With its white sand, changing cubicles and clear water, the beach at Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine looks tempting. There is just one problem: the nearby bangs of rockets and missiles.
The lakeside resort is close to one of the most active fronts in the war with Russia, to the north of Sloviansk, where Ukrainian troops firing from woods and villages are seeking to halt Moscow’s advance.
That does not dissuade some beachgoers.
Photo: AFP
“We just came here to walk around and take some snaps,” Kostyantyn, 40, said, while strolling around wearing wraparound sunglasses and shorts.
“We wanted [to swim], but it’s too cold,” he added, as the sunbaked region had a rare cloudy day.
“A beach is a beach,” he said, taking pictures of his friend Denys at an outdoor gym.
The nearby arms fire sounds like US howitzers, supplied to Ukrainian troops.
The Russian front line is only about 10km away, and the Ukrainian armed forces on Wednesday said that Moscow’s troops were carrying out systematic firing in order to resume an offensive on Sloviansk.
The lake resort was once famous for its salty waters, believed to help relieve joint problems.
A sanatorium built on the spot is no longer open.
“It’s pretty. People come to swim. We also come to see the swans,” said Daniil, 39, who cycled along the beach with a group of friends on the way to buy food in Sloviansk.
Daniil said he is a metal worker at the Sloviansk power station in the nearby town of Mykolaivka, which has halted work due to the war.
Orange plastic letters on a beach hut read: “Be happy this summer,” but the beach loungers have been locked inside.
Ice cream stalls and a massage cabin are also closed.
“We used to come a lot before the war”, Kostyantyn said. “This is just the second time this year.”
He said he has been helping out locally by feeding dogs abandoned by their owners, who have left for safer western Ukraine.
“I’m not scared because I’m a volunteer and have been under shelling,” he said, as loud booms can be heard in the background.
Kostyantyn said that he was caught up in a Russian shelling attack on an evacuation bus in the Kharkiv region in February.
“With what’s happening now, you realize that life is not so threatening. People’s fear is more of a threat, since what they fear comes true,” he said.
As the war draws on, those who opted not to evacuate from the area have become “very pushy and hardened,” he said. “I think it’s more like a form of nerve stress.”
“There are those who are waiting for Russians to come,” his friend Denys said.
“People think it will be better, that they’ll get a Russian pension,” he added.
There are also some who already receive benefits from the Moscow-backed separatist regions, Kostyantyn said.
In 2014, Sloviansk was taken over by Russia-backed separatists, but Ukraine won it back after a lengthy siege.
Now the sleepy green town has no water or gas, and an unstable electricity supply due to war damage and difficulties of repairs, its mayor said this week.
Stacks of concrete beams on the road from the beach resort into the city creates a lengthy obstacle course for vehicles and trenches have been built along it.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS