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How this baker is resisting the Russian onslaught without picking up a gun

Published

2 years ago

March 12, 2022

For the previous two weeks because the Russians invaded, he is been barely sleeping, working 20 hours a day to feed the folks of Russian-occupied Kherson. Every day, the 28-year-old bakes hundreds of loaves of bread, masses them into his truck or automotive, and drives them by the abandoned streets, delivering them to people who find themselves more and more being minimize off from outdoors meals provides as Russian forces choke town of practically 300,000.

Kherson was the primary main metropolis to fall because the conflict started. As Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine enters its third week, the battle for survival across the nation is intensifying. Primary provides are operating low, temperatures are dropping and a number of cities are beneath siege from heavy Russian bombardment.

Unified in opposition to a typical enemy, Ukrainians are discovering methods to withstand — with out even carrying a gun.

“All elements of my physique are hurting — my wrists are hurting, and I’m unable to open a door. That’s the reason it’s exhausting,” Servetnyk informed CNN Tuesday, after spending hours a day kneading and baking.

Earlier than the conflict, Servetnyk was a profitable chef — he received Ukrainian MasterChef in 2019, and ran a pizza restaurant in Kherson. However on February 24, the Russians invaded Ukraine — and his life modified.

“There was no bread, it was a collapse,” Servetnyk says.

Because the Russians shelled his nation, Servetnyk and his associate drove to his dad and mom’ home in a village on the outskirts of Kherson, determined to flee Ukraine. “Get into the automotive, we are going to go someplace,” he informed them. His dad and mom — who had witnessed different intervals of tumult of their lives — laughed. “The place would we escape? Who’s ready for us there?” he remembers them saying. “The Russians are coming quickly, they inform us that that is Russia now and we are going to go on with our lives.”

So Servetnyk determined to remain and resist. A lot of Kherson’s bakers had both fled or gone into hiding, so Servetynyk turned his pizza restaurant right into a bakery, and commenced making hundreds of loaves of bread. To feed extra folks, he additionally roped in different bakers and distributed their bread, too.

“We didn’t escape, didn’t go away, however somewhat began saving folks as greatest as we may,” he says.

Now Servetynyk begins every day at daybreak, loading the again of his truck with golden loaves of bread baked both at his restaurant or the economic bakery. Most of it’s delivered at no cost to orphanages and aged folks on the outskirts of town. Then he heads again to bake bread from noon late into the night time.

'They shoot at anyone who tries to leave.' Ukrainians describe terror of living under Russian occupation

The roads have been just about empty since Russian forces flooded town on March 2. By March 5, town’s mayor Ihor Kolykhaiev mentioned that Russian forces had “settled in” within the port metropolis and confirmed no indicators of leaving.

Russian occupiers met heavy resistance final weekend, with a number of hundred residents taking to the streets to protest, braving Russian gunfire and troops. In a video from an illustration Sunday, an aged lady defiantly regarded into the digicam lens and mentioned quietly: “Save our nation! Let all of them die, along with Putin.”

However for probably the most half, residents have both fled or stayed indoors, afraid of encountering Russian troops who’ve arrange checkpoints throughout town.

Pavlo Servetnyk ran a pizza restaurant before Russia invaded.

Every journey Servetnyk takes to ship bread carries a danger, he says, however with out his deliveries, folks would possible go hungry. He estimates that he and his companions solely have about two weeks’ price of components left of their shops — and he does not know what is going to occur afterward.

His recipe for “victory bread” is already fundamental — simply fabricated from flour, yeast, water and salt. Servetnyk can also be being supported by donors from everywhere in the world who assist his staff cowl bills akin to gas.

Servetnyk’s bread has turn into a lifeline for folks in Kherson, however it’s extra than simply sustenance. In Ukraine — like different jap European international locations — bread has cultural significance, representing extra than simply meals.

“In Ukraine, the scent of bread crust on the visceral degree is one thing unbelievable simply because we have been baking it because the daybreak of time,” Servetnyk says.

Even when Russians take Ukrainian land, they will be unable to take the Ukrainian folks, he provides. When requested what Ukrainians are preventing for, he replied: “You need to somewhat ask the Russians about it. We’re preventing for our land… for our freedom.”

Servetnyk thought-about taking on arms in opposition to the Russians, till he heard the sound of a tank firing close to the window of his residence. He was terrified.

“That’s after I understood that if I am going to the battlefield and listen to the sound of a tank, I’d freeze and get killed,” he mentioned.

“After listening to this sound, I understood that everyone should go about his personal enterprise. Army ought to battle and bakers ought to bake bread and assist folks,” he mentioned.

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Atos crisis deepens as biggest shareholder ditches rescue plan

Published

1 hour ago

June 26, 2024

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Atos crisis deepens as biggest shareholder ditches rescue plan

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A rescue bid for French IT services group Atos led by its largest shareholder has collapsed, casting the future of the troubled group into doubt once again.

