By Ashleigh Stewart  Global News

Young Ukrainian volunteer killed delivering aid to dog shelter near Kyiv: ‘She was a hero’

Posted March 5, 2022 4:45 pm

 Updated March 6, 2022 1:39 pm

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As Russian troops closed in on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Anastasiia Yalanskaya insisted she would stay, even while her friends and family fled around her.

The 26-year-old Ukrainian woman was delivering food to a dog shelter in Bucha, 30 kilometres outside Kyiv, on Friday when she was shot and killed alongside two men she had been volunteering with.

Yalanskaya’s friends and family say her car was deliberately targeted at close-range by Russian troops. Global News has been unable to confirm the circumstances of her death.

Friends do not know why she was targeted, but believe Russian troops are increasingly killing civilians at random as a way to scare the population into submission.

2:05Ukrainians resist as Russia hammers major citiesUkrainians resist as Russia hammers major cities

“I asked her to be extra cautious. That nowadays, a mistake costs extremely much,”  her husband Yevhen Yalanskyi says.

“But she was helping everyone around. I asked her to think of evacuation but she did not listen.”

Despite denials from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine is mounting – though the total number remains unclear.

As of March 1, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it has recorded 752 civilian casualties. The next day, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said 2,000 civilians had been killed.

Friends believe she was killed at close-range

Yalanskaya had been delivering food to a dog shelter in Bucha that had been without supplies for three days. The town has been devastated by Russian bombardment. It is part of the line of Ukrainian defence as Russian troops make their push to Kviv.

Her final Instagram story, posted just hours before her death, shows her sitting in the backseat of a vehicle, smiling into the camera, beside bags of dog food.

Yalanskaya’s best friend, Anastasiia Hryshchenko, who evacuated to Vinnytsia, 250 kilometres southwest of Kyiv, raised the alarm about her friend after she hadn’t heard from her in several hours.

Hryshchenko says she had been in constant contact with Yalanskaya, due to dangerous areas around Kyiv where fighting has intensified in recent days, including the area where her friend was delivering food and medical supplies.

When Yalanskaya didn’t respond for several hours, she contacted the father of a man that Yalanskaya had been volunteering with. The trio were due to return to his house after their trip.

READ MORE: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy has survived multiple assassination attempts amid Russian war: reports

He told her he had found their car, riddled with bullets, not far from his house, Hryshchenko says. They had delivered the dog food and had almost gotten home.

The damage to the car indicated it was fired at from a close distance and from a “heavy weapon,” she says.

Though there has been no formal identification of her body, Yalanskaya was carrying her driver’s licence and has distinctive tattoos that were identified by friends. Her body, along with those of the two men she was with, remain at the man’s father’s house, because the fighting is so intense no one can get through, Hryshchenko says.

“Not being able to help her last journey is very painful for me,” Yalanskyi says. He and Yalanskaya were separated but remained extremely close, he says, a fact which other friends also spoke about. He is currently in Sri Lanka.

“She was one of the best human beings I knew. She was committed to help, to help her friends and relatives and whoever needed help,” Yalanskyi says.

“She loved animals. We had a dog and a cat. She was the best partner I ever had.”

‘We will all be together soon, safe and at peace’

Yalanskaya, a job recruiter, had been keeping a daily blog on Telegram to inform her friends and family of her surroundings as she delivered aid around the region.

On Saturday, February 26, she wrote on the channel in Russian, after having spent the night sleeping in a parking garage due to bombing fears: “Now I realize even better how important it is to be able to just see the loved ones whenever you want.”

“We will all be together soon, safe and at peace. I believe in it.”

In the preceding days, she chronicled her volunteer work and spoke of her talks with the Ukrainian Armed Forces at checkpoints, saying she was proud of being Ukrainian “for the first time in my life.”

On Tuesday, she wrote about helping a kindergarten in Brovary, just outside Kyiv, where 40 children were without food and diapers, as well as bringing aid to a military hospital and bringing food for volunteer dogs.

“We are not scared. We are united like never before. We help each other. We stand for hours at roadblocks and thank those who protect us,” she wrote. “We will win.”

On Wednesday, Yalanskaya wrote her longest post, detailing her thoughts and feelings from her week of volunteering.

