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Nobody believed the Russians would really invade, says Yuriy Bova, mayor of the small Ukrainian town of Trostyanets, just 20 miles from the Russian border – but 24 February 2022 will forever be etched in his mind. As Russian tanks trundled across the border in the early hours of the morning, there were no Ukrainian troops in Trostyanets – in Ukraine’s eastern Sumy region – and the residents of the town knew the enemy would arrive within hours. Bova says they tried as best they could to slow down the Russian advance. Felling trees onto the roads through the rolling hills and forests surrounding Trostyanets, brought one column of invading vehicles to a halt for two days. However, it wasn't enough. “There weren’t just four or five armoured vehicles, as we had imagined. Instead, there was another column with more than 100 vehicles, including up to 60 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, 20 troop-carrying trucks plus fuel tankers,” Bova says. The Russians rumbled into Trostyanets on the first day of the invasion, beginning a nightmare for the town’s 21,000 inhabitants. I'd heard about the plight of the town a month later, on 27 March – when it was freed from Russian occupation. In the intervening weeks, much of the town was destroyed, 49 of its people were killed and 13 others believed “disappeared” by the occupiers. I was in another area of Ukraine – and knew nobody in Trostyanets – but started to dial numbers I could find. The first person to answer was on a number for the “Hotel Trostyanets". The woman who answered, Tetyana Shevchenko, the hotel’s owner had just returned to her town. I could hear her trying to muffle her sobbing as she told me about how the hotel had been utterly trashed. Everything that could be stolen, such as TVs, fridges and air-conditioners, had been looted, while beds, furniture, even doors had been smashed. However, even while absorbing the destruction at the business she and her husband spent years building, Tetyana said she felt lucky compared to others whose relatives had been killed or homes had been reduced to piles of charred rubble. Such a refusal to surrender to despair is a trait that was to become ever more apparent across Ukraine. I finally managed to visit Trostyanets recently, more than 15 months into a war Moscow appeared sure would only last weeks. Hotel Trostyanets was easy to find on the town’s main street, standing intact as part of a row of burned and battered husks of buildings. The town, founded in 1660, contains onion-domed churches and a fortress enclosed by a stone white-painted wall, built in the mid-18th century. During the occupation, the Russians positioned heavy artillery inside, calculating – correctly – that Ukrainian forces would not target a structure listed as a historic treasure. The building was unscathed by Ukrainian shelling but its walls are peppered with bullet holes from machine-gun fire in a bile-filled farewell by the fleeing Russians. Every street bears some scars. The railway station and shops, restaurants and residential buildings that had fringed a large square and park are a scene of total devastation, with most of the structures blasted beyond redemption. The park is a churned-up mixture of tarmac and soil. Eerily perched at its centre, atop a high concrete pedestal, is a Second World War-era Soviet T-34 tank. One of its treads, hit by shellfire, trails limply. When the Russians arrived, they commandeered the hotel and kicked Tetyana out. She said they immediately set out to inspire terror in the town, whose people were often beaten or detained, without rhyme or reason. Many men were forced to strip at gunpoint and stand on the street throughout freezing nights, she says. “They intimidated people, looted shops. Soon they started rounding people up for torture. They used the basement at our railway station as a torture chamber, where they did whatever they wanted,” Tetyana adds. “They understood that we were frightened of them and they behaved even more arrogantly, they enjoyed it.” Two of her friends, a married couple, were riding bikes when the Russians shot at them without warning, says Tetyana. The woman died but the Russians “wouldn’t let her body be moved for burial and she lay there until the Russians left”. Tetyana is active in local politics and was head of the local election commission. She feared the Russians would eventually come for her and she and her daughter managed to leave in mid-March to western Ukraine. Both their husbands had previously left and were in the Ukrainian military. Tetyana and her husband started repairing their hotel as soon as the Russians left, using their savings – as well as help from the local authorities. She gives a wry smile as she shows a photo of the door of room number six, where a Russian scrawl indicates a Russian commander had stayed. The door will be part of a planned museum about the town’s occupation. The situation on the battlefield is now somewhat different. Ukraine has been pushing a counteroffensive to take other territory occupied by Russia in the south and east, and the border area not far from Trostyanets has become the centre of cross-border incursions by pro-Ukrainian forces. The bulk of these have been carried out by Russian partisans seeking to cause trouble for president Vladimir Putin. The Russian Belograd region, between two and three hours’ drive from Trostyanets into Russian territory, has faced shelling, as well as the raids. But Trostyanets had seen its own version of guerrilla activity during the Russian occupation. The mayor, Bova, relays how it worked. A powerfully-built compact man, Bova was born in Trostyanets and was formerly a businessman. He was first elected as a councillor when he was 24 and has been the town’s mayor for 18 years. British and American intelligence had warned the Ukrainian government that the Russians had prepared detailed lists of people