Latest news with #Ukraine-based
ITV News
18-07-2025
- ITV News
Cumbrian aid worker prepares for his fourth trip to Ukraine to help war victims
An aid worker from Tebay is preparing to make his fourth trip to Ukraine with a lorry full of aid. Steve Hodgson bought a house in Ukraine to be with his partner before it was bombed, and has since been volunteering to help people affected by the war. Steve says the amount of "destruction and damage" he witnessed when the war first broke out more than three years ago has motivated him to do what he can. He said: "How do you come back to normal life, having seen what you've seen? "Life goes on as normal. A building gets destroyed, a hospital and a school get hit, and within 24 hours, it gets cleaned up. There's a big psychological thing there, 'we're not going to get defeated, we're going to keep going.' "In Odessa, I can tell you what type of drone is overhead. It becomes a normal life, it's hard. "The air raids usually go on during the night, so you don't get to sleep. Then in the morning, you've got to carry on, we have to keep volunteering, and shops need to open." Steve says his work with Cumbria Aid Ukraine and his Ukraine-based foundation called Carna is "making a real difference". He added: "I've got a team that comes with me, and we've established it all together, and between us, we're now working in the Odessa region but also all around Ukraine, supporting different military units. "Ukraine will win this war in the end, but at what cost? All I see while driving across Europe is an endless stream of cars full of aid, ambulances, being donated from Norway, Sweden, Germany, Spain and France. There's so much more support than people realise." Steve has made 16 trips, transporting aid from all over Europe. This week, he is making his fourth trip from the UK with support from Cumbria Aid Ukraine. The group gather essential items for some time until Steve arrives to transport the aid into Ukraine. The volunteer group, based at The Pot Place Garden Centre near Penrith, has also been raising funds to purchase and equip emergency vehicles to support medical services in Ukraine. They've sent over 20 vehicles so far, including ambulances and 4x4 cars. Paul Thomas, from Cumbria Aid Ukraine, said: "The cars are a prized possession because every time a missile lands, a car is destroyed in Ukraine. We see the pictures of buildings destroyed, and we don't think that 300 yards away, a car will be useless from then on, because it will be totally destroyed by shrapnel. "The conditions are so poor that these are the only vehicles that will last any length of time." Paul says the essential items requested can change throughout the year. He added: "We have a list of things we ask for at any particular time, at the moment, that's household goods, baby products, generators, power packs, it changes seasonally, for example, during winter, it could be clothing and bedding." Speaking about whether the amount of donations has changed since the beginning of the war, he said: "We have sudden donations of large amounts of money because we are always looking to buy vehicles, which just come in from a group or people who have run a concert or planned an event - they bring us that money because they know we exist now. That's fantastic."
Novaya Gazeta Europe
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
Ukraine wing of Russia-linked neo-Nazi group claims involvement in killing of security service colonel — Novaya Gazeta Europe
The Ukrainian wing of far-right terrorist organisation The Base, which is suspected of having ties to Russia, has claimed involvement in the recent killing of a top-ranking intelligence colonel in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, The Guardian reported on Wednesday. Last Thursday, Colonel Ivan Voronych was fatally shot five times in Kyiv by an unidentified gunman who fled the scene of the killing in an SUV. On Sunday, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) chief Vasyl Malyuk announced that two Russian FSB agents suspected of assassinating Voronych had been killed in a police raid on their place of residence in Kyiv. The Base, founded in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro, a former Pentagon contractor suspected of engaging in espionage at the behest of the Kremlin, is a neo-Nazi terrorist group previously implicated in 'an assassination plot, mass shootings, and other actions in Europe', according to The Guardian. For months, the newspaper reports, The Base has been offering to pay members or voluntary collaborators to conduct 'targeted assassinations' or attacks on Ukraine's 'critical infrastructure', in a similar fashion to the sabotage operations carried out in Europe by Russia's intelligence services. In two Telegram posts published last week, White Phoenix, the alleged Ukraine-based arm of The Base, claimed that its 'activists' had carried out a 'carefully planned' attack on Voronych as a 'warning to the regime' of Volodymyr Zelensky. 