BERDYANSK, Russian-controlled Ukraine: A t a temporary accommodation center in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk children evacuated from towns and villages near the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces play outside on bikes as if nothing was amiss.
The minors, accompanied by at least one parent or guardian, were evacuated this month by Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region — which houses Europe’s largest nuclear power plant — ahead of a long-expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed acting governor of the region which Moscow has claimed as its own, said what he called the temporary relocation of people — and especially families with children — to safer areas was due to increased Ukrainian shelling of 18 settlements near the frontline.
Reuters was unable to independently verify Balitsky’s assertions. Kyiv says it does not shell its own civilians, something it accuses Russia of doing, which Moscow in turn denies.
The Ukrainian military, which has vowed to carry out President Volodymyr Zelensky’s order to drive Russian forces out of all Ukrainian territory, has accused Moscow of forcibly evacuating people from the area, something Russia denies.
On a visit to a temporary accommodation center in Berdyansk, on the Sea of Azov which is connected to the Black Sea, a Reuters reporter was free to talk to evacuees and Russian-installed officials.
Berdyansk has been under Russian control since Feb. 27 of last year, three days after Moscow launched what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine — a campaign that Kyiv and the West have likened to a brutal colonial war of conquest.
Three evacuees interviewed by Reuters said they had chosen to be evacuated themselves for security reasons. Two expressed satisfaction with their new conditions. All said they hoped to one day return home.
Lyudmila, 22, who said she chose to be evacuated from her home in the town of Kamianka-Dniprovska, said the situation there had sometimes been “difficult” and that shells had landed nearby.
“We used to go out and watch (the shelling). Especially at night, you could see the flashes as they launch (the shells). When it lands, (everything goes) red — we’ve had shells land nearby and when it landed the entire sky was red,” she said.
“People get used to it fast, children get used to it. They stop being afraid.”
As she spoke, she unpacked her clothes and hung some garments on hangars in her temporary new home — a room decorated with wallpaper with a TV on the wall.
While praising her treatment, she said she hoped to be able to return home one day.
“We want to wait it out. If everything is fine, we will definitely go back home. Everyone there has a house, a garden; our families and relatives are still there. My grandmother and mother, brothers and sisters are still there.”
She said she thought people still remaining in her town were “sitting on suitcases” ready to leave if the situation there became more dangerous and said she was aware that fighting between the two sides around Ukraine’s planned counter-offensive could thwart her hopes of resuming a normal life.
“If it (an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive) goes ahead there, then our town will suffer and maybe there will be no place to return to,” she said, saying she was hoping for peace and that the two sides could find common ground.
Holding his family’s small dog in his arms as he spoke, a man who gave his name as Artyom said he chose to be evacuated from the town of Tokmak with his wife and children as a precaution.
“(I decided to evacuate to) keep my family safe from all the events that are taking place (near the frontline). We are sure that everything will be fine, but we don’t want to take any risks. When the opportunity arose, we left,” he said.
Alyona Trokai, a representative for the Russian Movement for Children and Youth, which is working to help settle the evacuees, said around 2,000 people had arrived at the center so far.
After being registered and undergoing a medical check-up they are given accommodation, three meals a day and other things they might need like nappies, baby food and clothes, she said.
A woman who gave her name as Natalia said she and her children were satisfied with the conditions and “couldn’t complain.”
On the seafront in Berdyansk, there were no signs of a country at war. Some local people cast fishing rods into the still waters while others strolled or walked their dogs in the shadow of the port’s motionless cranes.
Frontline residents evacuated to Russian-controlled port before expected counter-offensive
https://arab.news/gv66k
Frontline residents evacuated to Russian-controlled port before expected counter-offensive
- The minors, accompanied by at least one parent or guardian, were evacuated this month by Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region
Agonizing wait as Switzerland works to identify New Year’s fire victims
- Authorities begin moving bodies from burned-out bar in luxury ski resor Crans-Montana
- At least 40 people were killed in one of Switzerland's worst tragedies
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland: Families endured an agonizing wait for news of their loved ones Friday as Swiss investigators rushed to identify victims of a ski resort fire at a New Year’s celebration that killed at least 40 people.
Authorities began moving bodies from the burned-out bar in the luxury ski resort town Crans-Montana late Friday morning, with the first silver-colored hearse rolling into the funeral center in nearby Sion shortly after 11:00 am (1000 GMT), AFP journalists saw.
Around 115 people were also injured in the fire, many of them critical condition.
As the scope of the tragedy — one of Switzerland’s worst — began to sink in, Crans-Montana appeared enveloped in a stunned silence.
“The atmosphere is heavy,” Dejan Bajic, a 56-year-old tourist from Geneva who has been coming to the resort since 1974, told AFP.
“It’s like a small village; everyone knows someone who knows someone who’s been affected,” he said.
It is not yet clear what set off the blaze at Le Constellation, a bar popular with young tourists, at around 1:30 am (0030 GMT) Thursday.
Bystanders described scenes of panic and chaos as people tried to break the windows to escape and others, covered in burns, poured into the street.
‘Screaming in pain’
Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, told AFP he had seen “bodies lying here, ... covered with a white sheet,” and “young people, totally burned, who were still alive... Screaming in pain.”
The exact death toll was still being established.
And it could rise, with canton president Mathias Reynard telling the regional newspaper Wallizer Bote that at least 80 of the 115 injured were in critical condition.
Swiss authorities warned it could take days to identify everyone who perished, an agonizing wait for family and friends.
Condolences poured in from around the world, including from Pope Leo XIV, who offered “compassion and solidarity” to victims’ families.
Online, desperate appeals abound to find the missing.
“We’ve tried to reach our friends. We took loads of photos and posted them on Instagram, Facebook, all possible social networks to try to find them,” said Eleonore, 17. “But there’s nothing. No response.”
‘The apocalypse’
The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear.
Le Constellation had a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who took office on Thursday, called the fire “a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions” and announced that flags would be flown at half-mast for five days.
“We thought it was just a small fire — but when we got there, it was war,” Mathys, from the neighboring village of Chermignon-d’en-Bas, told AFP. “That’s the only word I can use to describe it: the apocalypse.”
Authorities have declined to speculate on what caused the tragedy, saying only that it was not an attack.
Several witness accounts, broadcast by various media, pointed to sparklers mounted on champagne bottles and held aloft by restaurant staff as part of a regular “show” for patrons.
‘Dramatic’
Pictures and videos shared on social media also showed sparklers on champagne bottles held into the air, as an orange glow began spreading across the ceiling.
One video showed the flames advancing quickly as revellers initially continued to dance.
One young man playfully attempted to extinguish the flames with a large white cloth, but the scene became panic-stricken as people scrambled and screamed in the dark against a backdrop of smoke and flames.
The canton’s chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, said investigators would examine whether the bar met safety standards.
Red and white caution tape, flowers and candles adorned the street outside, while police shielded the site with white screens.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who said 13 Italians had been injured in the fire, and six remained missing, was among those to lay flowers at the site.
The French foreign ministry said nine French citizens figured among the injured, and eight others remained unaccounted for.
After emergency units at local hospitals filled, many of the injured were transported across Switzerland and beyond.
Patients are being treated in Italy, France and Germany, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country was ready to provide “specialized medical care to 14 injured.”
Multiple sources told AFP the bar owners were French nationals: a couple originally from Corsica who, according to a relative, are safe, but have been unreachable since the tragedy.