Atos said on Wednesday that the consortium led by Onepoint, an IT consultancy founded by David Layani, had withdrawn a proposal that would have converted €2.9bn of Atos debt into equity and injected €250mn of fresh funds into the struggling company.

“The conditions were not met to conclude an agreement paving the way for a lasting solution for financial restructuring,” Onepoint said in a statement on Wednesday.

The decision by Onepoint comes less than a month after Atos had picked its restructuring proposal over a competing plan from Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínsky. Atos said on Wednesday that Křetínsky had already indicated he wanted to restart talks.

Once a star of France’s tech scene, Atos is racing to strike a restructuring deal by next month as it struggles under its €4.8bn debt burden. It has cycled through multiple chief executives over the past three years and its shares have collapsed. They were down 12 per cent in early trading on Wednesday.

Atos also said it had received a revised restructuring proposal from a group of its bondholders.

“Discussions are continuing with the representative committee of creditors and certain banks on the basis of this proposal with a view to reaching an agreement as soon as possible,” the company said.

Jean-Pierre Mustier, former chief executive of Italian lender UniCredit, was installed as chair in October 2023 and given the task of putting Atos on a stable footing for the future. Since his appointment, several efforts to stabilise Atos through asset sales have fallen apart.

If talks with Křetínsky do restart, it will mark the Czech businessman’s third attempt to do a deal with Atos after an earlier plan to buy its lossmaking legacy business unravelled.

One of the people close to the talks said creditors had not necessarily become more receptive to Kretinsky’s plan given it cutting a larger chunk of the group’s debt.

The crisis at Atos has prompted the French government to intervene. It is currently seeking to acquire three parts of Atos that are deemed of importance to national security for up to €1bn.

Atos said on Wednesday it had concluded a deal with the French state that would give it so-called “golden shares” in a key Atos subsidiary, Bull SA. The agreement also gives the government the right to acquire “sensitive sovereign activities” in the event a third party acquired 10 per cent of the shares — or a multiple thereof — in either Atos or Bull.

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New Jersey gamer flew to Florida and beat fellow player with hammer, say police

Published

2 hours ago

June 26, 2024

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New Jersey gamer flew to Florida and beat fellow player with hammer, say police

An online gamer from New Jersey recently flew to Florida, broke into the home of a fellow player with whom he had feuded digitally but never met in person, and tried to beat him to death with a hammer, according to authorities.

The allegations leveled by the Nassau county, Florida, sheriff’s office against 20-year-old Edward Kang constitute an extreme example of a phenomenon that academics call “internet banging” – which involves online arguments, often between young people, that escalate into physical violence.

As Bill Leeper, the local sheriff, told it, Kang and the man he is suspected of attacking became familiar with each other playing the massively multiplayer online role-playing game ArcheAge.

The Korean game is supposed to no longer be available beginning Thursday, its publisher announced in April, citing a “declining number of active players”, as ABC News reported. But prior to the cancellation, Kang and the other player became locked in some sort of “online altercation”, Leeper said at a news briefing Monday.

Kang then informed his family that he was headed out of town to meet a friend he had made through gaming, Leeper recounted. The sheriff said Kang flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Jacksonville, Florida, and booked himself into a hotel near his fellow gamer’s home early Friday morning.

He had allegedly bought a hammer and a flashlight at a local hardware store, receipts for which deputies later found in Kang’s hotel room.

By early Sunday, Kang purportedly had put on black clothes, gloves and a mask, and he went into his target’s home through an unlocked door. He waited for the victim to get up to take a bathroom break from gaming – and then battered him with the hammer, Leeper said.

The alleged victim managed to wrestle Kang to the ground while screaming for help. The victim’s stepfather woke up after hearing the screams, rushed to his stepson’s side, helped take Kang’s hammer away and restrained him until deputies were called and they arrived, according to Leeper.

Deputies found blood at the home’s entrance and in the bedroom of the victim, Leeper added. The sheriff said the victim was brought to a hospital to be treated for “severe” head wounds while deputies jailed Kang on counts of attempted second-degree murder and armed burglary.

Leeper accused Kang of telling deputies that he carried out the violent home invasion because he believed the target to be “a bad person online”. Kang also allegedly asked investigators how much prison time was associated with breaking and entering as well as assault.

Attempted second-degree murder alone can carry up to 15 years. Leeper quipped that his only answer to Kang was: “It will be a long time before you play video games.”

Striking a more serious tone, Leeper urged people to be vigilant about and report to authorities any suspicious online behavior aimed at them. He also mentioned the importance of locking one’s home.

“This … serves as a stark reminder of the potential real-world consequences of online interaction,” Leeper said.