2:11Further Russian troop surge in Ukraine invasionFurther Russian troop surge in Ukraine invasion

She spoke of needing to drive with the windows half-open to hear which side of the road the shelling was on and to “step on the gas” while driving past the forest.

Hryshchenko says Yalanskaya had told her the fighting was particularly intense around the forest.

“Do not slow down” signs must be obeyed, Yalanskaya wrote, otherwise “you can hear random sh_t exploding right next to the wheels.”

She wrote of visiting people to drop off supplies 20 kilometres from the fighting and 200 metres from the fighting.

READ MORE: Canadian troops in Latvia ready for ‘whatever we have to face,’ commander says

“The ‘hotter’ the location you are heading to, the more people there will be at the roadblocks trying to dissuade you from going. But when they see the determination in your eyes, they will wish you strength, they will thank you, and ask you to be careful.”

On Thursday, Yalanskaya outlined her plans for the next day — the day she would die.

“I am tired. Third day in the car,” she wrote. “Could not get to Irpin. They blew up the bridge where I went yesterday.

“Tomorrow we’ll try to enter from another side.”

‘She was never prouder to be Ukrainian’

Yalanskaya’s friends are reeling after her death, though they are not surprised that she was killed helping people, as it was what she was known for.

Hryshchenko says Yalanskaya was a “kind and caring person” and “she could energize everyone around her.”

While people had asked her to evacuate for her own safety, Yalanskaya was “absolutely sure she was needed there,” she says.

“She was a very good person, she was always helping everyone, she wouldn’t do anything else.”

Hryshchenko says civilians are now increasingly being targeted, especially around Kyiv.

“They’re just randomly shooting people. They see civilians and they just shoot them,” she says.

“They want people to be scared and horrified. But it only makes our people braver.”

Valeriia Gorska, a former colleague and friend, said “the world should know that she’s a hero.”

“She was helping people. She believed in people.

“I knew her three years ago, and I knew her now, and I saw a change in her recently. She was so strong. And she was never prouder to be Ukrainian.”

https://secure.everyaction.com/FormProgress/xoFxNcYekEOV_5Iptk6bMg2

https://www.idausa.org/campaign/wild-animals-and-habitats/latest-news/arkansas-stop-gassing-poisoning-birds-geese/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=fb_birds_face_gassing_bait_arkansas_03_03_2022_alert_link&fbclid=IwAR1GwKl4dYda8un4kvNbL9a0BuWgDtLLaqPBmBBS2ur5Qe4YKDKd0_kqT4o

European starlings, American crows, Canada geese, and common grackles are among 22 wild bird species on the government’s hit list in Arkansas. These innocent wild birds face painful deaths by gassing and toxic egg baits. Speak up now to save them from our own federal government!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services plans to kill Canada geese while adults are molting and unable to fly. Geese and their goslings are often placed in mobile gas chambers, a particularly cruel and painful method of killing high-flying migratory birds who are used to dramatic differences in air pressure. Entire families will be traumatized and gassed to death.

Egg-eating birds like European starlings, American crows, and common grackles may be killed with the avicide DRC-1339. Birds who eat poisoned eggs laced with DRC-1339 return to their roosts, suffer from kidney failure and die slow, painful deaths.

Killing wild birds doesn’t reduce their numbers in the long-term, it only makes room for other families to take over the habitat. Effective nonlethal stewardship strategies utilize a multi-pronged approach with habit modification, population stabilization, and site aversion. In its Environmental Assessment, Wildlife Services even lists nonlethal methods like pruning trees to discourage roosting and using bird-proof feeders for farmed animals.

Arkansas’ wild birds need us to speak up for them! You can reach Wildlife Services by making calls and by submitting our letter.

Public comments on the Environmental Assessment are due by March 11, 2022.

1. Make a Call. Call the Wildlife Services Arkansas State Director at 501-835-2318 or Toll-Free at 1-866-4USDAWS and urge the selection of humane nonlethal long-term wild bird stewardship strategies.

You can say, “I strongly oppose all lethal methods to manage wild bird populations in Arkansas. Instead, I urge you to try effective, nonlethal measures to prevent conflicts with European starlings, American crows, Canada geese, and common grackles. You can find helpful strategies at www.stopgooseabuse.org.”

