People walk past a residential building damaged as a result of shelling in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on February 24, 2024, amid the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Indian ‘helper’ dies in Russian war zone

Hemil Ashvinbhai Mangukiya, a 23-year-old man from Gujarat who was hired as a security helper by the Russian Army, has been killed in a Ukrainian air strike on February 21 in the Donetsk region on the Russia-Ukraine border, another Indian worker who escaped the attack told The Hindu.

After a 11-year gap, Centre discloses key consumption expenditure survey data

For the first time in about 11 years, the government released the broad findings of the All India Household Consumption Expenditure Survey carried out between August 2022 and July 2023 on February 24.

The survey is usually conducted by the National Statistical Office every five years, but the findings of the last Survey, conducted in 2017-18 soon after demonetisation and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), were never released after the government cited “data quality” issues.

The data will play a key role in reviewing critical economic indicators, including the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), poverty levels, and the Consumer Price Inflation (CPI).

Don’t consider our discipline and preference for dialogue as weakness: RSS farmers body tells government

The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has condemned the violent protests by some farm unions who are demanding guaranteed minimum support prices (MSP), but it also rebuked the BJP-led Union government for not paying heed to the farmers’ pleas.

“When farmer organisations of the country come to Delhi in a disciplined and peaceful manner and present the problems and demands of the farmers to the right forums, the government does not consider it appropriate to talk to them. The attitude of the government is regrettable, which is why the possibility of violent agitation increases,” BKS general secretary Mohini Mohan Mishra told journalists on Saturday.

G7 leaders pledge support for Ukraine on war anniversary

Heads of the Group of Seven major democracies on Saturday pledged to stand by war-weary Ukraine, and Western leaders travelled to Kyiv to show solidarity on the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion, with no end in sight to the fighting. “As Ukraine enters the third year of this relentless war, its government and its people can count on the G7’s support for as long as it takes,” the G7 leaders said in a statement.

Dented by land transfer row, Patnaik govt. reaches out to tribals with sops ahead of elections 

The Odisha government recently withdrew over 48,000 cases lodged for the violation of excise and forest laws against tribal people, a decision that followed a series of steps taken apparently to woo the community ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

Experts say that Naveen Patnaik, the State’s chief minister, is looking to tighten his grip on tribal areas as the BJP has emerged as a major challenger in some pockets.

AIADMK releases AI-generated audio clip of Jayalalithaa

An AI-generated voice appeal of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa asking people to support the AIADMK was played at the party’s headquarters in Chennai on Saturday.

Berkshire ‘built to last’: Warren Buffett assures investors

In his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders, Warren Buffett reassured investors that his conglomerate would serve them well over the long term, even as he mourned the recent passing of his longtime second-in-command Charlie Munger. He also tempered expectations for Berkshire’s stock price, saying the company’s huge size left “no possibility of eye-popping performance.”

Why South Africa is facing a turning point in May’s national election

Polls suggest South Africa will face a historic turning point in a national election in May as the ruling African National Congress could lose its majority for the first time since coming to power in the country’s first all-race vote at the end of apartheid in 1994.

Digital consumers in India should not be experimented on with ‘unreliable’ models: Rajeev Chandrasekhar warns Google

Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar has made it clear to tech giant Google that explanations about unreliability of artificial intelligence models do not absolve or exempt platforms from laws, and warned that India’s digital nagriks (citizens) are not to be experimented on with unreliable platforms and algorithms. In a post on X, he said ensuring safety and trust are legal obligations of platforms. “Government has said this before – I repeat for attention of @GoogleIndia… Our DigitalNagriks are NOT to be experimented on with “unreliable” platforms/algos/model…`Sorry Unreliable’ does not exempt from law,” he said.

Hockey | No denying Janneke Schopman’s contribution but missing Olympics made her stay untenable

Janneke Schopman officially quit as chief coach of the Indian women’s hockey team on February 23, bringing the curtains down on her two-year tenure as the first-ever woman in the role. Professional sports is tough business, more so in team events, one that requires a hundred different things to fall in place, at the right time and moment, to ensure elusive success. But the parameter to measure that success is just one –results. As a coach, Janneke’s tenure saw the Indian women manage to do the first to a large extent. The second, however, remained a mixed bag.