in government, military, police, education, social activists, businesspeople and others they suspected would help organise resistance and who were marked for arrest or execution. Bova says: “I had to decide whether to stay in my office and wait to be arrested and taken away or perhaps killed. That would have been madness. Weapons were in short supply – we had just four machine guns. So we couldn’t fight with that.” He and his comrades established contact with the Ukrainian 81st Brigade operating in the area and they asked his people to provide intelligence on what was going on inside Trostyanets. “They said that would be much more valuable than any fight we could have put up at that time,” says Bova, who became commander of Trostyanets’s territorial volunteer forces. Some of the Ukrainian partisans stayed inside the town while Bova and others operated from bases in forests close to Trostyanets, gathering detailed information about the Russian forces – including where they ate and slept and where their heavy weapons and armoured vehicles were at any time. They also helped guide Ukrainian artillery firing at Russian positions. Ukrainian intelligence believes one of the first of the many Russian generals to be killed during this invasion died in Trostyanets. Bova secretly visited the town twice to show the partisans he was close by and boost morale. On 21 March last year, they and Ukrainian regular forces launched an attack on the occupying forces in an attempt to liberate the town. But after a fierce firefight they had to withdraw. Bova says quite a few Russians were killed but so was one of the partisans. However, Ukrainian forces were encroaching on the town and the demoralised Russians, fearing being surrounded, fled on the night of 27 March across the border into Russia. Bova speaks to me inside his office at the town’s main administration building which, he says, like other public and community buildings in the town, had been looted and wrecked by the Russians. “The Russians smashed and destroyed everything. Three days before they left they fired some 30 tank shells into our main hospital... They also deliberately destroyed residential buildings. It was pure malice.” Bova suspects the 13 “disappeared” people were among those tortured beneath the railway station. Two prisoners were found alive in the basements as the Russians fled. They told of victims who bled to death after their fingers were cut off. Anguish flickers across Bova’s face as he recalls how the first thing the torturers demanded while beating their captives was his whereabouts. Since the town was liberated, Bova says he has worked tirelessly to rebuild Trostyanets. Electricity, water and heating systems were destroyed or ripped out. The town’s firefighting vehicles, ambulances, buses and any movable equipment was stolen. He said the Russians took even basic toolkits and wrecked what they could not take. He says all the tasks had to be performed in parallel – a huge logistical puzzle – and Bova reached out to and has been contacted by 130 organisations and groups around the world eager to help rebuild Trostyanets. In addition, scores of individuals have helped, many turning up unannounced to donate funds or supplies or roll up their sleeves to assist. He says everything from food, clothing and medicines to hospital apparatus, emergency vehicles and buses needed to be replaced “to return some semblance of normality”. “Today there are no homeless people in Trostyanets living under a tree,” he says. “Everyone has some roof over their heads.” But the tension never really leaves. The enemy is never out of reach, being so close to the border. Bova has a vision to rebuild Trostyanets using innovative designs from around the globe – taking into consideration factors such as the needs of elderly or disabled people and employing energy efficient and green technologies kind to the environment. “We know that we can’t invent everything ourselves when searching for new concepts,” he says. Therefore, he believes, to rebuild their country, Ukrainians need to forge partnerships with groups and individuals around the world to learn their approaches on incorporating culture, education parks and recreation into town planning. To that end he has traveled to the US, where among other projects he is seeking to adapt for Trostyanets “a new philosophy of park design” being developed by the city of Chattanooga in Tennessee. And last month he was in London for “The Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023” which was co-hosted by the UK and Ukraine and aimed at ensuring Ukraine can come back stronger from the devastation it has faced. Bova believes rebuilding Ukraine must begin even before the fighting is over. “We’ve mastered swiftly the technology of the new [Western] weapons we’ve been given. This is a people who didn’t break despite the horrors inflicted by the Russians and our nation is capable of swiftly mastering the technologies and ideas to rebuild our country.” He says so many people have died to ensure Ukraine survives and that it is “a duty to make every one of those sacrifices count – by building a new future they would be proud of and not recreating the past.” Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Sunak ‘discourages’ cluster bomb use after Biden agrees to send them to Ukraine Thousands march in Bosnia to mark 1995 Srebrenica genocide as ethnic tensions linger on Ukraine's president hails the country's soldiers from a Black Sea island to mark 500 days of war

