By Manish Pandey
Newsbeat reporterPublished1 day agoShare

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• Ukraine conflicthttps://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-60593791

More than one million people have now fled Ukraine, with the EU suggesting that number could rise to four million.

The scale of the tragedy is still unfolding – and while the focus is rightly on the humanitarian disaster, it’s meant some people have had to make agonising decisions about what to take with them.

And that includes what happens to their much-loved pets.

“The devastation caused by some of these rocket attacks, that open environment full of glass, concrete and metal is dangerous to people but also to animals,” James Sawyer, UK director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

His organisation supports shelters in Ukraine and has been supplying resources like food, veterinary supplies and paying the wages of staff during the war to ensure animals can carry on being looked after.

“Local supplies are running out, one of the two animal shelters we support has been damaged by shells, losing one of the animals,” he adds.

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• LIVE: Latest updates from on the ground
• THE BASICS: Why is Putin invading Ukraine?
• IN DEPTH: Full coverage of the conflict

Emergency support

James says it’s “too unsafe to be able to put boots on the ground”, so the IFAW is focusing on the best possible support remotely.

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They’ve been providing emergency aid to staff who’ve reported a dire situation with 1,100 dogs in their care.

And staying to look after the animals is obviously dangerous. At one shelter, staff say they’re too scared to light a fire in case it draws unnecessary attention.

Crossing the border

There are also issues trying to evacuate across the border, with rules around microchipping and vaccination for animals normally in place.

PETA Germany has been on the border trying to “shepherd animals out safely”, according to Jennifer White from the animal rights group.

Like IFAW, she says the group is working with partner organisations in neighbouring Romania who’ve managed to get into Ukraine to rescue abandoned animals, along with offering to vaccinate dogs and cats.

She says two tonnes of cat and dog food have been donated, as well as giving blankets to people who’ve been walking vast distances.

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When you think of animals, it’s not just about household pets.

“Whenever an area is hit by war, those animals stuck in the zoo are dependent,” Jennifer says.

Reports suggest animals from the Save Wild bear sanctuary near Kyiv were transported to Poland, where a zoo has offered them refuge for the duration of the war.

But that’s not the case everywhere, with staff at the Kyiv zoo reportedly saying the opportunity to evacuate its animals has now well and truly passed.

“It’s almost impossible to evacuate animals, because it’s impossible to provide appropriate veterinary service and transportation,” says Kyrylo Trantin, the zoo’s chief.

What can people in the UK do?

Jennifer says people should be writing to their MPs to urge government action on relaxing rules to allow entry for people in the UK with their companion animals.

A statement by DEFRA says are “strong biosecurity measures in place to protect the public and other animals from diseases”.

But it adds it recognises “the difficult and distressing situation” that Ukrainian nationals faced and the UK government was “looking at options to provide support” to those entering the UK with their pets.

The charity Paws And Whiskers Sussex say they are working with groups in Romania, trying to empty as many shelters there to make space for Ukrainian animals, by getting the animals to the UK.

“The plan is once the Ukrainian animals have received veterinary care and assessments, then we can also begin to find homes for them as well,” says Hannah Carter, director of the group.

James adds people shouldn’t travel to the war zone and instead should support organisations doing expert work.

“Most importantly, you need to remain committed for the long-term, because solutions for people and animals require that commitment and approach.”

Residents and businesses around the Methow Valley area are struggling to stay afloat.

00:2303:06

Author: Chris Daniels

Published: 7:26 AM PST February 28, 2022

Updated: 7:10 PM PST February 28, 2022

METHOW, Wash. — If the environment is the spine for the Methow Valley, it almost had its back broken in the past year. While it is still standing, the threat has made residents here start to think about an uncomfortable truth.

“Do you believe in climate change? I said, ‘I don’t have to believe, it’s here. I know it’s here. I’ve got the evidence, belief has nothing to do with it,'” said an adamant Alan Fahnestock on a recent February day while he stood outside a Mazama fire station. “Climate change is clearly a huge issue.”

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Fahnestock is a long-time Methow Valley resident and volunteer firefighter who watched as the Cedar Creek and Cub Creek fires combined to burn more than 125,000 acres in the summer of 2021. It’s more square mileage than Seattle and Tacoma combined. The fire lapped up at the Freestone Inn nearby and perilously close to the Sun Mountain Lodge as well, two year-round destinations.

>> Download KING 5’s Roku and Amazon Fire apps to watch live newscasts and video on demand

But it also damaged the lifeblood of this region’s winter tourism season, the cross country ski trails. The Methow Trails is the largest Nordic system in America. It’s a pristine, groomed, outdoor wonderland that has been the training grounds for dozens of elite athletes and novices as well.

