For many Ukrainians, Hamas’ October 7 assault on Israeli civilians bears stark similarities to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Amid fears that the Israel-Gaza war will distract the world’s attention from their own ordeal, Ukraine’s Jewish community leaders and politicians are hoping the U.S. will continue to back both Israel and Ukraine. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from Kyiv. VOA footage by Yevhenii Shynkar.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is using his renewed diplomatic engagement and arms dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin to enhance his position with China as the three socialist countries move to counter the U.S., according to analysts. 

North Korea vowed Tuesday to continue its military cooperation with Russia despite international objections voiced at meetings on conventional weapons at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

“The DPRK will further develop traditional relations of friendship and cooperation with the Russian Federation and other independent sovereign countries,” said North Korea’s U.N. Representative Kim In Chul. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is North Korea’s official name. 

At the U.N. meeting continuing Wednesday, U.S. Representative to the Conference on Disarmament Bruce Turner said the U.S. assessed that North Korea’s delivery of more than 1,000 containers filled with weapons to Russia for its war Ukraine will destabilize international security. 

The White House said on Oct. 13 that North Korea made shipments of military equipment and munitions to Russia.

In return, the White House said, Pyongyang expects to obtain military hardware including fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles and other advanced weapon technologies. 

On Thursday, Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo issued a joint statement condemning North Korea for transferring arms to Russia.

According to the U.S., the shipments that North Korea delivered are thought to be a result of arms deals that Kim and Putin made at their summit in Russia on Sept. 16. Before then, Kim last met with Putin in 2019. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang on Oct. 18.  The next day, Lavrov met with Kim, who stressed the two countries should “faithfully” implement unspecified agreements he made at the summit with Putin, according to North Korea’s state-run KCNA the following day.  

Lavrov said Moscow wants to hold regular security talks with Pyongyang as well as with Beijing over “intensifying” military activities by the U.S., Japan and South Korea, according to an Oct. 20 report from the Russian state news agency, Tass. 

Putin has accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Oct. 11 the details of Putin’s trip to Pyongyang were yet to be worked out.  

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA Korean Service on Thursday, “As far as China is concerned, we will maintain the continuity and stability of neighborhood diplomacy, seek more friendly political relations, stronger economic ties, deepening security cooperation and closer people-to-people exchange with our neighbors and build with them a community with a shared future.”

VOA Korean contacted the North Korean Mission to the U.N. seeking comments on how its relations with Moscow affect its ties with Beijing but did not receive a response.

Daniel Russel, who served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs in the Obama administration, told VOA Korean that Kim is using his renewed ties with Moscow to boost Pyongyang’s standing with Beijing in a similar way that “China is using its leverage with Russia as a political tool against the United States.” 

“Pyongyang is signaling to Beijing that it has other friends and other options as a way to strengthen its hand … in the very lopsided power dynamics between the PRC and the DPRK,” said Russel, now the vice president for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

China’s official name is the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Although historically close, North Korea and Russia became distant after the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991 and Moscow reduced financial support for Pyongyang.  

Since then, Beijing has been North Korea’s primary economic backer, and Pyongyang continues to depend heavily on China, its top trading partner, especially for assistance in the face of global sanctions that have left it isolated. 

According to Ken Gause, director of CNA’s Special Projects for Strategy and Policy Analysis Program and an expert on North Korean leadership, Pyongyang has been looking for ways to reduce its reliance on its northern neighbor, and Moscow provided an option. 

“It is using Russia as a counterweight to China,” said Gause. Moscow is giving Kim “a second source of funding and supplies, especially for military technology that he is not getting from China.”

Gause said even if Beijing were to support international sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang knows that Russia, also heavily sanctioned for invading Ukraine in 2022, will block any U.N. resolutions.  

China, Russia and the U.S. are permanent U.N. Security Council members with veto power, a set-up that prevented the passage of repeated U.S.-proposed sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches over the past two years. 

Although North Korea is economically dependent on China, it does not fully trust Beijing, especially when it comes to military support, according to Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, in a commentary published in September.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries soured after Kim took power in 2011. 

China was wary of then 27-year-old Kim taking control of the regime, and according to Bennett in his September article, Beijing felt betrayed when Kim executed his uncle Jang Song Thaek, a high-ranking official close to China.

Jang was executed for treason. He wanted Kim’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, to be the new leader, according to NHK, the Japanese broadcaster. 

was assassinated in Malaysia in 2017.

Kim visited Beijing in 2018 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was engaged in trade disputes with Washington.

