Ukraine - The African Mirror

Dec

2023

By MARGARYTA CHORNOKONDRATENKO and YURII KOVALENKO

Ukraine’s new Christmas Day unites Catholic-Orthodox family

Ukrainian couple Lesia Shestakova, a Catholic, and Oleksandr Shestakov, an Orthodox believer, will for the first time celebrate Christmas together on December 25. Ukraine, like Russia, officially observed Orthodox Christmas on January 7 according to the Julian calendar until Kyiv passed a law earlier this year shifting the date to December 25 in line with other Western European countries. It is part of a cultural shift that is erasing traces of Russian influence as Ukraine fends off Moscow's invasion launched nearly two years ago. Lesia, Oleksandr and two of their children used to celebrate Christmas twice: first with Lesia's parents…

Dec

2023

By CHARLOTTE BRUNEAU

Ukraine’s citizen army struggles with a hidden enemy: combat stress

WORLD

PSYCHOTHERAPIST Oleh Hukovskyi stands beside a whiteboard in a makeshift classroom in eastern Ukraine and addresses a group of soldiers attending a session on how to cope with the stress of war. The former psychiatrist joined the armed forces about six months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, and now runs a psychological support group attached to the 67th Separate Mechanised Brigade in the direction of the ruined town of Lyman. The classes cover basic psychological theory and coping techniques including breathing exercises. While the dozen soldiers attending are responsive to questions and suggestions, Hukovskyi is aware…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Putin says Russia has no plan to attack NATO, dismisses Biden remark as ‘nonsense’

WORLD

KREMLIN chief Vladimir Putin dismissed as complete nonsense remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden that Russia would attack a NATO country if it won the war in Ukraine, adding that Russia had no interest in fighting the NATO military alliance. The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Biden warned last year that a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would trigger World War Three. In a plea to Republicans not to block further military aid earlier this month, Biden warned that if Putin was victorious over Ukraine…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

‘Russia is waking up’: a tango-dancing soldier’s wife finds purpose on Russian home front

WORLD

NATALIA Yermakova's husband, Alexander, has been fighting in Ukraine for over a year after responding to President Vladimir Putin's mobilisation call. Wounded on the battlefield, he was operated on and then sent back to the front after recovering. Now his wife, who shares his love of tango dancing, is doing her own bit for the war effort: toiling as a volunteer in a "Family Battalion". One of a group of around 40 mostly female relatives of mobilised men in Moscow who give up their free time to help out, she threads camouflage netting, makes signs to mark minefields, gathers candles…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukraine presses ahead with removal of Soviet monuments

WORLD

UKRAINIAN officials pressed on with a campaign to remove Soviet-era monuments as authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv dismantled a statue of a Red Army commander from a central boulevard. Ukraine has doubled down on efforts to erase all traces of Russian rule amid a full-scale invasion by Kremlin troops, now nearing its two-year mark. Municipal workers on Saturday carefully hoisted the hulking statue of Mykola Shchors, a Soviet field commander during the Russian Civil War, off its pedestal. The structure had occupied a prominent spot on a central artery named after Ukraine's national poet. Onlookers stopped to watch and…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukraine’s food exports to Asia, Africa fall due to blocked seaports

NEWS

UKRAINE has sharply reduced its exports of farm goods to Asian and African countries so far in 2023 due to blocked seaports in the Black Sea, which has traditionally been the main export route, agricultural business association UCAB said. The lion's share of Ukrainian agrarian, metallurgical and chemical exports left the country from the Black Sea ports, which were partially or completely blocked after the Russian invasion in February 2022. Ukraine, one of the world's major grain growers and exporters, has traditionally shipped its grain to Africa, Asia and the Middle East. UCAB said on Facebook the share of agricultural…

Nov

2023

By OLENA HARMASH

Russia’s biggest drone strike in weeks hits Ukrainian infrastructure

WORLD

RUSSIA launched a massive drone attack early, hitting critical infrastructure in the west and south of Ukraine and destroying private houses and commercial buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, officials said. The air force said it shot down 24 "Shahed" drones out of 40 launched by Russia, the biggest drone attack in weeks to target Kharkiv in the northeast, Odesa and Kherson in the south and the region of Lviv on Ukraine's border with Poland in the west. One X-59 missile was also shot down, the Air Force said. "We realize that as winter approaches, Russian terrorists will try to…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Spain seizes ancient gold jewellery stolen from Ukraine worth $64 million

WORLD

SPAIN has seized ancient gold artefacts valued at 60 million euros ($63.6 million) stolen from Ukraine after thieves were caught trying to sell them in Madrid, Spanish police said. The 11 pieces, primarily jewellery including intricate necklaces, bracelets and earrings, are dated from the Greco-Scythian period between the 8th and 4th centuries BC, police said. The items were exhibited in a Kyiv museum between 2009-2013, and were smuggled out of Ukraine in 2016, Madrid National Police said in a statement, without identifying the museum. The artefacts had forged documents to make it look as if they belonged to the Ukrainian…

Oct

2023

By DAVE SHERWOOD

Special Report: How Cubans were recruited to fight for Russia

WORLD

CUBAN seamstress Yamidely Cervantes has bought a new sewing machine for the first time in years, plus a refrigerator and a cellphone - all on Russia's dime. She said her 49-year-old husband Enrique Gonzalez, a struggling bricklayer, left their home in the small town of La Federal on July 19 to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine. Days later, he wired her part of his signing-on bonus of about 200,000 roubles ($2,040) which she received in Cuban pesos, Cervantes told Reuters. That represents a windfall on the economically stricken communist-run island. It's more than 100 times the average monthly…

Jul

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

Russian general says top military brass betrayed soldiers fighting in Ukraine

WORLD

A Russian general said he had been dismissed as a commander after telling the military leadership about the dire situation at the front in Ukraine, where he said Russian soldiers had been stabbed in the back by the failings of the top military brass. After the June 24 mutiny by Wagner mercenaries, the biggest domestic challenge to the Russian state in decades, President Vladimir Putin has so far kept Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in their jobs. Major General Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms Army, said in a voice message…