The summer made this place where people chase their chance for Olympic rings looks more like a scene from “The Lord of the Rings.” National news outlets compared the air quality to Mordor because the sky was so black and the air stagnant. Trees that lined the trails burned and yet others near the Chickadee trailhead were wiped out.

“The urgency is a lot more when fire touches half your network. It’s real. It’s here. It’s consistent each year. It’s a consistent presence in our community,” says Methow Trails Executive Director James DeSalvo. “It’s not just the lack of snow, it’s more extreme summers.” DeSalvo calls the trails-related tourism the “cog and hub to not just recreation here, but also the economy and helps how people can benefit and survive here.” He said it accounts for close to $8 million annually in the valley of roughly 2,000 full-time residents. He has already begun working with the forest service to try and figure out whether trails can be rerouted to higher elevations.

Over at the Loup Loup Ski Bowl, which has been around since 1958, this snow season has been nothing short of horrific. The Bowl, fifteen minutes outside Twisp, advertises it gets 150″ of snow a year. This season, there has only been one-third of that, according to their official register. “I cannot remember a February this warm,” admitted Executive Director Brent Nourse, who stood near an open grassy patch at the bottom of the bowl. 

“It’s coming into stark focus now,” he said. “I think in order for us, as an organization to continue, we definitely need to expand and make sure that we’re offering activities and experiences all year round. So, we are working with some other organizations to expand the mountain biking opportunities here.” Those long-range plans are in development right now, he says, which would create an all-seasons configuration of the Bowl for the first time in history.

But that’s the reality of the situation, he said. The conditions have changed.

It may be the biggest fight for survival here since the late 1970s when residents helped block the development of a major downhill ski resort near Mazama, citing the environmental impacts. Instead, it turned into a Nordic paradise butted up against the annual closure of Highway 20 to the north.

Fahnestock said he also believes there will be a lack of water to go around if the summer fires continue to be as severe. That’s why he’s posting signs and publicly pushed for $100,000 to activate a well near Mazama so firefighters don’t have to travel into Winthrop to reload water during a crisis.

Right now, Fahnestock said he’s met about half that goal but wants to get it done by May before the next wildfire season as the landscape continues to warm up. He said, “It’s very clearly changing.”

Published15 hours agoShare

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• Ukraine conflict

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Watch: Standing ovation for Ukrainian ambassador at Biden speech

US President Joe Biden has told Congress that Vladimir Putin badly misjudged how the West would hit back once he invaded Ukraine.

In a primetime speech, Mr Biden vowed “an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny”.

Democrats and Republicans reacted to Mr Biden’s appeal to show support for Ukraine by rising in unison to applaud.

His State of the Union address came as pandemic-weary Americans grapple with galloping inflation.

In an hour-long address to lawmakers on Tuesday night, the Democratic president said: “Putin’s war was premeditated and unprovoked. He rejected repeated efforts at diplomacy.

“He thought the West and Nato wouldn’t respond. And he thought he could divide us here at home.”

Mr Biden – whose chaotic withdrawal last year from Afghanistan damaged his popularity among Americans – added: “Putin was wrong. We were ready.”

He announced that the US would ban Russian aircraft from American airspace, following similar bans by Canadian and European authorities.

• What message was Biden sending to Putin?
• Follow live updates from the ground
• Why Biden won’t send troops to Ukraine

The US and it allies have launched a barrage of sanctions against Russia’s economy and financial system and Mr Putin himself. In his speech Mr Biden deviated from his prepared remarks by vowing further economic retaliation, warning Mr Putin: “He has no idea what’s coming.”

The US president also welcomed Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, who received a standing ovation as she sat in US First Lady Jill Biden’s VIP box.

More coverage of Ukraine crisis

• THE BASICS: Why is Putin invading Ukraine?
• RUSSIA SANCTIONS: ‘If I could leave, I would’
• UKRAINE: Desperate scenes in Lviv train station
• IN DEPTH: Full coverage of the conflict

Hours before his address, Mr Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss what help the US could give his country after six days of the Russian assault.

“Let each of us… stand and send an unmistakable signal to Ukraine and to the world,” Mr Biden told his audience in the chamber of the House of Representatives.

It was one of the few moments in the speech where members of both deeply polarised parties rose together to clap and cheer for Ukraine, many of them waving Ukrainian flags that had been passed out before the president arrived.

Mr Biden’s first formal State of the Union speech, an annual event pushing a president’s agenda, came as his approval rating languishes.

Just 40.6% of Americans are happy with his job performance, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

After addressing his biggest foreign policy crisis, the invasion of Ukraine, Mr Biden confronted a host of domestic troubles dogging his presidency, from the enduring pandemic, to soaring consumer prices, to a wave of violent crime.

