Connect with us

Published

on

Head doctor, Irina Starodumova, guides me through the gloom with torch in hand, in Kherson’s central hospital.

As we walk, she tells me that they look after people with the sound of shelling in the background, a constant reminder that war is never far away.

Every aspect of her work, and her team’s work, has been impacted by the war and the liberation of her city will not make things better overnight.

“We have to refuse help to some patients, unfortunately. We have the same needs as before the war, but we can’t get any medicines now,” she says.

They are short of everything here but perhaps most of all power.

Kherson
Image:
Maternity doctor, Oleksandr Lysenko

There’s only one generator for the entire hospital and sometimes they can’t get enough diesel to keep it running.

When they retreated, the Russians destroyed infrastructure in the city that provides basic services and it’s those with the greatest need that are suffering most.

More on Ukraine

As we are taken to the maternity ward, we can hear artillery thumping over our heads – the staff never get used to this trauma they cannot escape.

Inside the difficulties are acute.

Alyona has just gone into labour and keeping her warm is the priority for the medics – they’ve set up an electric bar heater; it’s improvised but it works.

The maternity doctor, Oleksandr Lysenko, explains that providing basic things has become almost impossible.

“We can’t provide heating for everyone after they’ve given birth. We can do it during surgery, and we are able to provide heating during some procedures. But we can’t warm up all mums and newborns after the birth.”

In the room next door is Yulia.

Kherson
Image:
Yulia gave birth to her son Constantin on liberation day

Her son Constantin came into the world on the day this city was liberated, the nurse helps them keep warm using plastic bottles of hot water.

“I wished that my child would be born in Ukraine. It was difficult but I kept my spirits up and I believed my son would be born in a Ukrainian Kherson,” she says, smiling as she talks.

The babies in the unit were all conceived just before the start of this war and for nearly all of their pregnancies the mothers were living under Russian occupation.

For Marina, her happy day is tinged with sadness.

Kherson
Image:
It is a constant battle to keep the lights on

“I could say he is a child of war from the beginning to the end; when Kherson was occupied until it was liberated. I don’t even know whether his father knows he has a son.”

This war has been grinding on now for nine long months but the mothers here hope their children will grow up knowing only freedom.

Continue Reading

World

Trump ‘very disappointed’ in Russian strikes on Ukraine and calls for Putin to ‘sit down and sign a deal’

Published

on

By

Trump 'very disappointed' in Russian strikes on Ukraine and calls for Putin to 'sit down and sign a deal'

Donald Trump has said he’s “very disappointed” with Russia as he continues to push for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.

On Saturday, the US president met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican for their first face-to-face meeting since their explosive White House summit.

The Ukrainian president said the meeting ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral could end up being “historic.” Hours later, Mr Trump questioned Vladimir Putin’s appetite for peace in a Truth Social post.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

From Saturday: Trump meets Zelenskyy at funeral

Speaking before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Mr Trump again said the meeting went well, and that the Ukrainian leader was “calmer”.

“I think he understands the picture, I think he wants to make a deal,” he said, before turning to Mr Putin and Russia.

“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” the US president said, adding he was “very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places (including Kyiv, where nine people were killed in a Russian airstrike on Friday) after discussions”.

However, Mr Trump said he thinks Mr Zelenskyy is ready to give up Crimea, which the Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said he would refuse to do.

More on Donald Trump

He added that “we’ll see what happens in the next few days” and said “don’t talk to me about Crimea, talk to Obama and Biden about Crimea”.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, while Barack Obama was president.

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Sky’s US partner network NBC News that a peace deal to end the war was “closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years, but it’s still not there”.

“If this was an easy war to end, it would have been ended by someone else a long time ago,” he added on the Meet the Press show.

Read more:
Child among 11 dead after Vancouver car attack
Liverpool win Premier League title to equal Man Utd’s record

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

It comes after North Korea confirmed it had deployed troops to fight for Russia, months after Ukraine and Western officials said its forces were in Europe.

State media outlet KCNA reported North Korean soldiers made an “important contribution” to expelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory, likely to be the Kursk region.

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un made the decision to deploy troops to Russia and notified Moscow, and quoted him as saying: “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland.”

It also quoted the country’s ruling Workers’ Party as saying the end of the battle to liberate Kursk showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia.

Last June, Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty after a state visit – his first to the country in 24 years.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

From June 2024: Putin drives Kim around in luxury limo during state visit

The North Korean leader promised at the time “full support and solidarity to the Russian government, army and people in carrying out the special military operation in Ukraine”.

Continue Reading

World

40 killed in blast at Iran’s biggest port as Tehran denies explosion ‘linked to fuel for missiles’

Published

on

By

40 killed in blast at Iran's biggest port as Tehran denies explosion 'linked to fuel for missiles'

At least 40 people have been killed and several hundred more injured after an explosion and fire at Iran’s largest port, according to state media.

The blast, at the Shahid Rajaei container hub near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, happened on Saturday as Iran held a third round of talks with the US in Oman about Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Shipping containers burned, goods inside were badly damaged and the explosion was so powerful that windows several miles away were shattered, reports said.

