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‘We’re not finding soldiers, just innocent people’: The horror of Russian occupation revealed in Borodianka

Published

2 years ago

April 5, 2022

Close to her backyard shed is the physique of a person laying face-down with a bag over his head and fingers tied behind his again. His trousers are pulled down. There are giant bruises on his left leg and a big wound on his head.

Subsequent to his physique is a single bullet casing.

“He was executed, gunshot to the top,” an officer with the Ukrainian Nationwide Police stated. There aren’t any paperwork on the person, however authorities on web site say all indications present he was one other civilian casualty of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warfare.

The physique is one in all many not too long ago present in cities to the east of Kyiv that have been occupied by Russian forces.

Borodianka was residence to 13,000 individuals earlier than the warfare, however most fled after Russia’s invasion. What was left of the city, after intense shelling and devastating airstrikes, was then occupied by Russian forces, which moved in on February 28.

Yuriy Pomin was nonetheless on the town when the Russian assault began.

“The scariest half was when their planes got here. They have been flying above our home and dropping bombs” Pomin informed CNN.

Immediately, the 33-year-old is cleansing up his fourth-floor condo. The multi-story constructing subsequent to his was razed to the bottom by a Russian strike, and he is transferring what’s left of his possessions to a different home exterior town.

“I can’t keep right here,” he stated. “It is not secure.”

The month-long Russian occupation has left a devastating mark on town.

Not solely was it nearly fully destroyed by long-range assaults — with buildings diminished to mere piles of rubble — however occupying Russian forces then used among the homes as their very own personnel barracks.

Yuriy Pomin's house in Borodianka, which was destroyed after days of Russian bombardment.

Kostychenko and her husband Oleksand fled when the shelling first started, solely to return after the city got here again into Ukrainian management on April 1.

Whereas their residence was seemingly untouched by the heavy shelling that destroyed Borodianka, it was ransacked inside. Garments and discarded bottles littered the ground. They discovered their pet hen useless in its cage.

“Alcohol is in every single place; empty bottles within the hallway, beneath issues,” the 44-year-old stated. “They (the Russians) smoked so much, put out cigarettes on the desk. They used the mattress linen as their very own.”

Many of the furnishings was both broken or destroyed, as was their TV.

“They did all the pieces they needed,” Kostychenko stated. “Our jewels have been taken away. They’re nothing however looters.”

Close by retailers have additionally been pillaged, their home windows damaged and contents both stolen or splattered over the flooring.

The Borodianka unemployment office, defaced with the Russian V symbol.

The letter “V,” quick for Vostok (which means ‘east’ in Russian) — and a logo utilized by Russia’s Jap Army district in live performance with the letter “Z,” an emblem for Moscow’s so-called “particular navy operation” — was painted on buildings, automobiles and checkpoints.

The native unemployment workplace and Metropolis Corridor have been fortified and become headquarters for Russian troops stationed within the city. Each have been additionally lined in V’s.

Borodianka was a jumping-off level for Russian items as they superior on Kyiv by way of suburbs like Bucha and Irpin. They confronted staunch resistance by Ukrainian forces and have been compelled to retreat.

Stays of destroyed Russian {hardware} within the dozens now litter cities and cities across the capital, and fox holes and artillery positions have been left nearly untouched.

Authorities have imposed a curfew in the complete Kyiv area till April 7, calling on residents to stay indoors whereas they conduct de-mining operations.

Moscow has denied focusing on civilians, however volunteers are working with police to select up the our bodies of killed civilians left to rot within the open air.

Volunteers collect the body of a man who was shot while driving his car in Borodianka, Ukraine.

“We’re gathering individuals who have been shot by the Russians. Civilians who have been tortured. We now have been working for 2 days,” Hennadiy Avramenko, 45, stated.

CNN watched as Avramenko and his colleague extracted the physique of a 44-year-old Ukrainian from a automotive. He was shot by way of the center whereas driving, along with his automotive crashing right into a ditch subsequent to the street.

“Psychologically, it is tough,” Avramenko stated. “The worst factor is that we’re not discovering troopers, simply harmless individuals.

“They have been shot for no motive,” he added.

The volunteers choose up a further two our bodies within the area of an hour. Certainly one of them was the charred corpse of an individual hit by an artillery spherical, the opposite an aged man who was shot whereas driving his bicycle.

“(Monday) we picked up seven individuals and (by noon Tuesday) we’re already at six,” Avramenko stated.

Russian strikes on Borodianka were more intense than in most other areas around the capital Kyiv, with entire multi-story buildings raised to the ground.

In and round Borodianka, authorities are solely now simply beginning to comb by way of what’s left of most buildings, understanding they’re going to proceed to search out useless our bodies as they do.

Regardless of the withdrawal of Putin’s military from their metropolis, residents of Borodianka worry the destruction they sowed will linger for months, if not years.

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Atos crisis deepens as biggest shareholder ditches rescue plan

Published

4 hours 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

4 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.