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Mariupol mass burials sites grow in the agony of not knowing.

Residents described the heartache of not knowing where their family members are buried.

By Hilary AnderssonBBC PanoramaMore that 1,500 graves have been found at a mass burial site close to Mariupol in southern Ukraine, according to an analysis by new satellite images. The site is near the Russian border and was a strategic target for the Russians. It was relentlessly pounded from the ground and in the air since the beginning of the war. It was pounded relentlessly from the air and the ground until May when it fell to Russia. The BBC Panorama programme’s Centre for Information Resilience examined the images of Staryi Krym and found that 1,500 graves had been added since the last time it looked at them in June. It now estimates that there are more than 4,600 graves at the site since the start of the war. However, it does not know how many bodies have been buried at the site. Her house was bombed by Russians and she was the only one to survive. Her husband and parents were killed and she, like many others who fled the city, doesn’t know where they are. The 48-year old accountant lived in a two-storey house with an enclosed garden in Mariupol. Her two adult children lived elsewhere. It was quiet in her neighborhood in March despite intense shelling in other parts. She and her husband slept in the cellar every night. Olga said, “I used to cry all of the time, my husband tried reassure me.” “He told me to not worry and that we would get through it. On the night of 10 March, the 15th anniversary of the Russian bombardment began, there was a knock on the door. Olga’s parents, in their 80s, stood there looking very shaken. Their house was on fire and had just been shelled. Olga invited them into her home and encouraged them to go down to her cellar.

They refused to go, so Olga gave them a bedroom in her main house. Valery went upstairs from her cellar at 22:30 because the shelling had stopped and he needed to rest. He reassured Olga and said he would return if something happened. The entire house fell on top of her. Learn moreThe Panorama special Mariupol – The People’s Story – will air on BBC One on Tuesday, 8 November at 21:00. A feature-length version of the story will be available on iPlayer starting at 0600 that day. “It all happened in a split-second. She said that everything was falling on her. “My legs were half-buried so I couldn’t even move. My hearing slowly returned and I could hear my husband’s voice: “Olga, help us, dig me out,” he said. “I’m right by the stairs,” he said. “Olga could only see Valery six feet away, but she couldn’t reach him. He was deeper than she could see. All she could do was keep talking to him. She said, “After a while I heard him wheezing.” “Then he stopped talking. “Alone in darkness, Olga tried screaming but no one heard her. She finally saw a torch moving towards the torch. Her neighbours tried to rescue her from the rubble. They were unable to free Olga from the rubble and Olga began to see her surroundings. She looked up to see a concrete slab, tilted and about to fall on her. “I knew that nothing was important anymore. She said she was dying. She said that she tried to end her own life at that point. Eventually, her neighbours returned with others and tried to rescue her.

They were able to free Olga’s left leg. They tried for six more hours to free her right leg but one of the concrete slabs kept pressing down on it. They finally decided to wrap a cable around Olga’s leg and pull it hard. After three attempts, Olga was finally freed. She was unable to walk for nearly five months because her legs were infected. She said that her right leg was broken in multiple places and she was unable to walk for almost five months. Three days earlier, her sister and brother-in law had also been killed in the same home. Olga stated that the bomb struck while they were drinking coffee in their garden. “I lost five of the closest people I knew in a matter of days. “When I met Olga she was safe in Huizen, near Amsterdam, with her two grown-up kids. After months of being in a wheelchair, she is now able to walk again. She is currently learning English and loves to go for walks and admire the gardens and flowers that remind her of her home. She is warm, soft-spoken, elegant, and has a friendly smile. Olga said that she is happy to be alive and believes that she was fated for life. I sent her a text to wish her a happy birthday. She replied, “No matter what, life continues and I have an understanding of the fact that I must live!” She was in tears for most of the day. Until mid-summer, she had relived the horrors of her past and had to stay awake until the wee hours of the morning to avoid them. She scrolls through photos of her past life and says that she is still trying to process what happened. She sees her husband in her two adult children. She misses Valery so much that it is hard to bear it. They used to swim together and have parties once a weeks. Now Olga lives in a small apartment in a foreign land. Olga has not been able to find any information about her family’s bodies, but she suspects that they are still under the rubble of her home. The Russians now control the city, but Olga was informed this summer that one body could still be found in the ruins her old home. The gravediggerOlga was one of many Mariupol residents who can’t find their relatives.

