Latest news with #Svitlana
Saudi Gazette
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
The terrifying new weapon changing the war in Ukraine
Yogita Limaye RODYNSKE — An acrid smell hangs over the town of Rodynske. A couple of minutes after we drive into the city we see where it's coming from. A 250kg glide bomb has ripped through the town's main administrative building, and taken down three residential blocks. We're visiting a day after the bomb struck, but parts of the wreckage are still smoking. From the edges of the town we hear the sound of artillery fire, and of gunshots – Ukrainian soldiers shooting down drones. Rodynske is about 15km (9 miles) north of the embattled city of Pokrovsk. Russia has been trying to capture it from the south since the autumn of last year, but Ukrainian forces have so far managed to stop Russian soldiers from marching in. So Russia has changed tactics, moving instead to encircle the city, cutting off supply routes. In the past two weeks, as hectic diplomatic efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine have failed, Russia has intensified its push, making its most significant advances since January. We find proof of that in Rodynske. Within minutes of us arriving in town, we hear a Russian drone above us. Our team runs to the closest cover available – a tree. We press up against it so the drone won't see us. Then there's the sound of a loud explosion – it's a second drone making impact nearby. The drone above us is still hovering. For a few more minutes, we hear the terrifying whirring sound of what's become the deadliest weapon of this war. When we can't hear it any more we take the chance to run to hard cover in an abandoned building 100ft away. From the shelter, we hear the drone again. It's possible it returned after seeing our movement. That Rodynske is being swarmed by Russian drones is evidence that the attacks are coming from positions much closer than known Russian positions to the south of Pokrovsk. They were most likely coming from newly captured territory on a key road running from the east of Pokrovsk to Kostyantynivka. After half an hour of waiting in the shelter, when we can't hear the drone anymore, we move quickly to our car parked under tree cover, and speed out of Rodynske. By the side of the highway we see smoke billowing and something burning – it's most likely a downed drone. We drive to Bilytske, further away from the frontline. We see a row of houses destroyed by a missile strike overnight. One of them was Svitlana's home. "It's getting worse and worse. Earlier, we could hear distant explosions, they were far away. But now our town is getting targeted – we're experiencing it ourselves," says the 61-year-old, as she picks up a few belongings from the wreckage of her home. Luckily Svitlana wasn't at home when the attack occurred. "Go into the center of the town, you'll see so much that is destroyed there. And the bakery and zoo have been destroyed too," she says. At a safehouse just out of reach of drones, we meet soldiers of the artillery unit of the 5th Assault Brigade. "You can feel the intensity of Russian assaults increasing. Rockets, mortars, drones, they're using everything they have to cut off supply routes going into the city," says Serhii. His unit has been waiting for three days to deploy to their positions, waiting for cloud cover or high-speed winds to give them protection from drones. In an ever-evolving conflict, soldiers have had to rapidly adapt to new threats posed by changing technology. And the latest threat comes from fiber-optic drones. A spool of tens of kilometers of cable is fitted to the bottom of a drone and the physical fiber optic cord is attached to the controller held by the pilot. "The video and control signal is transmitted to and from the drone through the cable, not through radio frequencies. This means it can't be jammed by electronic interceptors," says a soldier with the call sign Moderator, a drone engineer with the 68th Jaeger Brigade. When drones began to be used in this war in a big way, both militaries fitted their vehicles with electronic warfare systems, which could neutralise drones. That protection has evaporated with the arrival of fibre optic drones, and in the deployment of these devices, Russia currently has the edge. Ukraine is trying to ramp up production. "Russia started using fibre optic drones much before us, while we were still testing them. These drones can be used in places where we have to go lower than usual drones. We can even enter houses and look for targets inside," says Venia, a drone pilot with the 68th Jaeger Brigade. "We've started joking that maybe we should carry scissors to cut the cord," says Serhii, the artilleryman. Fibre optic drones do have drawbacks – they are slower and the cable could