They met three times that year followed by two summits in 2019. Xi’s outreach is seen as an attempt to match a diplomatic breakthrough between Pyongyang and Washington during the Trump administration that resulted in two summits and an impromptu meeting from 2018 to 2019 but failed to produce results on denuclearization.

Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said Pyongyang is keeping Beijing close as its main source of food, fuel and other assistance while propping up the military leg of its national security with Moscow. 

“North Korea is focusing on improving relations with Russia not as an alternative to improve ties with the PRC, but in order to establish an additional pillar of support,” Revere said. 

“Pyongyang seeks an opportunity to greatly improve relations with Russia and secure additional support from Moscow for its military, as well as its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Pyongyang’s goal is not to move away from Beijing or Moscow. Rather, the goal is to grow closer to both.”

Kim rejected food aid Moscow offered when he met Putin in September, said Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora in an interview with a Russian TV program on Sept. 17.  
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Russian authorities on Thursday formally charged Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva with violating the country’s “foreign agent” law.

Russia’s Investigative Committee announced that Kurmasheva has been charged under a section of the Criminal Code that refers to the registration of foreign agents who engage in “purposeful collection of information in the field of military, military-technical activities of Russia,” VOA’s sister outlet RFE/RL reported. 

The Investigative Committee said she did not provide documents to be included on the registry. 

Kurmasheva denies the charge, according to RFE/RL. 

Based in Prague, Kurmasheva is an editor for RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service. A dual U.S.-Russian national, she traveled to Russia in May for a family emergency. She was briefly detained in June while waiting for her return flight, and her passports were confiscated. 

She was waiting for her passports to be returned when she was detained on October 18. A Russian court on October 23 ordered her held in pretrial detention until December 5. Kurmasheva faces up to five years in prison.

Press freedom groups, the United Nations Human Rights Office and the U.S. government have condemned Kurmasheva’s detention and called for her immediate release. 

“It is highly disturbing that the authorities took advantage of an urgent trip home for family reasons to detain a journalist who is normally based outside the country precisely to avoid arbitrary arrest,” Scott Griffen, deputy director of the International Press Institute, said in a statement Thursday.

“We demand Kurmasheva’s immediate release, as well as that of all other Russian journalists held behind bars,” Griffen added. 

Russia’s Washington Embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. 

Russia has a long history of jailing critical journalists and activists. The country held at least 19 journalists in prison as of late 2022, when the Committee to Protect Journalists conducted its most recent annual prison census.

Kurmasheva is one of two American journalists currently jailed in Russia. 

Russian authorities arrested American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in March on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. 

Thursday marks Gershkovich’s 32nd birthday, which he spent behind bars in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison. 

“Every single day he’s detained is a day too long,” his sister, Danielle Gershkovich, told VOA earlier this week.

Most recently, Gershkovich’s pretrial detention was extended until at least November 30. It was originally set to expire in May. 

Meanwhile, also on Thursday, Marina Ovsyannikova, a former Russian state TV journalist who famously interrupted a live broadcast to protest the war in Ukraine and now lives in exile in France, lost custody of her children in a court battle with her ex-husband, who leads the Spanish bureau of the Russian state news outlet RT. 

“I hope my children will be proud of me someday,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday, condemning the court’s ruling. 

Earlier this month, a Russian court sentenced Ovsyannikova in absentia to eight-and-a-half years in prison for staging a separate protest outside the Kremlin in July 2022.

Ovsyannikova fled Russia last year with her 11-year-old daughter, but her 14-year-old son remains with his father, Igor Ovsyannikov. 

Earlier this week, the Moldovan government blocked access to over 20 Russian news outlets, saying they were used as part of an information war against the former Soviet state. 

Russia condemned the move as a “hostile step.”

Moldova previously restricted TV broadcasts of Russia-produced news in June 2022 after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine earlier that year, instead only permitting entertainment shows and movies. 

Moldovan President Maia Sandu has accused the Kremlin of plotting a coup and trying to destabilize the government. 
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Sporadic intense fighting continues in the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka and surrounding areas of the Donetsk region as Kyiv watches a European Union summit in Brussels where the 27-nation bloc is expected to reiterate its condemnation of Russia’s war and support for Ukraine amid fears of donor fatigue among some members.

Kyiv’s troops have repelled as many as 15 attacks by Russian forces in and around Avdiivka, a town that has largely been turned to rubble due to Russian bombing, over the past 24 hours, according to the Ukrainian armed forces.

Avdiivka has been the site of Moscow’s largest offensive in the war in months, and some analysts say Ukraine’s supply lines have been whittled down to a narrow corridor.

With the the war now in its 21st month, European Union leaders are expected to reaffirm their support for “Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity” and “its inherent right of self-defense,” according to the draft conclusions of the summit, seen by RFE/RL.