Others were buried in mass graves located in central Mariupol. These graves were dug by Ukrainians who braved shelling to recover corpses found in streets and homes. Vaagn Mnatsakanian was a local ecologist who was trying to find a spot to bury his father, who had been killed during the fighting. Vaagn was shocked to discover that all the mortuaries were full. He contacted the local authorities to inquire about other options. He then began to organize teams of locals to dig three mass graves in the centre city for the Ukrainian municipal authorities. He and his team collected bodies around Mariupol for five days in March, during intense shelling. The bodies were quickly slid into the trenches without bags, sometimes even without them. He said that he was told that there were often more than 100 bodies, sometimes 150, that required collecting that day on some horrible days. “There were so many bodies that we couldn’t collect them all. “One day, a shell flew toward me and I had no choice but to jump into the mass burial for cover. Vaagn said, “I found myself near the corpses but I was glad that I was alive.” Tatyana, who lost her son in fighting, had been searching for him since childhood. She visited Vynohradne, near Mariupol, this summer to search for him. She claims she has no idea what happened to Yaroslav, a 26-year-old who loved cars and dreamed about owning a business. But she says that she was told he was killed in sniper fire. She said, “If he’s not alive, we want him to be buried humanely.” Tatyana, who prefers to not use her surname, said that she had counted more than 800 new graves at Vynohradne. Many Russian-controlled residents are afraid of reprisals and won’t speak out about mass burials. She took a photo of Vynohradne. Placards with numbers and gender are placed on many graves at the site. However, they do not identify the bodies. “Most of these bodies are unidentified,” she stated. Tatyana said that “people should know the truth about such horrors” so it won’t happen again.

 

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Ukraine war: Kyiv secures a bridgehead across the key Dnipro River, reports

But military experts warn that advancing from positions across the Dnipro could be very difficult.

Ukrainian troops have set up positions on the east bank of the Dnipro River in southern Kherson region, reports say.The region is partially Russian-held and crossing the river could be significant in future offensives.The US-based Institute for the Study of War says Russian military bloggers have posted “enough geolocated footage and text reports to confirm” the advance.BBC Ukraine says its military sources have reported a “certain movement across [the] Dnipro” near Kherson city.

Ukraine’s military has not confirmed the movement, while Russia has denied the reports.But if the reports that Ukraine has secured a bridgehead on the east bank are correct, it could be significant in helping Kyiv drive Russian troops back.A Ukrainian advance in the area could, in the future, even cut the land corridor to Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.However, military experts say any Ukrainian troop movements in the bridgehead area – which is crisscrossed by floodplains, irrigation canals and other water obstacles – would be a tough task.And Ukrainian advances would be further complicated by Russia’s significant advantage in the air.

Ukraine’s military has for some time publicly spoken about preparations for a major counter-offensive, without specifying where and when it could be launched.Until now, all of the Kherson region on the east bank of the Dnipro has been under Russian control, with the wide river serving as a natural barrier.The regional capital – sitting on the west bank – was liberated by Ukrainian forces last November.Celebrations as Ukraine takes back key city KhersonPutin visits occupied Kherson region in UkraineIn Sunday’s report, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said “geolocated footage published on 23 April indicates that Ukrainian forces are operating in areas north-west of Oleshky on the east” bank of Dnipro.

The ISW added there was not enough information to analyse the scale of the reported Ukrainian advance – or the further intentions of the Ukrainian military.On Monday, Russia’s WarGonzo military blogger reported that Ukrainian troops were “trying to gain a foothold on Bolshoi Potemkin [Velykyi Potyomkin – Ukrainian] island”, which is located between the new and old channels of the Dnipro.

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India’s population will surpass China this week, according to UN

Last week, a different UN body said the milestone would be passed later in 2023.

India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation by the end this week. A different UN body predicted last week that India would surpass China by the middle this year. The Asian nations have accounted more than a quarter of the global population since over 70 years. The UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a press release that “China will soon relinquish its long-held position as the world’s largest country”.