get entangled in trees. But at the moment, their widespread use by Russia means that transporting soldiers to and from their positions can often be deadlier than the battlefield itself. "When you enter a position, you don't know whether you've been spotted or not. And if you have been spotted, then you may already be living the last hours of your life," says Oles, Chief Sergeant of the reconnaissance unit of the 5th Assault Brigade. This threat means that soldiers are spending longer and longer in their positions. Oles and his men are in the infantry, serving in the trenches right at the very front of Ukraine's defense. It's rare for journalists these days to speak to infantrymen, as it's become too risky to go to these trenches. We meet Oles and Maksym in a rural home converted into a makeshift base, where the soldiers come to rest when they're not on deployment. "The longest I spent at the position was 31 days, but I do know guys who have spent 90 and even 120 days there. Back before the drones arrived, the rotations could have been between 3 or 7 days at the position," says Maksym. "War is blood, death, wet mud and a chill that spreads from head to toe. And this is how you spend every day. I remember one instance when we didn't sleep for three days, alert every minute. The Russians kept coming at us wave after wave. Even a minor lapse would have meant we were dead." Oles says Russia's infantry has changed its tactics. "Earlier they attacked in groups. Now they only send one or two people at times. They also use motorcycles and in a few instances, quad bikes. Sometimes they slip through." What this means is that the front lines in some parts are no longer conventional lines with the Ukrainians on one side and the Russians on the other, but more like pieces on a chessboard during play, where positions can be intertwined. This also makes it harder to see advances made by either side. Despite Russia's recent gains, it will not be quick or easy for it to take the whole of the Donetsk region, where Pokrovsk lies. Ukraine has pushed back hard, but it needs a steady supply of weapons and ammunition to sustain the fight. And as the war enters a fourth summer, Ukraine's manpower issues against a much bigger Russian army are also evident. Most of the soldiers we meet joined the military after the war began. They've had a few months of training, but have had to learn a lot on the job in the middle of a raging war. Maksym worked for a drinks company before he joined the military. I asked how his family copes with his job. "It's hard, it's really hard. My family really supports me. But I have a two-year-old son, and I don't get to see him much. I do video call him though, so everything is as fine as it could be under the circumstances," he trails off, eyes welling up with tears. Maksym is a soldier fighting for his country, but he's also just a father missing his two-year-old boy. — BBC
Saudi Gazette
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Ukraine war refugees complain of abuse in Poland
WARSAW — Svitlana says her daughter loved her school in Poland. "Even when we moved to another area, she didn't want to change schools," says the 31-year-old Ukrainian mother. "She liked it so much. There was no bullying." Now she says the atmosphere at the school – and in Poland overall – has changed. "Two weeks ago, she came home and said "One boy said to me today, 'Go back to Ukraine'." Svitlana was astonished. She is one of dozens of Ukrainians living in Poland who have told the BBC that anti-Ukrainian sentiment has risen considerably in recent months. Many described experiencing abuse on public transport, bullying in schools and xenophobic material online.A polarising presidential election campaign has added to the tension, with the first round of voting taking place on day after Svitlana's daughter was told to go back to Ukraine, the abuse became even worse."Girls from the class above started complaining about her speaking Ukrainian. Then they pretended to fall to the ground shouting 'Missile! Get down!' and laughing," Svitlana says. "She came home crying."A Russian missile had slammed into Svitlana's hometown in Ukraine days before, killing scores of civilians, including children. Her daughter was – not her real name did not want to be identified as she fears reprisals. She showed us screenshots of messages with school staff where she complains about her daughter's said she had noticed attitudes changing towards Ukrainians in other places, too: "At work, many people have been saying Ukrainians come here and behave badly. And my Ukrainian friends say they want to go home because Polish people don't accept us. It's frightening to live here now."According to government statistics, at least 2.5 million Ukrainians live in Poland, comprising almost 7% of