Although the US jobless rate has sunk to 4%, inflation has hit a 40-year high.

The president sought on Tuesday night to empathise with hard-pressed working families, saying: “I get it.”

He promised a plan for “building a better America”.

Mr Biden argued the best way to counter rocketing consumer prices was to boost domestic production of cars and semiconductors and rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges.

Opinion polls show Americans are also unhappy with Mr Biden’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

But on Tuesday, members of Congress who attended the speech were not required to wear masks for the first time in months.

Mr Biden said: “Last year Covid-19 kept us apart. This year we are finally together again.” 

• Biden’s first year in office – in six charts
• Five voters give their verdict on Biden

More than 2,000 Americans are still dying daily of Covid, according to the latest figures, the highest official tally of any country in the world.

With the nation’s homicide rate having hit a 25-year high, Mr Biden rejected calls to defund the police that were taken up by a wide spectrum of his fellow Democrats.

“The answer is not to defund the police,” said the president. “The answer is to fund them.”

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds delivered the Republican response to Mr Biden’s speech.

She sought to portray a presidency that had sent America back to the late ’70s “when runaway inflation was hammering families, a violent crime wave was crashing on our cities, and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map”.

More on this story

• What Americans think of Biden’s Ukraine response1 day ago
• Russian paratroopers attack Kharkiv – Ukraine19 hours ago
• Watching the war on Russian TV – a whole different story18 hours ago

Scott Stump

Wed, March 2, 2022, 6:40 AM·4 min read

In this article:

• Joe Biden46th and current president of the United States

A member of Ukraine’s parliament called President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech “a total disappointment” on TODAY Wednesday, as she called for a no-fly zone to protect her country from Russian airstrikes.

Oleksandra Ustinova expressed frustration with Biden and the international community for not offering more protection to Ukraine, specifically against Russia’s military aircraft. She said “the whole of Ukraine” was watching Biden’s speech on Tuesday night.

“To be honest, it was a total disappointment for us,” she told Savannah Guthrie. “I can explain why. Today, the whole world is watching Ukrainians being executed. I cannot name it the other way around.

“The right definition is an execution because we see bombs going into our civilian houses every day, we see children dying every day on the streets or in their houses if they didn’t make it to the bomb shelter, we see bombs coming to the orphanages, to the schools. And we had been promised a protection by the international community. We gave up our nuclear weapons.”

Ukraine once possessed the world’s third-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

However, the sovereign nation signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 in which Russia, Britain and the U.S. committed to refrain from attacking Ukraine in exchange for the country turning over its nuclear arsenal to Russia to be dismantled.

On TODAY Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated Biden’s State of the Union comments that the U.S. will not send troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia. Biden said the U.S. will “defend every inch” of NATO territory, but that does not include Ukraine because it is not a member of NATO.

“And today when I see President Biden saying that we’re going to protect every inch of the NATO territory, excuse me, we’ve been promised the same thing when we gave up our nuclear weapons,” Ustinova said. “The Russians have totally destroyed all of the airports in Ukraine, the majority of the roads. We are grateful for help, but we need protection in our sky.”Story continues

The Biden administration has said it will not send military aircraft to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine because that would amount to a direct confrontation with Russian forces.

“We have been protecting ourselves on the ground, but if we do not protect our sky, if there is (not) a no-fly zone or if there is no dome to protect it with the air defense, we will all go down,” Ustinova said. “People will literally die.”

Ustinova wanted to know what it would take for the U.S. to heighten its involvement beyond economic sanctions and military assistance of NATO countries bordering Ukraine.

“What is the red line that (Vladimir) Putin has to cross for NATO and the U.S. to step in?” she said. “We’re not asking for boots on the ground. We’re asking for the iron dome or for the no-fly zone.

“We need the protection of the sky so that the bombs and the missiles do not hit our children. Every time I hear about the possible provocation from Putin — Putin is a psycho. He doesn’t need to be provoked. We did not do anything. We didn’t do anything in 2014, we did not provoke him now. He still invaded, and he’s bombing the cities, he’s bombing the civilians.”

Ustinova also expressed doubt that NATO would come to the military defense of members like Poland or the Baltic countries if Putin decided to invade them.

She questioned the use of sanctions that do not include targeting Russia’s massive oil and gas industry, which is the nerve center of its economy.

Earlier, Harris said on TODAY that the U.S. has taken steps to “mitigate the impact on the American consumer” of any disruption in the global oil supply that could result from the backlash against Russia.

“Then we have to go and tell every American that the president of the United States is protecting them from paying an extra 20, 30 cents for a gallon of gas and that’s why so many Ukrainians have to die,” Ustinova said.

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