'The execution of the SBU colonel is not the end, but only the beginning,' one post by the White Phoenix read, adding that it was 'proud of [its] comrades' and calling on 'all honest Ukrainians' to join them. Independent media outlet Agentstvo wrote that the Base's founder Nazzaro lives in St. Petersburg and has been married to a Russian woman since 2012. In April, The Guardian reported that former members of The Base suspected Nazzaro of having ties to Russian special services, although he has repeatedly denied the allegation, including at one occasion on Russian state TV. According to The New York Times, Voronych was a senior officer in the Fifth Directorate, an elite SBU unit responsible for killing a top Russian separatist commander named Arsen Pavlov, also known as Motorola, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region in 2016.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Wounded Ukrainian soldiers with bionic arms want to return to the front lines
When Andrii Gidzun and Vitalii Ivashchuk lost limbs fighting the Russian invaders of their country, the Ukraine-based Superhumans Center fitted them with 3D-printed 'bionic' prostheses, robot arms designed to respond to the movements in their arm muscles. Now able to do simple tasks, like holding a coffee mug or putting on a shirt, both are already thinking about returning to the front and resuming their duties. Their prostheses are called 'Hero Arms,' and are produced by United Kingdom-based Open Bionics, which makes each arm to order based on the specific user's shape. Two bioelectric sensors monitoring the muscle contraction control the Hero Arm and its bionic hand. Open Bionics has partnered with the Superhumans Center to deliver care to wounded Ukrainians through its three centers in Lviv, Dnipro, and Odessa. Ivashchuk lost his arm while fighting off a tank assault near Bakhmut in June 2022. The Russian forces advanced on his position while he was just 200 meters away. He didn't retreat. Instead, he attempted to take a tank crew by surprise. The wound he took to his wrist was devastating. He doesn't remember what happened during the fight. 'I took a grenade launcher and decided to wait behind the bushes until they came out, but I lost the right moment,' he told the BBC. His comrades applied a tourniquet, and he was rushed off the battlefield. To make matters worse, Russian cluster munitions hampered his evacuation. His arm had to be amputated. His Hero Arm is a bespoke prosthesis. The Superhumans Center in Lviv took a cast of his wrist, which was then sent to Open Bionics in the UK for 3D printing. Once printed, each Hero Arm is put together piece by piece by a specialized technician. Sensors send signals from the wounded limb to a computer in the palm of the hand, which translates the movement. Since the Superhumans Center is a nonprofit organization, the first two Hero Arms, given to Gidzun and Ivashchuk, were funded by Mastercard. Ivashchuk was 24 years old and living in Poland when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2024. He immediately hopped on a bus to get as close to his hometown of Zhytomyr as he could. The closest he could get was a town 160 miles away. Still, within days, he was defending Zhytomyr and later, Kyiv. It was a dream he'd had since he was 15 years old. Now, he is one of tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who suffer from complex injuries from Russian attacks. Many of the wounded will require specialized care, like new prosthetic devices. For Ivashchuk, having a new bionic arm doesn't necessarily translate into the ability to do everything he was once able to do. He noted to the BBC that he was unable to hold a coffee mug and a cigarette at the same time. But he was looking forward to a future that lets him do more. 'I'm going back to the frontline with my bionic arm,' he said. We Are The Mighty is a celebration of military service, with a mission to entertain, inform, and inspire those who serve and those who support them. We are made by and for current service members, veterans, spouses, family members, and civilians who want to be part of this community. Keep up with the best in military culture and entertainment: subscribe to the We Are The Mighty newsletter. Sig Sauer's P320 banned by Chicago Police Department and other law enforcement agencies Aviation nerds are mourning Iran's F-14 Tomcats Gamblers on Polymarket predicted the latest Israel-Iran conflict
AFP
09-07-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Ukraine explosion clip misrepresented as Mideast conflict
