- Ex-Real Madrid defender and World Cup winner Varane retires
- Nuking a huge asteroid could save Earth, lab experiment suggests
- Six hurt in Ecuador as firefighters battle blazes choking capital
- Florida girds for arrival of Helene as powerful hurricane
- German prosecutors charge three in Schumacher blackmail case
- Restoring nature, 'adaptation' helped limit Storm Boris impact
- Son says Spurs team-mate Bentancur 'almost cried' over alleged racial slur
- French minister vows to 'protect the French' after student rape and murder
- Harris and Trump target economy in close US election battle
- Zelensky alleges Russia plot on nuclear plants in defiant UN address
- 'Worst crisis': German Greens leaders quit after election losses
- Israel puts troops on alert for entry into Lebanon
- 'The UN has betrayed us': Israeli ambassador
- US new home sales slow slightly in August
- UN chief says sea level rise threatens 'rising tide of misery'
- Global stocks mixed after fresh China stimulus
- US-China progress sparks hope for COP29, says Azerbaijan
- Zelensky says Russia planning attacks on Ukraine nuclear plants
- Film legend Bardot, nearing 90, enjoys her 'silent solitude'
- Walking on the Moon in Cologne: Europe's lunar life simulator
- Google files EU complaint over Microsoft cloud services
- Finnish zoo to return pandas to China early
- At last! China's Zhang Shuai ends 24-match losing streak
- Global stocks trade mixed tracking China stimulus
- EU backs plan to downgrade wolf protection status
- Jacks says new-look England need time to master ODIs
- Madrid's Mbappe suffers thigh injury before Atletico derby
- Russian MPs back adoption ban on countries allowing gender reassignment
- France minister vows new immigration 'rules' after student murder
- EU states back plan to downgrade wolf protection status
- Unions vow 'bitter resistance' as Volkswagen talks begin
- Naomi Osaka wants 'no regrets' after hiring Serena's former coach
- Lady Gaga plants lipstick smile on 'Mona Lisa' in Louvre clip
- Man City confirm Rodri knee ligament injury
- Hezbollah's Fadi rockets: More power, little precision
- Naomi Osaka wants 'no regrets' after teaming up with Mouratoglou
- New Zealand flanker 'Braveheart' Sititi relishes his 'crazy' rise
- OECD calls for higher property taxes to fight debt
- Environmentalists smear Finland's parliament in red paint
- World Cup winner Varane retires
- Britain's Rightmove rejects higher £6.1-bn Murdoch bid
- Stocks rally stutters but Hong Kong, Shanghai up on new China move
- Cuts, cash, credit: China's latest bid to jumpstart flagging economy
- Hezbollah fires missile at Tel Aviv in Israel
- Zelensky to take UN stage in plea to sustain support
- Leftist Sri Lanka leader stuck with painful IMF deal: analysts
- Cryptocurrency platform boss urges tighter regulation
- 'Crazy' tree planter greening Sao Paulo concrete jungle
- French champagne makers bid to protect seasonal workers from abuse
- Atletico Madrid president splits time between football and film
RYCEF | 0% | 7.07 | $ | |
RBGPF | -1.04% | 59.48 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.08% | 25.12 | $ | |
RELX | -0.09% | 48.485 | $ | |
NGG | 0.16% | 70.225 | $ | |
VOD | 0.15% | 10.105 | $ | |
GSK | -0.39% | 40.82 | $ | |
RIO | 0.65% | 67.86 | $ | |
BP | -2.66% | 31.98 | $ | |
BTI | -0.14% | 38.045 | $ | |
SCS | -0.92% | 13 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.44% | 25.01 | $ | |
AZN | 0.74% | 77.445 | $ | |
BCC | -1.91% | 139.125 | $ | |
JRI | -0.15% | 13.4 | $ | |
BCE | -0.7% | 34.885 | $ |
'No time to hide' for Ukraine social worker in town near front line
Shelling thundered from several directions and black smoke drifted upward in the distance as Zhanna Protsenko pedalled off for a house call in a war-hit Ukrainian town.
She's a social worker who has chosen to stay on the job even as the strikes have come ever closer, in large part because she is tasked with looking after people who won't or simply can't evacuate.
That means she is staying too, for now, and is visiting them in their homes.
"How can I leave them here?" the 56-year-old asked, standing near a hospital that was hit by a strike in the past week.
"We work. We have no time to hide," she said as contractors repaired rows of the hospital's blown-out windows and an oil drum-sized hole blasted in its brick facade.
She works in the southeastern town of Orikhiv which is still in government hands but dangerously close to the line between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
At least three people have been killed by explosive strikes in the past 10 days, authorities said.
The fighting in the area is mostly done by artillery, missiles or other deadly projectiles fired from potentially kilometres away, and which kill indiscriminately.
Homes hit by enemy fire stand next door to undamaged houses in a town surrounded by farmland, while a fire ignited by shelling has been burning for days in several long brick buildings that stored tonnes of harvested sunflower seeds.
- 'I won't survive without help' -
With the blaze's smoke in the sky above her, Protsenko pedalled a beaten-up blue bicycle to a small house with a neat row of tulips in the black dirt of the garden.
The woman who lives there, 65-year-old Nyna Provontsova, moved slowly on a set of wooden crutches and sank to a seat on a wooden bench outside.
"I will not survive without someone's help, I need to be taken care of every day," Provontsova said, reeling off a list of medical problems.
"Sometimes I call her when I need something, to wash my legs -- I can't do it myself. I can't lean forward, my hip joints were replaced."
The social worker jotted down a list of items Provontsova asked her to buy, and will also go to pick up her pension.
Though the woman has two daughters, they're both in Kyiv and struggling to find work and take care of themselves as the war disrupts every aspect of life.
The war is never far away, and feels like it's getting closer.
- 'This is why I stay' -
The house across road, no more than 15 metres (50 feet) away, was hit by a strike and looks like it's now abandoned.
"It's one shell after another. When it hit the neighbours, I was almost knocked out of bed by the impact," said Provontsova.
If the woman evacuates, which she may be forced to do, she'll have to leave behind the special mobility aids in her bathroom and on her bed that help her.
"I don't want to go anywhere," she said.
As she spoke, the social worker was listening, her hands clasped in front of her.
"You asked why we don't leave?" Protsenko said.
"This is why."
B.Shevchenko--BTB