The UN Population Fund said last week that India would have 2.9 million more people than China by the middle of 2023. China’s birthrate has dropped recently, and its population shrank last year for first time since 1961. India’s population will continue to grow for several decades, it said. However, fertility rates in India are also dropping – from 5.7 babies per woman in 1950, to 2.2 today. In November, the world population reached 8 billion. Experts say that the growth rate is slower than it used to be, and is now at its lowest level since 1950.

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Scientists are concerned about recent rapid ocean warming.

There’s growing concern that the oceans are heating up quickly – and scientists are unsure of the implications.

It has never warmed up this much, so quickly. Scientists don’t fully understand why. But they worry that, combined with other weather events, the world’s temperature could reach a worrying new level by the end of next year. Scientists do not fully understand why it has happened. But they are concerned that combined with other weather conditions, the temperature of the planet could reach a new alarming level by the end next year. They are less efficient in absorbing planet-warming gases.

In the last 15 years, Earth’s heat has increased by 50 percent, with the majority of that extra heat going into the oceans. This has real world implications – not only was the temperature of the oceans a record in April, but in some areas the difference over the long term is enormous. Image source: Getty ImagesIn march, sea surface temperatures along the east coast of North America reached 13.8C above the 1981-2011 average. Karina Von Schuckmann, lead author of the study and oceanographer with the research group Mercator Ocean International, said: “It is not yet clear why such a rapid and huge change is occurring.”

“We have doubled heat in the climate system over the last 15 years. I don’t think this is climate variability, but it could be. We do see the change. “An interesting factor that could influence the level of heat entering the oceans is a reduction in shipping pollution. In 2020, the International Maritime Organisation implemented a regulation to lower the sulphur in fuel burned by ships. This has had an immediate impact on reducing the amount aerosol particles released in the atmosphere. Aerosols that pollute the air also reflect heat back into the space, so removing them could have caused more heat to reach the oceans.

The average surface temperature of the oceans has risen by 0.9C since pre-industrial times, with 0.6C of that increase occurring in the last 40. This is less than the rise in air temperatures on land which have increased by 1.5C. Oceans absorb heat much deeper than land and require more energy to heat. This has real-world implications. It is especially damaging to coral reefs. Extreme weather will increase as heat from the upper ocean surface increases hurricanes and cyclones. This means they become more intense and longer-lasting.Sea-level rise: warmer waters take up more space – known as thermal expansion – and can greatly accelerate the melting of glaciers from Greenland and Antarctica that flow into the oceans.

This increases global sea levels and increases the risk of coastal flooding. Warmer water has a lower ability to absorb CO2. The oceans will absorb less CO2 if they continue to warm. This will lead to more CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere, further warming the air. “The Australian Bureau model strongly suggests a strong El Nino.” Hugh McDowell, from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, said that the trend has been in that direction and that all climate models have been trending towards a stronger event. Mr McDowell warned that predictions are less reliable at this time of the year.

Other researchers are more optimistic. Experts believe that a fully-formed event will follow. “If we have a new El Nino on top of that, it will probably cause an additional global warming of 0.2-0.25C,” Dr Josef Ludescher from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research said. “The impact of El Nino is reduced a few months following the peak. This is why 2024 is likely to be the warmest year on record. “Image source, Anadolu Agency.” And we may, we’ll be close to 1.5C and perhaps we’ll temporarily go over. El Nino is likely to disrupt weather patterns in Australia and around the world. It will also weaken the monsoon. There are also more fundamental concerns that as heat is absorbed by the oceans, they may be less able store excess energy.

One scientist described being “extremely stressed and worried”. Karina von Schuckmann says that some research has shown the world warming in jumps. Little changes over years are followed by sudden leaps upwards. After El Nino subsides, temperatures may drop again. She told BBC News that “we still have a window of opportunity to act and we should take advantage of this to reduce the effects.” Graphics by Erwan RIVALL.

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Wagner in Sudan: what have Russian mercenaries done?

The Wagner group denies involvement in the current conflict, but there’s evidence it has previously been active in Sudan.