Sir Alex Ferguson's wife Lady Cathy has passed away aged 84, the family have announced. The Glaswegian mother-of-three – who was described by her husband as his ‘bedrock’ – died yesterday morning in Cheshire surrounded by family. Lady Cathy was credited with having helped nurse him back to health after he suffered a stroke following his retirement from the club in 2013. A statement on behalf of the Ferguson family said: “We are deeply saddened to confirm the passing yesterday of Lady Cathy Ferguson, survived by her husband, three sons, two sisters, 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The family asks for privacy at this time.” The pair were married for nearly 60 years before her death, having met while they were both working at a typewriter factory in Glasgow. When Ferguson announced his retirement as manager of Manchester United in 2013 following a remarkable and enduring period of success, he said: “My wife Cathy has been the key figure throughout my career, providing a bedrock of both stability and encouragement. Words are not enough to express what this has meant to me.” A Manchester United club statement said: “Everyone at Manchester United sends our heartfelt condolences to Sir Alex Ferguson and his family. Lady Cathy was a beloved wife, mother, sister, grandmother and great-grandmother, and a tower of strength for Sir Alex throughout his career.” In the documentary titled ‘Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In’ , released in 2021, Sir Alex dedicated his career to Lady Cathy. He discussed meeting his future wife in the factory where they worked. “I was 22. I had this friend, she said to me, ‘there’s a really nice girl, just started’. I’d suffered an injury in football and had a plaster on my face. She thought I was a gangster or a boxer. I took her to the movies.” Lady Cathy revealed in the documentary, which was directed by their son Jason, that Sir Alex had taken her to the cinema on their first date. “He bought me a box of liquorice allsorts at the movies, of which he ate all of them, and a local paper when we came out. That was my romantic day,” she said. “We got married in Glasgow registry office in 1966 and that was the start. I went to my work and he went to his football.” Jason Ferguson said in the film that his mother had been his father’s “rock”, adding: “She has allowed him to indulge in his obsession. She more or less brought me and my brothers up on her own and made sacrifices to allow him to do what he did.” Flags at Old Trafford have been lowered to half-mast as a mark of respect, while the men’s and women’s teams will wear black armbands in their fixtures this weekend. Manchester City issued a reply to United’s social media post concerning Lady Cathy’s death which read: “Everyone at Manchester City sends their condolences to Sir Alex Ferguson and his family at this very difficult time.” Read More Auckland shooting takes place just 5km from venue of World Cup match Danish journalist ‘detained in Qatar for filming attack on Iranians by mob’ Rafael Nadal and wife welcome first child Auckland shooting takes place just 5km from venue of World Cup match Danish journalist ‘detained in Qatar for filming attack on Iranians by mob’ Rafael Nadal and wife welcome first child

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON Federal Reserve officials, whose hike, skip or pause messaging on interest rates has become

One of five men convicted of killing a Russian journalist critical of the Kremlin has been pardoned halfway through his 20-year sentence after a stint fighting in the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced in 2014 for his role as an accomplice in the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, 48, in 2006. The journalist worked for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and wrote stories critical of Kremlin policies during the early years of president Vladimir Putin’s term, the war in Chechnya and human rights. She was shot and killed in the elevator of her Moscow apartment block, triggering outrage at home and in the West. Her death on 7 October, which is Putin’s birthday, led to suggestions the shooting was done to please the president. It emphasised the dangers faced by independent journalists in Russia, though the Kremlin has always denied any involvement in the killing. Khadzhikurbanov, a former police detective, was released last year to fight in Ukraine and then signed a contract with the Russian defence ministry to continue serving after his pardon, according to his lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik. It is the most high profile case of Russia’s defence ministry hiring prisoners to fight in Ukraine on the promise of a presidential pardon. The tactic was widely employed by Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin last year. Footage from several prisons showed the warlord encouraging prisoners convicted of murder and sexual assault to join his mercenary group to atone for their crimes. They would be offered six-month contracts to fight in Ukraine, after which they would be pardoned. One of the first instances of pardoned mercenaries was published in January this year. Reports later emerged suggesting Russian civilians were anxious to be living among ex-convicts, many of whom were culpable of the most serious crimes and had also spent six months in frontline combat. Following the removal of Wagner from Ukraine and the subsequent death of Prigozhin on August 24, which was itself widely regarded as suspicious, the Russian defence ministry began more substantially recruiting from penal colonies. The prisoners are often said to be used as cannon fodder in what has become known as “human wave attacks” popularised by the Wagner Group; it involves using dozens of the convicts in a first line charge on Ukrainian positions ostensibly to soak up enemy fire, allowing soldiers behind to advance under less heavy resistance. But Khadzhikurbanov was offered a command position in the military, according to his lawyer Mikhalchik, because he was in the “special forces” in the late 1990s and was in “almost all the hot spots”, including in Chechnya. Following the pardon, Ms Politkovskaya children, Ilya and Vera Politkovsky, issued a joint statement with their mother’s former paper Novaya Gazeta in which they claimed they had “not been informed about the killer’s pardon”. Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, said the pardon was “not evidence of atonement and repentance of the killer” but a “monstrous fact of injustice”. “It is an outrage to the memory of a person killed for her beliefs and professional duty,” he said. Russian human rights advocate Alena Popova, who has been critical of previous pardons, including that of a man who murdered his girlfriend before fighting in Ukraine, also issued a statement decrying Khadzhikurbanov’s release. “How many more murderers and rapists will the war free?” she asked. Bill Browder, formerly one of the largest foreign investors in Russia before being removed by Vladimir Putin, described the pardon as a “cynical slap in the face of justice”. He added that the presidential pardon was doubly sinister given it was Putin who “ordered her killing”. “The pardoning of Anna Politkovskaya’s killer is a cynical slap in the face of justice and her family,” he told The Independent. “But we should not forget that the person who ordered her killing has remained free since her murder and sits as the head of state in Russia ordering many more murders and misery inside of Russia, in Ukraine and all over the world.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month that convicts recruited to fight in Ukraine are worthy of pardons. “Those sentenced, even on grave charges, shed their blood on the battlefield to atone for their crimes,” he said. “They redeem themselves by shedding blood in assault brigades, under bullet fire and shelling.” Read More European Commission lowers growth outlook and says economy has lost momentum during a difficult year UK inflation falls sharply to 4.6%, lowest level in 2 years China and the US pledge to step up climate efforts ahead of Biden-Xi summit and UN meeting Ukraine declares major breakthrough in southern counteroffensive ‘against all odds’ State-sponsored online spies likely to target Australian submarine program, spy agency says Biden aims for improved military relations with China when he meets with Xi

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Nick Cannon has revealed the appreciation he has for ex-wife Mariah Carey during a difficult time. In a recent interview on the Diary Of A CEO podcast, the father of 12 wasn’t afraid to confess that he wouldn’t have survived his 2012 lupus diagnosis if it wasn’t for the “Without You” singer by his side. “She was my rock,” he admitted. “She went hard. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for how hard she went with the doctors, with me, my stubbornness.” The Grammy winner, 54 and the former America’s Got Talent host, 42, saw sparks flying almost immediately when Carey cast Cannon as her love interest in the 2008 “Bye Bye” music video. It only took six weeks from the time they got engaged for Carey and Cannon to tie the knot. In 2011, they welcomed fraternal twins Moroccan and Monroe. Unfortunately, Cannon was diagnosed with lupus one year later - an inflammatory disease which occurs when the immune system attacks its own tissues. The Masked Singer host described Carey as “the perfect helpmate, the perfect matriarch, the perfect mom, the perfect wife” during this time. “It probably took a toll on us just because of the person I was in my head and the struggles that I was dealing with,” he continued. “But it definitely brought us closer together.” When podcast host Steven Bartlett asked whether Cannon believed Carey “saved his life”, he simply responded: “I absolutely do.” “But that’s what you do when you find a helpmate. When you find someone that you’re in matrimony with, you go hard for [them],” Cannon pointed out. “I feel like I went hard for her and we’ll still go hard - I lay down my life for her today. That’s what you do, it’s just family.” Cannon went on to explain how his experience with the disease put many things into perspective for him. However, it wasn’t easy for him to see things clearly while he was struggling. In fact, he told Bartlett that he was also dealing with mental health issues at the time, such as questioning his purpose and effect on the world. “Staring up from the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling all alone when everybody else is kicked out, and you gotta be face to face with your higher power, asking all those tough questions. Am I done?” he explained. “A lot of people don’t do that because we get caught up in the constant race of just living day to day, but it slowed down for me on many occasions.” While it may have been difficult for him to comprehend at the time, Cannon said he now lives his days with direction and without fear. “I’m probably reminded of my physical mortality all the time,” he noted. “And when you’re not afraid of dying, you focus on living, you know?” This isn’t the first time the TV personality has praised the “All I Want for Christmas Is You” singer. In 2022, Cannon opened up to Entertainment Tonight about the gratitude he has for his time spent with Carey. “I was talking about the fantasy of it all. I was like: ‘Yo, if I could have that same vibe of where I was at that state in my life and that age, of course I would do that all over again,’” he said. “But I’m not.” In addition to his two children with Carey, Cannon has welcomed Rise, Powerful, and Golden, with Brittany Bell; Zion, Zillion, and Beautiful with Abby De La Rosa; Halo with Alyssa Scott; Legendary with Bre Tiesi; and Onyx with LaNisha Cole. Cannon and Scott lost their baby boy, Zen, to cancer in 2021 when he was only five months old. Read More Nick Cannon’s brother says he can’t remember the 12 names of his nieces and nephews Nick Cannon shares Mariah Carey’s ‘high frequency’ reaction to actor having 12 children Mariah Carey: 'Music was my escape' The best napping method to help with pulling an all-nighter Toys children play with can have an effect on their success in adulthood Summer of female sporting events inspires millions of women to get back into the game