Notices by Tim Mak (timkmak@journa.host), page 8

ROLLING BLACKOUT FORMULA TO BE ADJUSTED: Power will not be cut off in parts of #Ukraine's frontline territory due to the serious humanitarian situation and threat to life, said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, chairman of the board of NPC Ukrenergo.

https://hromadske.ua/suspilstvo/226658-bud-iaka-insha-enerhosystema-krayin-yevropy-vze-davno-b-skolapsuvala-interviu-z-ochilnykom-ukrenerho-volodymyrom-kudrytskym

NEWS OF THE DAY:

#KYIV ONE OF THE WORST CITIES IN WORLD: For the second year in a row, Kyiv has been ranked among the least liveable cities by The #Economist due to the war and the bombings.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/06/26/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities-in-2024

#HUNGARY'S LIST OF REQUIREMENTS FOR #EU ACCESSION: Hungary has put forward 11 conditions for Ukraine's accession to the EU. The list was published by European Pravda. #Ukraine received the list from Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in January.

https://www.eurointegration.com.ua/articles/2024/06/27/7188991/

DEATH OF U.S. DIPLOMAT IN #KYIV HOTEL: The body of a U.S. Embassy official was found in a Hilton hotel in #Ukraine. The official arrived in the country less than two weeks ago, on June 15. According to preliminary reports, there were no signs of violence involved.

https://www.newsweek.com/us-diplomat-found-dead-kyiv-hotelreport-1917644

Good morning to readers; #Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

The gray zone is a two km passageway in NE Ukraine, the only way refugees can cross from #Russia into #Ukraine.

At 17, Sofia had to leave her mother behind for a perilous journey from occupied territory into free Ukraine.

They call it the gray zone.

Two kilometers of road that is contested by both Russian and Ukrainian forces, and controlled by neither.

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The power is out. Again. I tried to stop into a corner store earlier this week, and the mood was cataclysmic: all the refrigerated food is going to spoil.

The Ukrainian power system is in crisis mode: it’s summer, and already an epic catastrophe: businesses are going to fail, people are going to lose their jobs. The winter, when it dips well below freezing, promises to be significantly worse.

We are not going to stop.

We are not leaving.

We’re going to keep doing our #reporting.

We at The Counteroffensive have been super loyal to Mastodon over the past year, becoming one of the most frequent posters on #Ukraine news and original reporting.

Now we need your help -- This is the graph that keeps me up at night.

It represents The Counteroffensive’s projected revenue for the year. I’ve taken out the numbers, but the shape tells you the story -- we've taken a hit.

But here’s what we need to continue: battery power stations that can keep the lights on and the wifi working.

As you can imagine, during a period of war, they are quite expensive: $2,500 — if you can find them in the inventory.

Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

Maryan Zablotskiy, a #Zelenskyy ally, believes that Ukraine should adopt a law similar to America’s Second Amendment…

Arguing that with more firearms, #Ukraine could have more easily staved off Russian atrocities…

New Kyiv routine: say a little prayer every time you get into an elevator so that the power doesn’t go out when you’re inside one

… this time the power shut off within five minutes of me getting out!

Until a few months ago nobody really knew how common stories like Taras’ were among servicemen in #Ukraine.

On March 29th a petition authored by a soldier, Pavlo Petrychenko, called for the president to deal with the proliferation of gambling in the military.

Some servicemen had been found to gamble away all their money; others turned to pawning military gear...

The gambling sites also pose a national security threat: many are Russian owned, and could exploit the data of Ukrainian servicemen.

But the main reason he is in therapy is for betting on football.

When Taras’ wife found out about the debt his gambling had racked up, they fought until they ran out of words, and considered a divorce.

The ties binding them together were tested. “We have two kids, you know…”

Taras trails off, pausing before continuing.

They would find a way to pay off the loans, she decided, but in exchange he had to stop gambling and lying to her about the debt.

The lifestyle that comes with military work is often unpredictable, and, contrary to what one might expect, mind-numbingly boring.

For servicemen that are in combat positions, the intensity that comes with living near the frontline is combined with monotonous waiting.

There is also the understimulated gambler.

This includes servicemen away from the frontline in non-combat positions, who conduct repetitive administrative work, are often away from their family and similarly have no time off.

Less than a month later, Zelenskyy enacted new rules regulating gambling sites, limiting online advertising and establishing caps on weekly gambling.

But Pavlo Petrychenko, the author of the petition, had been tragically killed in action 5 days beforehand.

Taras’s family left the country, leaving him lonely and lacking support.

Left with so much time alone, he it became increasingly hard to control his addiction:

But Taras is determined to make a change:

“I haven’t gambled for a few months… and they are coming home in two months. I think we will be able to pay the debts back by that time, then we can live normally for a while.”

“90 percent of the servicemen struggling with addictions now are ones that had them before the military, but, a lot of them, due to the conditions they live in and what their life is like, have relapsed,” says a chaplain.

The high salaries soldiers make on the frontline, six-times the national average, are another contributing factor, says Igor Hokh.

With resources so stretched in war time, #Ukraine is struggling to deal with the problem.

Mental health services are known to fall short of meeting the needs of servicemen, and there are simply not enough military psychologists to go around, so often servicemen will turn to military chaplains for support.

Attendees in Switzerland have put together a statement that calls on respecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine, "resolution of disputes through peaceful means.”

Read the full text here:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/draft-joint-communique-ukraine-conference-switzerland-2024-06-15/

NEWS OF THE DAY:

Some 90 countries are meeting at the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock to work on the path forward to a peace deal.

Neither China nor Russia were present, but those less supportive of Ukraine – such as Saudi Arabia and Kenya – took part in the talks.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxrr1kyp04eo