Russian Wagner mercenary forces are accused of having commercial and military ties with Sudan. However, the group denies involvement in the current conflict. Yevgeny Praighozin, who has close ties to President Vladimir Putin, has stated that “not one Wagner PMC [private company] fighter has ever been present in Sudan”. We have found no evidence of Russian mercenaries currently inside the country. There is evidence of Wagner’s previous activities in Sudan. Mr Prighozin’s operations in the nation have been targeted by US and EU sanctions. Gold-mining DealsIn 2017, Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir, during a trip to Moscow, signed a number of deals.

These included an agreement to establish a Russian naval base at Port Sudan along the Red Sea as well as “concessions on gold mining” between Russian company M Invest, and the Sudanese Ministry of Minerals. The According to a CNN investigation, gold was transported overland into Central African Republic where Wagner operates – exports that were not recorded in Sudanese trade data.

The BBC has not independently confirmed these images. In 2021, a Wagner linked Telegram channel published photos of an unnamed top Wagner leader awarding Sudanese soldier memorabilia during a ceremony that took place two years earlier. TelegramAnd, in July 2022 this channel distributed a clip allegedly showing Wagner’s mercenaries performing par The same source linked the Instagram profile of a Russian mercenary who called himself a “freelancer”. He shared stories of his exploits on Sudan in posts dating from August and Oct 2021. How influential is Wagner? The US Treasury claims that the Wagner Group has been involved in “paramilitary activities, support for maintaining authoritarian regimes and exploitation natural resources”. The relationship between the Royal United Services Institute and the UK-based Royal United Services Institute has grown since then.

“In 2018, they had around 100 men actively training Sudanese forces,” says Dr Joana De Deus Pereira from the UK. Sudanese media reported that the number grew to 500 and that they were mainly based in the south-west, near Um Dafuq and close to Sudan’s borders with the Central African Republic. According to Dr Samuel Ramani who wrote a book on Russia’s activities throughout Africa, the Wagner Group created its own media campaigns in order to keep President Bashir in power. Image source: AFP. This caused friction with the president’s security forces and Wagner switched its support to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who overthrew him.

Dr Ramani says that while the Foreign Ministry in Moscow opposed the coup, Prigozhin, and the Wagner Group, welcomed al-Burhan’s takeover. According to Dr Ramani it was between 2021 and 2022 when the Wagner Group increased their connections with the Rapid Support Forces, which is currently fighting Sudan’s regular army led by Gen Burhan. Mr Pri “Wagner had links with both General al-Burhan and Mr Hemedti in different degrees and ways,” she says. Wagner’s presence in AfricaWagner fighters are widely reported to be in the Central African Republic for several years, guarding diamond mines in the country, as well in Libya and Mali. 

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Sudan fighting: Foreign nationals and diplomats evacuated

Several countries are helping their citizens leave the capital, Khartoum, following a week of fighting.

Several other countries have also started organising evacuations, starting on Sunday. France, Germany Italy and Spain have also started organising evacuations. A vicious power struggle has caused violence throughout the country. The UK government was able to airlift British diplomatic staff and their families out in a “complex” and “rapid” operation. Foreign Minister James Cleverly stated that options to evacuate remaining British nationals were “severely restricted”.

The German army reported that the first of three flights had left Sudan bound for Jordan with 101 people aboard. Italy and Spain evacuated citizens – the Spanish mission included citizens of Argentina, Colombia, Ireland Portugal, Poland Mexico, Venezuela, and Sudan. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his government had evacuated diplomatic staff. More than 150 people were evacuated to the Saudi Arabian port Jeddah by sea, including citizens from Egypt, Pakistan, and Gulf countries. Many foreign students from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East have also been trapped in Khartoum. They have made desperate calls for assistance.

The US announced on Sunday that a disaster response team will be sent to the region to “coordinate humanitarian response to those in need, both within and outside Sudan.” “Samantha Power, from the US Agency for International Development(USAID), said that the team would initially work out of Kenya and give priority to getting “life-saving humanitarian assistance to those in need.” The World Health Organization reports that the fighting has injured thousands and killed more than 400.

The death toll may be higher than 400, because people are unable to access healthcare due to the closure of most hospitals in the city. The fighting has also affected the western region of Darfur where the RSF was first formed. The UN has warned that 20,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled Sudan in search of safety in Chad across the border.

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