NOVOMYKOLAIVKA: With a generous handful of hay and some firm nudges, stud farm workers in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region coax a bay horse onto a lorry that will evacuate the animal to safety.
The danger for the stud farm has been creeping closer for months, with Russia pounding the region with air strikes that kill civilians and pose a mortal threat for the animals.
The state-owned stud farm currently houses 130 horses, some of which had already been evacuated from elsewhere in Zaporizhzhia or from the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine’s central east.
“We are currently transferring the horses at this stud farm to other stud farms in Ukraine,” director of the state-owned enterprise “Horse Breeding of Ukraine” Vitaliy Brovko told AFP.
At the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, the farm’s stables were hit with a missile, leaving one horse wounded and others traumatized.
“They didn’t go into the stables for two weeks, and day and night, they ran to the stables, turned around and ran back,” Mykhailo Sych, a branch director at the “Horse Breeding of Ukraine” told AFP.
The threat has been looming ever since.
“There have been cases where horses had miscarriages from stress,” the horse farm worker Oleksandr Konyakhin told AFP.
“Now there are no strikes, only explosions can be heard, and the horses have gradually gotten used to it,” Konyakhin added.
Animals have suffered along with people throughout the almost four-year war, with Russian strikes hitting stables and zoos.
In October, a Russian drone attack sparked a fire on a farm in Ukraine’s northeast. The blaze killed some 13,000 pigs.
A month prior, seven horses were killed in the Kyiv region during a large-scale Russian attack which hit an equestrian club.
“Ukrainian animals have once again become targets of Russian missiles and drones,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on X condemning the attack in September.
“The world cannot stand aside while a terrorist state takes lives — human or animal — every single day,” it said.
Zoos across Ukraine have been damaged throughout the war, with one attack killing a ram in the Odesa zoo in June.
In the Zaporizhzhia stud farm, the evacuations continued, with over a dozen transports already carried out.
“If the situation worsens, we will evacuate the entire stud farm,” Vitaliy Brovko said.
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Ukraine evacuates horses amid menacing Russia strikes
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Ukraine evacuates horses amid menacing Russia strikes
- Animals have suffered along with people throughout the almost four-year war, with Russian strikes hitting stables and zoos
Iran-linked hackers claim cyberattack on Albanian parliament
- Albania hosts several thousand members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI or MEK), an organization that Iran has denounced as 'terrorist'
- Albania’s IT services were targeted, in 2022, prompting the Balkan country to sever diplomatic ties with Iran
TIRANA: Albania’s parliament on Tuesday said it had been hit with a “sophisticated cyberattack,” after Iran-linked hackers claimed to have stolen lawmakers’ data.
A group called “Homeland Justice,” which has previously been linked to Iran and claimed responsibility for past cyberattacks in Albania, announced the hack on Telegram.
“All conversations and correspondence of corrupt MPs from recent months are in the hands of Homeland Justice,” the post said.
“We are much closer to you than you think.”
Albania hosts several thousand members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI or MEK), an organization that Iran has denounced as “terrorist.”
Experts have warned that as the war in the Middle East continues, highly capable hackers linked to Iran have broadened their activities.
In a statement, the Albanian parliament said its computer systems had been hit with a “sophisticated cyberattack aimed at deleting data and compromising several internal systems.”
“It was found that information had been deleted from several accounts belonging to administration employees,” it added, saying “the main working infrastructure” did not appear to be affected and that measures had been taken “to neutralize the attack.”
The country’s National Cyber Security Authority said it had teams investigating the attack.
“Further information will be made public after the technical assessment is completed,” the authority’s director, Saimir Kapllani, told AFP.
In June, Homeland Justice also attacked the information technology services of the Albanian capital, Tirana.
In 2022, Albania’s IT services were also targeted, prompting the Balkan country to sever diplomatic ties with Iran.
A group called “Homeland Justice,” which has previously been linked to Iran and claimed responsibility for past cyberattacks in Albania, announced the hack on Telegram.
“All conversations and correspondence of corrupt MPs from recent months are in the hands of Homeland Justice,” the post said.
“We are much closer to you than you think.”
Albania hosts several thousand members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI or MEK), an organization that Iran has denounced as “terrorist.”
Experts have warned that as the war in the Middle East continues, highly capable hackers linked to Iran have broadened their activities.
In a statement, the Albanian parliament said its computer systems had been hit with a “sophisticated cyberattack aimed at deleting data and compromising several internal systems.”
“It was found that information had been deleted from several accounts belonging to administration employees,” it added, saying “the main working infrastructure” did not appear to be affected and that measures had been taken “to neutralize the attack.”
The country’s National Cyber Security Authority said it had teams investigating the attack.
“Further information will be made public after the technical assessment is completed,” the authority’s director, Saimir Kapllani, told AFP.
In June, Homeland Justice also attacked the information technology services of the Albanian capital, Tirana.
In 2022, Albania’s IT services were also targeted, prompting the Balkan country to sever diplomatic ties with Iran.
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