The document, which is not final and must still be approved by EU leaders, will also reaffirm the bloc’s intention to continue to provide “strong financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes.”

The draft conclusions will also call for “further strengthening sanctions” against Russia over its aggression and will call on the European Commission to “accelerate work” on propositions on how revenues stemming directly from Russia’s immobilized assets could be directed to support Ukraine and its recovery and reconstruction.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is reported to have temporarily closed its new Black Sea grain export corridor due to a possible threat from Russian warplanes and sea mines.

Barva Invest, a Ukrainian agricultural brokerage and analytics company, said that with defense officials citing increased Russian aircraft activities in the Black Sea area, inbound and outbound vessel traffic has been temporarily suspended.

In August, Ukraine announced a so-called “humanitarian corridor” to release ships bound for African and Asian markets, and to circumvent a de facto blockade after Russia abandoned a deal this summer that had guaranteed its exports during the war. The route runs along Ukraine’s southwest Black Sea coast, into Romanian territorial waters and onwards to Turkey.

Some information for his report came from Reuters. 
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Despite bleak outlooks on their emotional and financial well-being, Ukrainians still remain optimistic about their future, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.

The pressures of war have been weighing heavily on Ukrainian citizens since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Many say they have been unable to afford necessities such as food and shelter, and many others report experiencing negative feelings, worry chief among them.

Living conditions in Ukraine have been challenging, with only about 38% of Ukrainians surveyed saying they are satisfied with their standard of living, and around 63% saying that living standards are getting worse.

Nearly 53% of the population surveyed said there were times in the last 12 months when they were unable to afford food for themselves or their families. About 48% of those polled said they were unable to afford shelter.

The hardships were felt most by Ukrainians who have not had more than a secondary education. This group had 20% more respondents who were unable to afford food, and 12% more who were unable to afford housing, compared to those with a higher education.

Emotional issues also remain at high levels, despite having stabilized since the end of last year.

The most frequently experienced negative emotion was worry, which was felt by more than half (53%) of respondents. Other common negative emotions were sadness (39%), stress (32%), and anger (22%).

Some of those surveyed did report positive emotions, with nearly half (48%) saying they either smiled or laughed the previous day, and 54% saying they felt enjoyment.

When asked how they would rate their lives on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the best possible life, the average response was 4.7.

Despite this, most Ukrainians look forward to a better future. When asked to rate their expectations for their lives five years from now, the response increased to 7.7.

That optimism underscores the results of a previous Gallup poll, which found that most residents are committed to continuing the war effort until Russia is driven from Ukrainian territory.

 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged Tuesday to reclaim areas of Ukraine currently occupied by Russian forces.

“Ukraine will reclaim its territory and its people,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.  “We will not leave anyone to the occupiers. We are using every means to ensure that this war ends with the defeat of the occupiers.”

He also said that despite doubts from many in the world, “Ukraine has shown that it can prevail, despite all the challenges, especially in the Black Sea region.”

Early Tuesday, Russia’s defense ministry said it destroyed three Ukrainian boats in the northern part of the Black Sea.

Russia also said it conducted an “anti-sabotage” operation near the Sevastopol port, which is home to its Black Sea fleet.

Ukraine said Tuesday that Russian attacks in two parts of the country wounded at least eight people.

In the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Russian airstrikes and artillery fire wounded four people and damaged several houses, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on social media.

Klymenko also said a Russian attack in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine injured four people.

Ukraine’s air force said its defenses downed six drones that Russian launched from Crimea.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters

 
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Violence among the Eritrean diaspora has broken out in Europe, the Middle East and North America in recent weeks. Hundreds have been arrested in clashes between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government. In this report from Stuttgart, Germany, Henry Wilkins speaks with members of the Eritrean diaspora about what has triggered these new clashes.
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Ukraine said Tuesday that Russian attacks in two parts of the country wounded at least eight people.

In the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Russian airstrikes and artillery fire wounded four people and damaged a number of houses, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on social media.

Klymenko also said a Russian attack in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine injured four people.

Ukraine and Russia each said Tuesday their militaries also thwarted attacks by enemy uncrewed vehicles.

Russia’s defense ministry said it destroyed three Ukrainian boats in the northern part of the Black Sea.

Russia also said it conducted an “anti-sabotage” operation near the Sevastopol port, which is home to its Black Sea fleet.

Ukraine’s air force said its defenses downed six drones that Russian launched from Crimea.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Sweden moved one step closer to entering NATO Monday when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan submitted a bill to parliament seeking approval for the Nordic nation’s bid to join the military alliance.

Thirty-one other NATO member nations have already ratified Sweden’s membership bid, leaving Turkey and Hungary as the final nations that have not yet done so.

Erdogan had promised his NATO allies he would introduce a bill to ratify Sweden’s membership when parliament reopened on October 1 and the bill was finally submitted on Monday.

Previously, Turkey had cited accusations of Sweden harboring terrorists as a reason for the delay. Ankara had said Stockholm needed to take more aggressive measures to crack down on the Kurdistan Workers Party, or the PKK militia, before Sweden’s membership bid could be ratified. 

The PKK is deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU.

Turkey’s decision was welcomed by NATO as well as Sweden, who both released statements praising Erdogan.

“I look forward to a speedy vote to ratify, and to welcoming Sweden as a full NATO ally very soon,” NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg said in a statement. “This will make the whole Alliance stronger and more secure.”

“Glad to hear that Turkish President Erdogan has now handed over the ratification documents to the Turkish Parliament,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Now it remains for Parliament to deal with the issue. We look forward to becoming a member of NATO.”

Turkey’s reversal on the decision to admit Sweden came as deals were made with both the U.S., who agreed to let Turkey buy 40 new F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits, as well as Sweden, who signaled it would help Turkey get admitted into the EU.

Sweden is attempting to follow its neighbor Finland in becoming a NATO member, after both nations spent decades outside the military alignment. Finland joined the alliance in April with Turkey stating it had addressed its security concerns.

The Nordic countries’ decisions to seek military protection under NATO came after Russia launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine last year.

Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Countries are deadlocked over how to design a fund to help countries recover and rebuild from climate change-driven damage, with just over 30 days left before crucial United Nations climate negotiations kick off in Dubai.  

Two dozen countries involved in a committee tasked with designing a “loss and damage” fund wrapped up the last meeting in the early hours of Saturday in Aswan, Egypt, with developing and developed countries at odds over central questions: which entity should oversee the fund, who should pay and which countries would be eligible to receive funding.  

The committee was expected to draft a list of recommendations for implementing the fund, which was agreed in a breakthrough last year at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and would be the first U.N. fund dedicated to addressing irreparable climate-driven damage from drought, floods and rising sea levels.  

Instead, the group agreed to meet one more time in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 3 before the COP28 U.N. summit begins in Dubai on Nov. 30 to try to bridge divisions, which could set the tone for the two-week climate negotiations.  

“The entire COP28 negotiations could get derailed if developing countries’ priorities on funding for loss and damage are not adequately addressed,” said Preety Bhandari, a senior adviser on finance at the World Resources Institute.  

Among the most contentious issues last week was whether the World Bank should host the fund – a position pushed by the U.S. and developed countries – or whether the U.N. create a new body to run the fund, as developing countries have urged.  

Housing a fund at the World Bank, whose presidents are appointed by the United States, would give donor countries outsized influence over the fund and result in high fees for recipient countries, developing countries argue.  

“Its operational culture, the way in which the World Bank has been assisting countries in their development policies, I think it’s not fit for purpose in relation to what we’re looking for from this new climate facility,” said Cuba’s U.N. Ambassador Pedro Pedroso Cuesta, chair of the G77 (developing countries) and China.  

He said the creation of a “new independent entity” to run the fund is the core of its position.  

In response to these criticisms, a spokesperson for the World Bank told Reuters: “We are supporting the process and are committed to working with countries once they agree on how to structure the loss and damage fund.”  

The United States, the European Union and others want a more targeted fund. The EU wants a fund dedicated to the most “vulnerable” while the U.S. has said the fund should focus on areas like slow-onset climate impacts such as sea-level rise.  

Countries are also split over who should pay.  

Brandon Wu, director of policy & campaigns for NGO ActionAid USA called on the United States to back off its insistence that the World Bank house the fund.  

U.S. negotiator Christina Chan, a senior adviser to Special Envoy on Climate John Kerry, pushed back on criticism that the U.S. is obstructing progress on loss and damage.  

“We have been working diligently at every turn to address concerns, problem-solve, and find landing zones,” she said.
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Ukrainian officials said Monday that Russian forces attacked overnight with drones and a cruise missile that targeted different parts of the country.

Ukraine’s air force said it downed 14 attack drones, including 13 Iranian-made Shahed drones, as well as the cruise missile.

Oleh Kiper, the regional governor of Odesa, said debris from one of the destroyed drones fell on the southern region, damaging a port warehouse.

Kiper said there were no casualties reported.

Russia has repeatedly targeted Odesa with aerial attacks, including ports along the Black Sea and the Danube River.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on Telegram that the latest Russian attacks targeted the southern, eastern and central parts of the country.