2. Get Involved Locally. To stop goose roundups in your community, please check out our resources at www.stopgooseabuse.org and contact us for help at geese@idausa.org. In Defense of Animals’ National Goose Protection Coalition advocates for long-term, effective, nonlethal stewardship practices to support coexistence with waterfowl. The coalition was formed in 2019 to help concerned citizens stop goose cruelty in their communities.

3. Write a Letter. Please send our letter to Wildlife Services Arkansas State Director urging the agency to decide against lethal action against the geese this year and in future years and to adopt effective, nonlethal goose stewardship strategies.

Sign our letters to deliver your comments to:

• Wildlife Services Arkansas State Director

** Please note: Your first and last name will be published on the official comment form by regulations.gov ** Your email address will not be published.

In Defense of Animals fully expects and strongly urges all people involved in this campaign to act responsibly and lawfully and to respect the personal interests and privacy rights and concerns of any individuals who may be affected by, or become the subject of, your protests or related efforts.

Opinion: Arizona Game and Fish should rethink the number of female mountain lions it allows hunters to kill, if it wants to ensure their long-term survival.

Leslie Patten

opinion contributor

View Commentshttps://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2022/03/04/female-mountain-lions-danger-new-arizona-hunting-rules-pass/9342275002/

Several winters ago, I spied three trucks racing down our dirt road in Wyoming. I knew these were cougar hunters and went out to meet them. They had already taken away their quarry, but two young men remained, loading up their snowmobiles. I asked about their hunt.

“We had the lion on an elk kill up the trail.”

I asked what sex the mountain lion was. I know it’s not easy to discern females from males.

“It was a female,” they replied. 

I told these young hunters that she probably had kittens stashed somewhere.

“But we only saw her tracks around the kill site,” was their response. I knew then they didn’t even have basic lion biology under their belts.

Most adult females have dependent cubs

These young hunters brought their cougar into Game and Fish the next day to verify their tag. The agency biologist told them they’d killed a young male. Even with the cougar dead, they had no idea how to sex the animal.

https://11c28e1fca7d4168cd125f9935d21c4b.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

This is a problem because mothers typically stash cubs under six months old when they go hunting. Even older kittens may be away from their mom up to 50% of the time during the winter hunting season. Kittens normally remain with their mother for 18 months to two years.

Females are usually either caring for young or pregnant, which is why three out of four adult females harvested each year are mothers with dependent cubs. Cubs less than a year old have almost no chance of survival when hunters kill their mothers.

https://11c28e1fca7d4168cd125f9935d21c4b.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

While researching my book “Ghostwalker: Tracking a Lion’s Soul through Science and Story,” even the experienced houndsmen I interviewed agreed that females should not be hunted.

Proposed quota is too high, too complicated

Yet on April 1, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission will vote on changes to mountain lion hunts for the next five years, which would allow up to 50% of the total number of lions killed in a particular hunting zone to be female.

Arizona, like all western states, is divided in hunt zones for each animal, and each hunt zone has a certain number of lions that can be hunted. Once that quota is filled, the hunt in that zone is closed.

So, if a zone has a quota of 20 lions, Arizona is proposing that once 10 females are killed in that hunt zone, the zone closes for the remainder of the hunting season, but other zones would be open if they didn’t reach their quota.

Each zone would have a different quota based on how many lions they want to remove.

Many conservation groups are calling for limiting the hunting of adult female mountain lions to 20% of the total quota for each unit. They want Game and Fish to consider females adults at 24 months instead of 36 months, an arbitrarily high cutoff, considering most have left their mother at 2 years and are capable of reproducing.

That makes sense. But there might be a simpler way.

Require a class, lower the quota

Arizona Game and Fish should require a class on mountain lion biology and sex identification for all new lion hunters. Then, the agency should either prohibit killing female mountain lions, or at least implement a very limited total female quota that would require hunters to be judicious and careful in their hunt.

Hunters would have to be able to sex the animal before they kill it, encouraging an understanding of mountain lion biology and the reasoning behind a female quota. Filling the female quota would shut down a hunting unit.