Iranian Red Crescent rescuers work at the site of the blast. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Iranian Red Crescent rescuers work at the site of the blast. Pic: Reuters

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

The blast at the Shahid Rajaei port happened as Iran and the US met for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Helicopters and aircraft dumped water from the air on the blaze and by Sunday afternoon it was 90% extinguished, the head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society told state media.

Officials said port activities had resumed in unaffected parts of Shahid Rajaei.

Out of the 752 people who had received treatment for their injuries, 190 were still being treated in medical centres on Sunday, according to Iran’s crisis management organisation.

Chemicals at the port were suspected to have worsened the blast, but the exact cause of the explosion was not clear.

More on Iran

Iran’s defence ministry denied international media reports that the explosion may be connected to the mishandling of solid fuel used for missiles.

The reports were “aligned with enemy psyops [psychological operations]”, according to a ministry spokesperson, who told state TV the blast-hit area did not contain any military cargo.

Firefighters work to extinguish the fire. Pic: AP
Image:
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze. Pic: AP

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Read more:
Nine die after vehicle hits crowd at Vancouver street festival
Pictures of Pope Francis’s tomb released as it opens to public

According to the Associated Press, British security company Ambrey said that the port in March received sodium perchlorate, which is used to propel ballistic missiles and the mishandling of which could have led to the explosion.

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

The Financial Times previously reported two Iranian vessels had shipped from China enough of the ingredient to propel up to 260 mid-range missiles.

It was reportedly to help Tehran replenish stocks after its missile attacks on Israel in 2024.

Iran’s military has sought to deny the delivery of sodium perchlorate from China.

Iran’s state-run Irna news agency reported on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed several emergency aircraft to Bandar Abbas to provide help.

Continue Reading

World

Pilgrims travel to Pope Francis’s tomb to remember the late pontiff

Published

on

By

Pilgrims travel to Pope Francis's tomb to remember the late pontiff

Anna and Irene have already been queuing for an hour or so, and they know they have a long wait still to come.

“Two hours, three hours, ten hours – what does it matter?” says Irena. “This is about eternity.”

They have come to Rome from Slovenia, Catholics who felt “Papa Francis would have wanted us to be here”.

People take photos of the grave of late Pope Francis inside St. Mary Major Basilica.
Pic: AP/Andrew Medichini
Image:
People take photos of the grave of late Pope Francis inside St. Mary Major Basilica. Pic: AP/Andrew Medichini

A single white rose left on the tomb. Pic: Vatican
Image:
A single white rose left on the tomb. Pic: Vatican

And under the sun outside Santa Maria Maggiore, they are awaiting the opportunity to visit his tomb.

Francis, says Irena, “was like a rainbow” who lit up the world. Anna nods along: “We are so happy to be here.”

The Pope’s tomb has become a new source of pilgrimage.

More than 30,000 people came to view it during the first morning after the Pope’s funeral, the queue snaking from the front of the mighty basilica and then up and down across the square at the back.

More on Pope Francis

Some were curious visitors, others were devout followers – priests and nuns mixing in the queue with tourists and devoted locals.

All of these admired Francis; a very few actually knew him.

Father Alessandro Masseroni is a deacon who came to Rome to train to become a priest. On his phone, he shows me a photo of him and Francis, with the Pope offering words of encouragement.

Father Alessandro Masseroni meeting the Pope
Image:
Father Alessandro Masseroni meeting the Pope

He says: “I had the honour to serve Pope Francis and to talk to him many times and it was a special experience. I understand why he was so loved by all the people – he was simple and direct.

“He was sunny. St Francis was his role model and when I saw the first picture of the Pope’s tomb, the first thing I thought was of the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.

“Pope Francis will leave a legacy – it doesn’t end with his death but will continue.”

People attend the funeral Mass of Pope Francis at the Vatican, April 26, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Image:
People attend the funeral of Pope Francis. Pic: Reuters/Yara Nardi

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Video shows Pope’s tomb

What are your emotions now, as you wait to visit his tomb, I ask. Father Alessandro pauses and smiles.

“Many emotions of course, but mainly, I think… thankfulness.”

That has been a recurring aspect among so many of the people we have met in Rome over the past week – the sense that sadness for Francis’s death is outweighed by the sense that his was a life that should be celebrated.

Volodymyr Borysyak flew in from London on the morning of the Pope’s funeral to make his third pilgrimage to Rome.

Barely had he arrived than his phone was stolen, a crime he responded to by praying for the thief.

Read more:
Vatican shares details of Pope’s private burial
How the new pope will be chosen

Volodymyr is a refugee from western Ukraine who worries that his home country’s plight is being forgotten by some of the world.

Now, the Pope who inspired him has died.

You might imagine that he would be resentful and angry. Instead, he is full of smiles.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

The farewell to Pope Francis

“We are happy to be the pilgrims of the world and this is a special day,” he tells me. “I know the pope used to pray in this basilica so that is why we will stay so long here to visit Santa Maria Maggiore.

“I think Pope Francis was, is and will be the pope for the world, because of the mercy of his heart and his love for everybody.”

Continue Reading

Trending