Some information for this story came from Reuters

 
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In the humble backyard of a destroyed house, a 13-year-old chops firewood to get ready for winter. His mother, Tetiana Yarema, has been preparing for months as she remembers last winter’s Russian strikes on the energy infrastructure that plunged Ukraine into darkness.

“Those were dark days. I didn’t want anything. I just wanted to pack my things and go abroad,” said Yarema, 48, who says she ended up staying because of her son’s insistence.

For the Yarema family, like millions of other Ukrainians touched by Russia’s war on Ukraine, winter is an especially challenging time.

The mother and son live in trailers that were set up in their backyard after fighting in the early days of the war destroyed their house in Moshchun, a village about 25 kilometers northwest of Kyiv.

“I have a feeling that when the cold sets in, they’ll start bombing again,” the woman said, echoing the sentiments of many Ukrainians.

This time, however, they say they are better prepared.

Sales of generators exploded toward the end of summer. Some, who can afford it, have invested in solar panels. Others, like Yarema, have been purchasing candles, batteries, flashlights, and portable lanterns and stocking up on compact gas canisters, making the most of discounted prices.

“It’s a bit challenging … but I already know what to do,” she said.

Last winter was declared the most challenging in the history of Ukraine’s energy system, with more than 1,200 missiles and drones fired by Russians at power plants, according to Ukrainian state-owned grid operator, Ukrenergo.

The strikes impacted almost a half of Ukraine’s energy capacity. People were forced to endure hours without electricity and water during the coldest months in what Ukrainian officials described as “energy terror.”

Millions of people across Ukraine had to learn to work, live, and cover their basic needs without relying on electricity.

After a lull of six months, Ukraine’s energy system sustained its first attack of the season on Sept. 21, resulting in damage to facilities in the central and western regions, Ukrenergo said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has committed to substantially enhancing air defense systems, which already have demonstrated greater effectiveness than the previous year.

“Everyone must play their part in defensive efforts to ensure that Russian aggression does not halt Ukraine this winter. Just as on the battlefield, in all areas, we must be resilient and strong,” Zelenskyy said in a recent address to the nation.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal recently announced that the United States has allocated $522 million for energy equipment and the protection of Ukraine’s infrastructure.

“We stand on the threshold of a difficult winter. Thanks to the assistance of our allies, we successfully weathered the last, which was the most challenging winter season in our history,” Shmyhal said.

Major retailer Epicenter said sales of generators increased 80% in August compared to the same time last year, and sales of portable charging stations increased by 25 times.

Yurii Musienko, 45, another resident of Moshchun, also plans to rely heavily on firewood, and has a wood-burning stove in his compact wooden trailer that has been provided to him for two years, and which sits next to his ruined home.

“I’ve already adapted,” he said with a smile. The gates of his home still bear the holes from exploded ammunition that serve as a reminder of when Russian forces tried to seize the Ukrainian capital.

“May no one ever have to endure such conditions,” said his mother, Valentyna Kiriian, who lives in a separate plastic trailer installed in the same courtyard.

She’s dressed in a hat and a coat, with multiple layers of clothing to stay warm. She notes that the cold has already set in, forcing her to sleep fully clothed, much like the previous winter.

During the power outages last winter, the mother and son relied on canned food. Occasionally, Valentyna would visit her neighbor, whose house remained intact and had a gas stove for boiling water.

“It’s difficult for me to talk about. It pains my soul, and my heart weeps,” she said.

Private Ukrainian energy producer DTEK has spent the last seven months restoring its damaged infrastructure and fortifying the protection of its equipment for the approaching winter.

The company invested about 20 billion Ukrainian hryvnias ($550 million) to prepare for the coming season, and it lost billions of hryvnias because of last year’s disruptions caused by Russian attacks, according to CEO Maxim Timchenko.

“We learned our lessons,” Timchenko said.

Andrii Horchynskyi, 49. who lives in the village of Maliutianka about 25 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, has invested more than $30,000 in recent years to ensure his house is self-sufficient, and ramped up those efforts since Russia’s invasion.

Last year, he spent $12,000 to install solar panels to help power his spacious house, where other members of his extended family came to stay for the winter — eight of them surviving comfortably.

“We had a whole ant heap here,” Horchynskyi recalled.

He is convinced the Russians will try to damage Ukraine’s infrastructure for gas, which he thinks will become expensive or even unavailable. So, he has installed a boiler that burns pine pellets. He also stores one-and-a-half cubic meters of water in his backyard.

“They will bombard even more this winter than the last,” Horchynskyi said.
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