Updated 3:53 PM ET, Sun March 6, 2022
A convoy of trucks and other vehicles made up of protestors from several convoys of truckers and activists on various issues, including Covid-19 vaccine mandates, exit onto Interstate 495 to drive around the Washington beltway from Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday, March 6, 2022.
A convoy of trucks and other vehicles made up of protestors from several convoys of truckers and activists on various issues, including Covid-19 vaccine mandates, exit onto Interstate 495 to drive around the Washington beltway from Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday, March 6, 2022.
(CNN)A convoy of vehicles lapped the Washington, DC, beltway Sunday morning to demand an end to Covid-19 mandates and restrictions.

The protests come at a time when many pandemic-related mandates and restrictions — imposed by state and local governments rather than lawmakers in Washington — have already begun being lifted in much of the country.
The group — which included dozens of vehicles, including some eighteen-wheelers, according to footage from CNN affiliate WUSA — planned to drive at least two loops around the beltway before returning to Hagerstown, Maryland, Maureen Steele, an organizer with the “People’s Convoy” told CNN. They did not plan to enter the city proper.
Footage showed trucks and their drivers, led by a police escort, honking at onlookers gathered on an overpass to cheer the vehicles as they drove by.

A convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 measures is expected to arrive in the DC area this weekend. Here’s what we know
A convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 measures is expected to arrive in the DC area this weekend. Here’s what we know
The convoy, one of several bound for DC this weekend, is following the lead of the Canadian trucker protests that began in late January and continued for weeks as demonstrators protested Covid-19 mandates, crippling US border crossings and the capital of Ottawa.
Organizers of the American convoys, however, have signaled they intend to keep their demonstrations under control.
The “People’s Convoy” organizers previously said the group had no plan to mimic the Canadian protests with blockades or clashes with authorities. While they do want to be noticed, Steele said her group coordinated its demonstration with local law enforcement to prevent any conflicts.
“The Peoples’ Convoy” makes its way on the Capitol Beltway on Sunday in Silver Spring, Maryland on Sunday.
“The Peoples’ Convoy” makes its way on the Capitol Beltway on Sunday in Silver Spring, Maryland on Sunday.
That, however, was just for Sunday. The Washington Post reported organizers plan to repeat the action until their demands are addressed. And there are other convoy groups that have indicated they plan to demonstrate in or near DC, though it remains unclear exactly how many groups, people or vehicles will be participating.
Washington County, Maryland, Sheriff Doug Mullendore told CNN Saturday his agency had had no issues with the convoys so far.
“There are at least four convoys that have converged in Hagerstown and are staying at the Hagerstown Speedway,” he said. “There have been no problems and we are just monitoring things. We are working closely with the Maryland State Police.”
Mullendore added, “They have been very respectful and have caused no problems here.”
Supporters wave as a convoy of trucks and other vehicles travel I-495 near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, to protest Covid-19 mandates and other issues on Sunday, March 6, in Fort Washington, Maryland.
Supporters wave as a convoy of trucks and other vehicles travel I-495 near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, to protest Covid-19 mandates and other issues on Sunday, March 6, in Fort Washington, Maryland.
Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller confirmed the agency had “been in contact with various groups’ organizers to ensure their understanding of Virginia traffic laws.” Law enforcement’s goal, she said, was to “mitigate the impact of additional traffic volume on already congested roadways and Northern Virginia communities.”
The common demand emanating from each of the groups is the end of Covid-19 mandates, including mask and vaccine requirements.
In a news release, the “People’s Convoy” pointed to declining Covid-19 cases, vaccines and therapeutics, saying it was “time to reopen the country.”
“To that end, it’s time for elected officials to work with the blue-collar and white-collar workers of America and restore accountability and liberty by lifting all mandates and ending the state of emergency — as COVID is well-in-hand now, and Americans need to get back to work in a free and unrestricted manner,” the release said.
The end is near: The new pandemic data looks promising — for some, anyway
The end is near: The new pandemic data looks promising — for some, anyway
Many cities and states have already started lifting such measures while Covid-19 hospitalizations and new cases drop, including New York state, which lifted this week most mask mandates and requirements to show proof of vaccination for indoor activities.
A growing number of states — the majority of which have Democratic governors — announced in recent weeks they would lift indoor or school mask mandates, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island.
Under new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, more than 70% of the country’s population is in a location with low or medium Covid-19 levels, meaning masking is not necessary unless an individual is at increased risk of Covid-19. If so, the CDC recommends talking to your health care provider about wearing a mask. But mandates are also being lifted in places with “high” levels of Covid-19, like California and Illinois.