the total population of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, there was an outpouring of compassion from Poles. "It was amazing. Every day people were calling, asking, 'How can we help?'" says activist Natalia Panchenko, head of the Warsaw-based 'Stand with Ukraine' Foundation."Some of them organized humanitarian convoys or brought refugees here. They gave their houses, food, everything they have – and their hearts, too."Three years later, Natalia says she believes the majority of Poles still support Ukraine. But some don't – and her organization has noticed an upsurge of anti-Ukrainian online abuse that began several months ago."Then it started to come to real life," she says. "Recently, we have more and more of these kinds of situations... xenophobic [abuse] of people working in shops or hotels just because they speak with a Ukrainian accent."Natalia says that many Ukrainian refugees are traumatised. "These groups of women and children are in Poland because of the war, very often their relatives are on the front line, in captivity or dead... and this is the group of people being targeted."Research suggests that Poland's public opinion of Ukrainians is indeed worsening. According to a March 2025 poll by the respected CBOS Centre, just 50% of Poles are in favour of accepting Ukrainian refugees, a fall of seven percentage points in four months. Two years ago, the figure was 81%.Around a million Ukrainians are officially registered as having arrived after the start of the full-scale invasion. Poland spends 4.2% of its GDP on Ukrainian has become a hot-button political issue in Poland's crucial presidential election populist Slawomir Mentzen, currently polling third, is virulently anti-Ukrainian and supports an "agreement" with Russia's Vladimir second place is conservative Karol Nawrocki, who opposes EU and Nato membership for Ukraine and financial assistance for refugees, but supports the war most pro-Ukraine candidate is front-runner Rafal Trzaskowski from Prime Minister Donald Tusk's coalition, although even he has promised a reduction in social welfare for has refrained from espousing his pro-Ukrainian credentials in order to attract the centrist vote in the elections, says political analyst Marcin Zaborowski."He's responding to the change in public attitudes. The initial enthusiasm for supporting war victims is disappearing, negative sentiments are taking over and it's not an entirely comfortable issue for him."Another far-right candidate, Grzegorz Braun, is under investigation by police for tearing down a Ukrainian flag from a city hall building during an election rally in April. Braun, who is polling at just 3%, regularly fulminates against what he calls the "Ukrainisation of Poland".Last week, the Polish government warned of an "unprecedented attempt" by Russia to interfere in the Polish elections by spreading "false information among Polish citizens online". Moscow denies all allegations of election Marek, who runs an NGO that monitors disinformation and propaganda in Poland, offers some examples of the anti-Ukraine material being circulated on social media."The main narratives are that Ukrainians are stealing money from the Polish budget, that Ukrainians do not respect us, that they want to rob and kill us and are responsible for the war," he says."This information starts in Russian-speaking Telegram channels, and, after that, we see the same photos and the same text just translated by Google Translate. And they are pushing [the material] into the Polish infosphere."Marek links such disinformation directly with the increase in anti-Ukraine sentiment in Poland, and says an increasing number of Poles are becoming influenced by propaganda."But we will only see the effect after the election — what percentage of Poles want to vote for openly pro-Russian candidates." — BBC
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
'Go back to Ukraine': War refugees complain of abuse in Poland
Svitlana says her daughter loved her school in Poland."Even when we moved to another area, she didn't want to change schools," says the 31-year-old Ukrainian mother. "She liked it so much. There was no bullying."Now she says the atmosphere at the school – and in Poland overall – has changed."Two weeks ago, she came home and said "One boy said to me today, 'Go back to Ukraine'." Svitlana was is one of dozens of Ukrainians living in Poland who have told the BBC that anti-Ukrainian sentiment has risen considerably in recent described experiencing abuse on public transport, bullying in schools and xenophobic material online.A polarising presidential election campaign has added to the tension, with the first round of voting taking place on Sunday. The day after Svitlana's daughter was told to go back to Ukraine, the abuse became even worse."Girls from the class above started complaining about her speaking Ukrainian. Then they pretended to fall to the ground shouting 'Missile! Get down!' and laughing," Svitlana says. "She came home crying."A Russian missile had slammed into Svitlana's hometown in Ukraine days before, killing scores of civilians, including children. Her daughter was – not her real name did not want to be identified as she fears reprisals. She showed us screenshots of messages with school staff where she complains about her daughter's said she had noticed attitudes changing towards Ukrainians in other places, too: "At work, many people have been saying Ukrainians come here and behave badly. And my Ukrainian friends say they want to go home because Polish people don't accept us. It's frightening to live here now."According to government statistics, at least 2.5 million Ukrainians live in Poland, comprising almost 7% of the total population of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, there was an outpouring of compassion from Poles. "It was amazing. Every day people were calling, asking, 'How can we help?'" says activist Natalia Panchenko, head of the Warsaw-based 'Stand with Ukraine' Foundation. "Some of them organised humanitarian convoys or brought refugees here. They gave their houses, food, everything they have – and their hearts, too."Three years later, Natalia says she believes the majority of Poles still support Ukraine. But some don't – and her organisation has noticed an upsurge of anti-Ukrainian online abuse that began several months ago."Then it started to come to real life," she says. "Recently, we have more and more of these kinds of situations… xenophobic [abuse] of people working in shops or hotels just because they speak with a Ukrainian accent."Natalia says that many Ukrainian refugees are traumatised. "These groups of women and children are in Poland because of the war, very often their relatives are on the front line, in captivity or dead... and this is the group of people being targeted."Research suggests that Poland's public opinion of Ukrainians is indeed worsening. According to a March 2025 poll by the respected CBOS Centre, just 50% of Poles are in favour of accepting Ukrainian refugees, a fall of seven percentage points in four months. Two years ago, the figure was 81%.Around a million Ukrainians are officially registered as having arrived after the start of the full-scale invasion. Poland spends 4.2% of its GDP on Ukrainian refugees. Ukraine has become a hot-button political issue in Poland's crucial presidential election populist Slawomir Mentzen, currently polling third, is virulently anti-Ukrainian and supports an "agreement" with Russia's Vladimir Putin. In second place is conservative Karol Nawrocki, who opposes EU and Nato membership for Ukraine and financial assistance for refugees, but supports the war effort. The most pro-Ukraine candidate is front-runner Rafal Trzaskowski from Prime Minister Donald Tusk's coalition, although even he has promised a reduction in social welfare for has refrained from espousing his pro-Ukrainian credentials in order to attract the centrist vote in the elections, says political analyst Marcin Zaborowski. "He's responding to the change in public attitudes. The initial enthusiasm for supporting war victims is disappearing, negative sentiments are taking over and it's not an entirely comfortable issue for him."Another far-right candidate, Grzegorz Braun, is under investigation by police for tearing down a Ukrainian flag from a city hall building during an election rally in April. Braun, who is polling at just 3%, regularly fulminates against what he calls the "Ukrainisation of Poland".Last week, the Polish government warned of an "unprecedented attempt" by Russia to interfere in the Polish elections by spreading "false information among Polish citizens online". Moscow denies all allegations of election interference. Michal Marek, who runs an NGO that monitors disinformation and propaganda in Poland, offers some examples of the anti-Ukraine material being circulated on social media."The main narratives are that Ukrainians are stealing money from the Polish budget, that Ukrainians do not respect us, that they want to rob and kill us and are responsible for the war," he says. "This information starts in Russian-speaking Telegram channels, and, after that, we see the same photos and the same text just translated by Google Translate. And they are pushing [the material] into the Polish infosphere."Mr Marek links such disinformation directly with the increase in anti-Ukraine sentiment in Poland, and says an increasing number of Poles are becoming influenced by propaganda. "But we will only see the effect after the election - what percentage of Poles want to vote for openly pro-Russian candidates."
