on Saturday (June 7). The attack comes as Ukraine denied Russian allegations that it had indefinitely postponed prisoner swaps. Trevor Koroll reports.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Russian shells on Kharkiv leave four dead and 60 injured - including a baby - after 'most powerful attack since the start of the war in Ukraine'
At least four people have been killed and more than 60 people injured after Russia unleashed 'the most powerful attack' since the start of the war with Ukraine, officials said on Saturday. Drones, missiles and guided bombs pelted down on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv during the overnight assault, with the injured said to include a baby. One of Ukraine's largest cities, Kharkiv is located just a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border and has been under constant Russian shelling during more than three years of war. 'Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the start of the full-scale war,' city mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said on Telegram on Saturday. Dozens of explosions were heard in the city throughout Friday night and Russian troops were striking simultaneously with missiles, drones and guided aerial bombs, he said. Multi-storey and private residential buildings, educational and infrastructure facilities were attacked, Terekhov noted. Photographs released by local authorities and Reuters showed burnt and partially destroyed houses and vehicles, and of rescuers carrying those injured to safety and removing debris. Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said that one of the city's civilian industrial facilities was attacked by 40 drones, one missile and four bombs, causing a fire, adding there may still be people under the rubble. In the evening, Russian aircraft once again attacked Kharkiv with guided bombs, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called 'another brutal murder'. 'It was a brutal blow to the city in broad daylight, and in fact, they have been attacking our city of Kharkiv for the entire day,' Zelenskiy said in his evening statement. 'Last night, there was a massive drone strike on Kharkiv, and now there are aerial bombs. Dozens of people have been injured in the past 24 hours.' he said. The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 206 drones, two ballistic and seven other missiles against Ukraine overnight. It said its air defence units shot down 87 drones while another 80 drones were lost - in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them - or they were drone simulators that did not carry warheads. Ten locations were hit, the military reported. The attack took place amid a stalling of a large-scale prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine expected to have taken place this weekend. Both sides accused the other of delaying and thwarting the swap, which has been the only concrete outcome of peace talks to date. At talks in Istanbul on Monday, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to release all wounded soldiers and those aged under 25 who had been captured - more than 1,000 people on each side. Russia said it would also hand back the remains of 6,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers. Moscow on Saturday accused Ukraine of not turning up to collect the bodies and not agreeing a date to swap the captured soldiers, while Kyiv said Russia was playing 'dirty games' by not sticking to the agreed parameters for the exchange. 'The Ukrainian side has unexpectedly postponed for an indefinite period both the acceptance of the bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war,' Russia's top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on social media. A defence ministry spokesman said 'the Ukrainian side is still refraining from setting a date' for the first stage of the prisoner swap. The exchange was set to be the largest of the war, topping last month's 1,000-for-1,000 swap that was agreed at a first round of talks in Istanbul. After the Istanbul talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it would take place this weekend, while Russia said it was ready for Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Responding to Russia's accusations, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said no date had been agreed for the return of bodies. It also said a list of names Russia said would be released did not match the terms of the agreement. 'Unfortunately, instead of constructive dialogue, we are again faced with manipulations,' it said in a statement on social media. 'We call on the Russian side to stop playing dirty games and return to constructive work to bring people back to both sides and to clearly implement the agreement in the coming days,' it added. Following the attack on Kharkiv, Zelensky urged Kyiv's Western backers to heap more 'pressure' on Russia, with at least 10 people killed in the barrage. Three people were also killed in the frontline Donetsk region, which has seen the most intense fighting of the war, and three more in the Kherson region, also partially occupied by Moscow's forces. Since Russia invaded in February 2022, tens of thousands have been killed, with millions forced to flee their homes as cities and villages across eastern Ukraine have been destroyed. The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 206 drones and nine missiles in the overnight barrage. Russia's defence ministry said it had launched a 'group strike' against 'military-industrial' facilities in Ukraine. Despite talks, the two sides have made no progress towards halting the fighting. Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a host of sweeping demands on Ukraine as preconditions to a truce. They include completely pulling troops out of four regions claimed by Russia, but which its army does not fully control, an end to Western military support and a ban on Ukraine joining NATO. Zelensky has rejected them as 'old ultimatums' and on Saturday repeated his call for sanctions on Moscow. 'The Russians are preparing to continue the war, ignoring all peace proposals. They must be held accountable for this,' he said in his evening address. 'Pressure forced Russia to enter the negotiation process. Pressure can force Russia to become realistic in the negotiation process,' he added.