Nearly every day since her school in east Ukraine was reduced to rubble by two Russian missiles last month, Lyudmila Polovko has walked its grounds to dream of a time when children could return.

Stepping over glass shards and torn text books, the teacher and administrator recounted how her thoughts had turned from planning to mark 60 years since the school opened to surviving the war.

“We’re very tired of hearing that our men are dying. We’re tired of seeing it all with our own eyes, of not sleeping at night because of the noise, because of the missiles,” she told AFP at the school, overlooking a cemetery and chimneys of Soviet-era factories.

Also Read | Russia’s war in Ukraine has inflicted ‘horrific human cost’: UN

“As bitter as it is to see these ruins, we still hope for the best,” the 62-year-old said, in a biting winter wind.

On the two-year anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion, which has pitted the Kremlin’s expansionist ambitions against Ukrainian resolve, there is a growing sense of uncertainty among those caught in between over how and when it will all end.

The fallout from disagreements in Washington and Brussels over aid has rippled all the way to the front line in the Donetsk region, where outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian troops are ceding ground to Moscow’s determined forces.

‘Russians keep coming’

For the Ukrainian troops holding Russian forces from cities like Kostyantynivka, the task is becoming harder as their resources and stamina ebb.

“We are running out of shells and the Russians keep coming. Lots of our comrades are injured — or worse. Everything is getting worse and worse,” said one soldier deployed outside Bakhmut, which was captured by Russia last May, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“There is no supply of ammunition or artillery support. The command is not interested in the morale of the soldiers,” another from the Azov battalion, known for its last-stand in the port city of Mariupol — also now Russian-controlled — told AFP.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned allies that Russia is taking advantage of these setbacks, and that Ukrainian defences could collapse.

In Kostyantynivka, Polovko felt sure the West would not abandon Ukraine, and struggled to imagine a future in which help from abroad ran out.

“It’s hard to say what would happen then. I just know how selflessly our guys are fighting, not sparing their lives. And they are dying. Let’s stop speaking,” she said, turning away as her eyes welled up with tears.

‘Loud noises are a trigger’

The civilian cost of Ukraine’s struggle to hold back Russian forces is mounting, too.

AFP journalists in the city of Kramatorsk last week saw dozens of rescue workers dig by lamplight for a woman, her mother and her son buried under their home at night by a Russian missile.

All three were found dead during the frantic rescue operation.

The governor says 1,876 civilians have been killed in the region over the last two years, but there are no figures for those killed in occupied cities like Mariupol and low estimates point to a toll in that city alone four times the region’s total.

In a community centre in Kramatorsk, psychologist Olga Yudakova painted a bleak picture of civilian life where anxiety has gripped an generation of children.

“For a child, loud noises are a trigger. Anxiety in children is very highly elevated. It’s elevated in children — there’s great emotional instability — but even more so in adults,” said the 61-year-old psychologist of around four decades.

The town counts among its population many who fled their homes from towns and cities further east earlier captured by Russia, a group Yudakova said had suffered immensely.

“I have never seen so many adults who suddenly start crying. You realise that this is not normal.”

‘When is the war going to end?

Among those forced to leave their homes to Kramatorsk was Oleg Kruchinin, a 50-year-old Orthodox priest who worked in the nearby town of Chasiv Yar, whose capture would likely bring about a sharp uptick in shelling on his new home.

He still sometimes makes the perilous journey back to Chasiv Yar to hold mass underground.

His remaining parishioners have found solace from war in prayer and taking on duties in the church left by those who went further west to safety.

“Some may really lose faith and hope, others, on the contrary, gain it,” he said after baptising a soldier’s newborn baby.

Some church-goers believed the war would end quickly, and now nearly in its third year, with Russian forces drawing nearer and nearer, the uncertainty is building, he said.

“I know what you want to ask, and I don’t know the answer. When is the war going to end? That’s the question everybody asks and everybody wants an answer to.”