Russia strikes Cherkasy Oblast overnight on April 28, injuring 5: @KyivIndependent , regional governor Taburets.
Uman is a beautiful 200km south of Kyiv, far from the frontlines. It is smallish with 80K people. It has been safe throughout the war. But I guess Russia want to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Uman is beautiful. It is often know for its park Sofyivka. It is one of world-famous garden park art creations. It was founded in in 1976 by Polish count Potocki, when he was rebuilding Uman after a peasant uprising. Uman was a part of the Russian empire then. 2/
But it is an important place for Hasidic Jews too. Every fall, thousands of Hasidic Jews from around the world transform a central neighborhood in Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.3/
There are several good schools in Uman. We admit students from them every year. Many students come from a private school founded and supported by local farmers. 4/
We regularly visit the school to talk to pupils about education and possible career paths. 5/
If you remember our Christmas campaign for refugees and orphanages organized by our students, some of them were from Uman, from this private school. 6/
The driving force and finder behind the school is Andriy Dykun. We first met when I was in the office as the minister. My job was to pass the land market reform. He strongly opposed it and lobbied against it and against me. 7/
They had tractor protests and we fought on prime TV shows. By the time the reform was passed we hated each other. But since then we have become friends. 8/
Andriy and his team are patriots. The name of their wifi is Krym Nash, translated as Crimea is Ukraine (ours). Andriy also works to preorder and develop public schools. 9/
There is a beautiful hotel and private park next to Uman where my wife and I stayed many times. The woods makes us relaxed and playful.
I hate that Russians bomb out cities. 10/10
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Ukraine spoiled a birthday gift for Putin, blowing up the new power line meant to connect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to the Russian grid.
Ukrainian partisans cut the line, and it is now reconnected to Ukrainian power, The Guardian. 1/
Ukrainian partisans struck substations in occupied Zaporizhzhia, destroying a new high-voltage line to Mariupol that Russia planned to use to link the nuclear plant to its grid by 7 October. 2/
For nearly a month, the 6-reactor plant survived on diesel generators far beyond the 3-day safety limit, risking overheating and a potential Fukushima-style disaster. 3/
“Her legs were blown off, she was blown to pieces.” Russia’s drone killed an 84-year-old woman, Grandma Lora, in Kherson when she was walking her goats, NYP.
In a September interview, Lora had said, “Everyone is afraid. All are scared, but each has hope.”
Now she is dead. 1/
Larisa Mironyevna Vakulyuk, known as Baba Lora, 84, was killed instantly when a Russian FPV drone struck her and her two goats in Kherson’s Antonivka district. 2/
Journalist Zarina Zabrisky, who had interviewed Vakulyuk a month earlier, described the aftermath: “Her legs were blown off, she was blown to pieces.” 3/
Q: NATO provoked Putin into invading Ukraine?
Farage: The endless eastward expansion of NATO, the EU. Kissinger warned about this. We shouldn't have done it.
Putin's invaded. I hoped Trump could bring him to heel, strike a compromise. That won’t happen. Putin’s a bad dude. 1/
Q: Why hasn't President Trump put more pressure on Putin?
Farage: He’s putting huge pressure on, including on India. Trump feels Putin made a fool of him.
Putin’s not rational. He wants a logical deal. The idea that I’m soft on this is nonsense. 2/
Q: If you were PM and Russian jets entered NATO airspace. Where do you stand on that?
Farage: Got to shoot them down. I'm the only person in the world that stood up in the European Parliament in 2014. I said there'll be a war in Ukraine. I'm the only person that got it right. 3/
Putin only understands the language of force — you must talk to him like to a 1990s bandit, says ex-oligarch and former Putin prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky in The Washington Post.
He urges Trump to arm Ukraine with Tomahawks, not “fiddle with weak sanctions.”
1/
Khodorkovsky told that Tomahawk missiles posed a real threat to Putin — unlike sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, which he called “too weak.” “Tomahawks were a strong threat. But sanctions sound like I’m just stepping on your shoe.”
2/
Trump briefly considered supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine, scrapped a Budapest summit, and then imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil firms — his first punitive step since returning to the White House.
The Kremlin panicked over the missile idea until Putin called Trump.
3/
Russian officers train abducted Ukrainian children from occupied regions.
Teens from Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Donetsk learn drones, trenches, mines, grenades, weapons at "Voin" center in Volgograd.
1,289 children were militarized there in 2024 — UP. 1/
Center headman — State Duma deputy Vodolatskiy with Crimea medal who called to destroy Ukrainian forces.
Centre Commander — Col. Gasparyan led brigade capturing south Ukraine. His troops face war crime charges: beatings, kidnappings, murders, mock executions, rape of minor. 2/
Kyiv Independent identified 25 instructors training Ukrainian children in Volgograd; most fought against Ukraine.
Branch head Lt. Col. Vorobyov volunteered in 2022 with 20th Guards Division, fought in Mariinka, was wounded, returned to lead center. 3/