Section: The Guardian (The United Kingdom)
Chernobyl fire: rain has helped extinguish flames, says Ukraine
Grass fires had been spreading into exclusion zone around defunct nuclear reactorOpen flames burning in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone have been extinguished after rain fell in the region north of Kyiv early on Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s emergency service has said, although activists monitoring the wildfires complained they had been...
Ukraine: wildfires draw dangerously close to Chernobyl site
Witnesses accuse government of covering up severity of blaze near site of nuclear disasterWildfires in Ukraine have spread to just over a mile from the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a disposal site for radioactive waste, according to activists, as more than 300 firefighters work to contain the blaze.A video posted by a Chernobyl tour...
‘Bad news’: radiation spikes 16 times above normal after forest fire near Chernobyl
The blaze started on Saturday close to the site of the world’s worst ever nuclear disaster, Ukrainian officials sayUkraine has reported a spike in radiation levels in the restricted zone around Chernobyl, scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident, caused by a forest fire.“There is bad news – radiation is above normal in the...
Ukraine’s ‘railroad ladies’ – in pictures
In Ukraine, the railroad traffic controller profession still exists – and about 80% of workers are women. They spend long shifts in small dedicated buildings beside the tracks. Ukrainian photographer Sasha Maslov shot portraits of female workers of the Ukrainian railway company from all over the country, which are compiled in a photo book...
MH17 trial: Russia keen to thwart investigation, says prosecutor
Several witnesses in ‘fear for their lives’ if their identities are revealed, hearing into shooting down of airliner is toldDutch prosecutors have accused Russia of trying to sabotage the investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17 in Ukraine in 2014, saying this has cast “a dark shadow” over the impending trial of four...
MH17 plane crash trial opens in The Hague
Trial of three Russians and one Ukrainian accused of killing 298 people begins in NetherlandsThe trial of three Russians and one Ukrainian accused of murdering 298 people in the shooting down of the MH17 aircraft over eastern Ukraine has begun in the Netherlands.The presiding judge, Hendrik Steenhuis, said “the loss of so many lives and the...
MH17 families fear they still face a long road to justice as trial begins
Family of Richard Mayne say it could be years before they know why 298 people diedOn Sunday Liz Mayne will make a familiar “pilgrimage” to the Netherlands. In 2015, she flew in to inspect the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, shot down over eastern Ukraine the previous summer. “You could still smell the burning,” she says. “It was an...
Volodymyr Zelenskiy: ‘My White House invitation? I was told it’s being prepared’
The TV comic turned maverick Ukrainian leader on Putin, power and Trump’s impeachmentWhat’s the difference between playing a president on screen and being one in real life? Not much, according to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the man who’s done both.“It’s very similar,” he says, his compact frame engulfed by a green...
Ukraine president gives Putin one year to strike deal to end war
In an exclusive interview, Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he is ready to walk away from Russia talks unless there is progressUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, believes he can negotiate a deal with Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, but has threatened to walk away from talks after a year if there is no progress with his Russian...
The race to save Polesia, Europe’s secret Amazon
A proposed waterway linking the Black Sea and the Baltic has sparked fears of catastrophic biodiversity loss – and raised the spectre of ChernobylAll photographs by Vincent MundyOn the banks of the Pripyat River lies a forest. On a crisp winter afternoon with an expansive blue sky above and hardened snow underfoot, the area is criss-crossed with...