Trucker convoy laps Washington, DC, beltway to protest Covid-19 measures

By Gabe Cohen and Dakin Andone, CNN

Updated 3:53 PM ET, Sun March 6, 2022

A convoy of trucks and other vehicles made up of protestors from several convoys of truckers and activists on various issues, including Covid-19 vaccine mandates, exit onto Interstate 495 to drive around the Washington beltway from Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday, March 6, 2022.

(CNN)A convoy of vehicles lapped the Washington, DC, beltway Sunday morning to demand an end to Covid-19 mandates and restrictions.

The protests come at a time when many pandemic-related mandates and restrictions — imposed by state and local governments rather than lawmakers in Washington — have already begun being lifted in much of the country.

The group — which included dozens of vehicles, including some eighteen-wheelers, according to footage from CNN affiliate WUSA — planned to drive at least two loops around the beltway before returning to Hagerstown, Maryland, Maureen Steele, an organizer with the “People’s Convoy” told CNN. They did not plan to enter the city proper.

Footage showed trucks and their drivers, led by a police escort, honking at onlookers gathered on an overpass to cheer the vehicles as they drove by.

https://417b440c76f4d403d7aa6bb77edd55d9.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

A convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 measures is expected to arrive in the DC area this weekend. Here’s what we know

The convoy, one of several bound for DC this weekend, is following the lead of the Canadian trucker protests that began in late January and continued for weeks as demonstrators protested Covid-19 mandates, crippling US border crossings and the capital of Ottawa.

Organizers of the American convoys, however, have signaled they intend to keep their demonstrations under control.

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The “People’s Convoy” organizers previously said the group had no plan to mimic the Canadian protests with blockades or clashes with authorities. While they do want to be noticed, Steele said her group coordinated its demonstration with local law enforcement to prevent any conflicts.

“The Peoples’ Convoy” makes its way on the Capitol Beltway on Sunday in Silver Spring, Maryland on Sunday.

That, however, was just for Sunday. The Washington Post reported organizers plan to repeat the action until their demands are addressed. And there are other convoy groups that have indicated they plan to demonstrate in or near DC, though it remains unclear exactly how many groups, people or vehicles will be participating.

Washington County, Maryland, Sheriff Doug Mullendore told CNN Saturday his agency had had no issues with the convoys so far.

“There are at least four convoys that have converged in Hagerstown and are staying at the Hagerstown Speedway,” he said. “There have been no problems and we are just monitoring things. We are working closely with the Maryland State Police.”

Mullendore added, “They have been very respectful and have caused no problems here.”

Supporters wave as a convoy of trucks and other vehicles travel I-495 near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, to protest Covid-19 mandates and other issues on Sunday, March 6, in Fort Washington, Maryland.

Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller confirmed the agency had “been in contact with various groups’ organizers to ensure their understanding of Virginia traffic laws.” Law enforcement’s goal, she said, was to “mitigate the impact of additional traffic volume on already congested roadways and Northern Virginia communities.”

The common demand emanating from each of the groups is the end of Covid-19 mandates, including mask and vaccine requirements.

In a news release, the “People’s Convoy” pointed to declining Covid-19 cases, vaccines and therapeutics, saying it was “time to reopen the country.”

“To that end, it’s time for elected officials to work with the blue-collar and white-collar workers of America and restore accountability and liberty by lifting all mandates and ending the state of emergency — as COVID is well-in-hand now, and Americans need to get back to work in a free and unrestricted manner,” the release said.

The end is near: The new pandemic data looks promising — for some, anyway

Many cities and states have already started lifting such measures while Covid-19 hospitalizations and new cases drop, including New York state, which lifted this week most mask mandates and requirements to show proof of vaccination for indoor activities.

A growing number of states — the majority of which have Democratic governors — announced in recent weeks they would lift indoor or school mask mandates, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island.

Under new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, more than 70% of the country’s population is in a location with low or medium Covid-19 levels, meaning masking is not necessary unless an individual is at increased risk of Covid-19. If so, the CDC recommends talking to your health care provider about wearing a mask. But mandates are also being lifted in places with “high” levels of Covid-19, like California and Illinois.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/06/us/trucker-convoy-protest-washington-dc-sunday/index.html