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
She killed Russians with grenade launcher – Ukraine's General Staff reveals how nurse saved unit from encirclement
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has told the story of nurse Svitlana, who killed a group of Russian soldiers with a grenade launcher and thus saved her unit from encirclement. Source: General Staff on Facebook Details: Svitlana was at a company stronghold located among the ruins of Staromaiorske in Donetsk Oblast when a fierce attack by the Russian forces with armoured vehicles and paratroopers began. It is recounted that at that moment the unit was left without a commander, so the woman took command. She received instructions from the battalion commander, who was watching the battlefield via video feed, and corrected the actions of all the soldiers at their positions. "At first, Svitlana fired back alongside her brothers-in-arms. When it became clear that the unit's positions were surrounded, as a group of occupiers entered one of the houses from the rear and took fire control of the escape routes and ammunition supply lines, Svitlana took up a disposable grenade launcher," the statement said. Quote from Svitlana: "I asked the guys to hold on and not to leave their positions under any circumstances, because then we would definitely not be able to resist. And then I took a disposable grenade launcher and went to meet the Russian paratroopers. They had come too close - they were only two houses away. I walked around them, stood up and fired a shot through the window of the house. The whole group of occupiers remained there." The General Staff added that this thwarted the Russian attack and the encirclement of the Ukrainian soldiers' positions. In a few days it became possible to carry out a rotation of the Ukrainian soldiers and withdraw them from their positions. "The guys said, 'Well, you're crazy'. What was I supposed to do at that moment? Wait for the enemy to kill us all?" the nurse said. The other day, the commander of the 128th Dyke Pole Brigade decorated Svitlana with the Cross of the Land Forces. Reference: From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Svitlana volunteered because she had extensive medical experience. In particular, she worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit of Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipro. The General Staff noted that, like all the soldiers of the 230th Separate Battalion of the 128th Dyke Pole Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Svitlana had fired many times at the training grounds with all types of weapons, including various grenade launchers. Svitlana's son, also a volunteer, was killed in action near Bakhmut. Currently, she is with her battalion, which is defending the Zaporizhzhia front. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
New York Post
01-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
I'm a flight attendant and only work 16 days a month — people can't believe my insane salary
She's a mile-high roller. A Southwest Airlines flight attendant had viewers vowing to switch careers after she claimed she earned nearly $10,000 pre-deductions in a month while working the friendly skies. She detailed her enviable paycheck in a video with more than 10 million views on TikTok. 'This was my gross pay,' gushed crew member Josette in the caption to the clip on her page, where she frequently spills on the trials and tribulations of her air hostessing gig. The footage shows the New Mexico resident looking despondent on the job with the caption, 'Me getting sick of my job … Then I remember my check last month was $9980.66.' 3 'I am very good at my schedule,' a smiling Josette explained in her viral TikTok video (above). Tiktok/josette_nicole Josette, whose hourly rate is around $60, per another clip, reportedly raked in the staggering figure last November. Naturally, that might seem like an unbelievable sum, especially given the horror stories of crew members eating passengers' leftovers and even stripping to make ends meet. However, Josette explained in the caption that she earns the big bucks because she's been at the budget airline for 14 years and clocks in around 150 hours per month. 3 Josette (not pictured) said she also picks up extra shifts, which pay twice the normal rate. Bangkok Click Studio – 'Pay does vary depending on how long you've been here and how many hours you work,' the fly-roller explained. 'I am very good at my schedule.' The high-flying employee added that she also takes advantage of the Voluntary Junior Avcan ailable (VJA) system, a union benefit from the Association of Flight Attendants, in which crewmembers pick up extra shifts — often on understaffed flights — for around twice the regular rate. According to Southwest flight attendants can earn between $22,300 and $144,000 per year, depending on how long they've been at the gig, plus other factors. @josette_nicole For context i have been at southwest for 14 years (first 4 were in reservations). This was my gross pay. I work about 150 trips ('hours') a month. Pay does vary depending on how long you've been here and how many hours you work. I am very good at my schedule and get a lot of VJA. #flightattendantlife #flightattendant #cabincrew #cabincrewlife #lifeatsouthwest ♬ original sound – ur mom 3 'Pay does vary depending on how long you've been here and how many hours you work,' Josette (not pictured) said of flight attendant earnings. Svitlana – Josette's video had cash-strapped viewers green with envy. 'It appears I should have become a flight attendant,' said one jealous commenter, while another wrote, 'My kids are almost off to college and I'm seriously considering becoming a FA.' 'My sister is also an FA for Southwest and literally makes the same!' said a third. 'And you deserve every penny!' However, others pointed out that being a flight attendant is no cakewalk, given the grueling hours and the fact that the serious cash doesn't kick in until several years into the gig. 'As a former flight attendant, I encourage anyone who wants to do it, but can we give further context into what 150 hours is really like?' said one. 'Cause it's no joke and not for the faint of heart.' 'I'm in year 2 and it's so hard, you're literally poor and have to get a second job, but I'm keeping hope alive,' lamented another. Thanks to the ratification of a new contract last year, Southwest Airlines flight attendants are reportedly the highest paid in the industry. They make 14% more than the second-best paid in their role, Delta flight attendants.