" ," reads an Indonesian-language TikTok post shared on June 28, 2025. The short video shows an explosion at night near a building complex. Image Screenshot of the false post captured July 8, 2025, with a red X added by AFP The video also surfaced on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and was shared in posts written in English, Arabic and Azerbaijani. The Middle East adversaries traded devastating missile attacks after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities (archived link). The strikes left more than 900 people dead in Iran and 28 people dead in Israel. A ceasefire announced on June 24 ended the war (archived link). A reverse image search of keyframes on Google found a higher quality version of the video uploaded on the website ViralHog (archived link). "A Shahed drone, launched by Russian forces, strikes a residential high-rise building in Kyiv, Ukraine. The video captures the exact moment of impact and explosion," reads its caption which states the clip was filmed June 9, 2025. Image Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and the ViralHog video The reverse search also yielded pages that show a similar looking apartment complex in Ukraine (archived here and here). A picture of a building in Kyiv uploaded by a Ukraine-based real estate company matches elements in the circulating clip including the yellow fence around the park and an entrance door (archived link). Image Screenshot comparison of falsely shared video (L) and a picture from a Ukraine-based real estate firm, with similarities highlighted by AFP AFP has debunked other false claims about the Iran-Israel war here.
Euronews
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Germany arrests three for plotting Russian 'sabotage' bomb attacks
Three Ukrainian nationals have been arrested in Germany and Switzerland on suspicion of acting as agents for Russia in a plot involving parcel bombs, German prosecutors said on Wednesday. The men are suspected of being secret agents for the purpose of sabotage and agreeing to commit arson and bring about an explosion, federal prosecutors said in a statement. Apparently working at the behest of people acting for Russia, the suspects planned to send parcels containing explosive or incendiary devices from Germany to Ukraine, with the devices designed to detonate during freight transport, according to the prosecutors. Two of the men — identified only as Vladyslav T and Daniil B in line with German privacy rules — were arrested in different parts of Germany on Friday and Saturday respectively. The third man — identified as Yevhen B — was arrested on Tuesday in the northern Thurgau region of neighbouring Switzerland. The suspects are accused of telling "one or more people suspected to be acting on behalf of Russian state agencies" around March that they were prepared to carry out attacks on freight transport in Germany, prosecutors said. The alleged plan was for the men to send packages that would explode while being transported to Ukraine. One of the suspects — Vladyslav T — sent two "test packages" in Cologne at the end of March that contained GPS trackers to scope out possible means of transport, according to prosecutors. He was allegedly tasked with doing so by Yevhen B, who is accused of providing the contents of the packages via Daniil B. Berlin has been closely monitoring the threat of sabotage plots by Moscow following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Experts told Euronews that the alleged plot could be an example of hybrid warfare from Russia, which combines conventional military operations with a range of non-military tactics in a bid to achieve its strategic objectives while ensuring plausible deniability. "The goal is to exploit an adversary's vulnerabilities in multiple areas to create ambiguity," said Olha Danchenkova, co-founder of Ukraine-based communications agency Calibrated and PR Army, an NGO. "These tactics include cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, economic coercion (such as dependence on oil and gas), diplomatic pressure, the weaponisation of migrants (as in Belarus), corruption, interfering in elections and the use of proxy forces," she told Euronews. Ihor Solovei, head of the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security, told Euronews that the arsenal of hybrid aggression includes a wide range of instruments, including disinformation. "Here's an example: in 2022, Russia captured Mariupol using traditional methods of warfare — artillery, armoured vehicles, aviation and infantry. It was a classic military operation," he said. "Years earlier, in 2014, Russia captured Donetsk using hybrid warfare methods. As a result of information and propaganda operations, part of the local population turned against the central government."
