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Ukrainian Minister of Health, Viktor Liashko, makes his first official visit to WHO/Europe headquartersCopenhagen, 1 May 2023

WHO and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine underscored their long-running partnership amid the ongoing war in addressing essential health needs and strengthening the countrys health systems for the future during a wide-ranging, day-long dialogue in Copenhagen today, as Health Minister, Viktor Liashko, made his first official visit to the headquarters of WHO/Europe.

Accompanied by Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister, Serhii Dubrov, and Ukraines Ambassador to Denmark, Mykhailo Vydoinyk, Minister Liashko met with the WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, and the WHO/Europe leadership team, as well as the WHO Representative in Ukraine, Dr Jarno Habicht, to discuss the impacts of the war including on health services and delivery, the health and care workforce, and health infrastructure along with how Ukraines health reforms are charting a blueprint for the years ahead.

As I have seen for myself on 4 visits to Ukraine since the beginning of 2022, the war has caused significant suffering to the people of Ukraine, damaging health systems and infrastructure, disrupting access to health services and medicines for the entire population and, in particular, the most vulnerable, noted Dr Kluge. Yet, as I have observed before, the health system has also remained remarkably resilient. Together with the Ministry of Health, and our hundreds of health partners on the ground nationwide, including hard-to-reach and regained areas, we will continue to help maintain health services, supporting the delivery of essential supplies, vaccines and medicines where they are most urgently needed.

Complementing Dr Kluges remarks, Dr Habicht added, While WHO has been providing continuous support in Ukraine by delivering lifesaving health supplies and bringing vital care to people even as the war rages on, we also pledge to support Ukraines ambitious, yet realistic, health reforms packaged under the countrys Health Strategy 2030 laying the foundation for health sector recovery well into the future.

WHO/Ukraine has a significant presence on the ground, and their teams provide expertise and support across diverse programmes and issues, from rehabilitation and mental health to immunization, HIV, TB and noncommunicable diseases, said Minister Liashko. We embarked on our health reforms even before war erupted last year, and we are truly grateful for WHOs support as we seek to make our vision a reality strengthening quality, making services accessible, and ensuring affordability under universal health coverage.

Discussions with various WHO/Europe programme directors also included primary health care in Ukraine during and after the war, work in the area of health financing, the importance of tracking and responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases, and peoples growing health needs and priorities encompassing chronic diseases, the necessity of strengthening mental health and psychosocial support services, and the importance of rehabilitation for Ukrainian patients and provision of assistive technologies. As well, there is a need to nurture and support the countrys exhausted health and care workforce, including through the introduction and implementation of innovative digital health approaches that help reach and monitor patients in remote areas.

Ive long awaited Minister Liashkos visit to WHO/Europe, said Dr Kluge. Im truly grateful he accepted the invitation we extended, most recently during my latest visit to Ukraine in February of this year. I commend his leadership for over 2 years now, both amid the challenge of COVID-19 and then the full-scale war over the past 14 months. I hope to visit Ukraine again later this year, in keeping with my pledge to regularly witness for myself the crucial, inspiring work health authorities and our WHO teams are doing despite the circumstances.

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Focusing on the state of health in Ukraine with an eye to the future - World Health Organization

Ukrainian federation alleges that Russian judokas registered for championships in Qatar are active servicemen.

Ukrainian judokas will not take part in this months World Judo Championships in Qatar following the International Judo Federations (IJF) decision to readmit Russians and Belarusians as neutrals, the Ukrainian Judo Federation (UJF) has said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) last month recommended that athletes from the two countries be allowed to return to international competition as neutrals.

The IJF last week announced that it would allow judokas from Russia and Belarus to participate in the May 7-14 championships, saying its decision would allow Russians and Belarusians to participate in qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The IOCs recommendations exclude athletes who support the war or are contracted to military or national security agencies. The IJF has said it has enlisted an independent company to perform background checks and identify any such athletes.

However, the Ukrainian federation (UJF) alleged that a number of Russian judokas registered for the championships are active servicemen.

We do not see here neutrality, equal conditions and a bridge to peace, as stated in the IJF Resolution on the participation of Russian and Belarusian teams in the World Championships in Doha, the UJF said on Monday.

We see here a decision that contradicts the latest recommendations of the International Olympic Committee We are disappointed with the decision of the International Judo Federation. Therefore, we have decided not to participate in the World Championships in Doha.

The federation said more than 250 Ukrainian athletes including judokas have given their lives defending the country against a Russian army still waging a brutal full-scale war on our territory, shelling Ukrainian cities, civilian homes every day, killing civilians and children.

Ukraine has barred its national sports teams from competing in events that include competitors from Russia and Belarus.

The IJF and the Russian judo federation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Moscow has previously condemned moves to restrict or ban its athletes from competing as discrimination on the basis of nationality and says all athletes must be allowed to compete.

After Russias February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, for which Belarus was a staging area for Russian troops, the IJF removed Russian President Vladimir Putin from his position as honorary president and cancelled a Grand Slam event in Kazan, Russia.

More:
Ukraine to boycott World Judo Championships over Russian athletes - Al Jazeera English

Artem Morozs four-mile race in Central Park in Manhattan this month didnt go as planned.

The former Ukrainian soldier had hoped to run on new prosthetics made for him in the United States, but they werent ready in time for the race. So he walked across the start using prosthetics he had brought from home and was pushed in a wheelchair the rest of the way.

As Morozs guide propelled him up the hill, he spread his arms out wide, like a child imitating an airplanes flight. The corners of a Ukrainian flag tied to the back of the chair rippled in the breeze.

He wasnt running yet, but knew that he would be soon.

Moroz, 44, had been running since he was a child. He and his family live in Irpin, just west of Kyiv, and it was impossible not to run, he said.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Moroz would start his day by running: at sunrise through a nearby forest before going to workat large construction sites, where he was a project manager.

Then war arrived.

Moroz joined the military in late March 2022, after watching Russian soldiers attack Irpin, and became a platoon commander. On Sept. 14, he and his unit were hit by a rocket in the Kherson region. If not for Polish doctors and paramedics, he would have died, he said, but both his legs were amputated below the knee. At first, he couldnt imagine being able to stand again, he said.

While in a hospital in Mykolaiv, he watched a documentary on YouTube about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and the way the city and running community had come back stronger in 2014.

The movie gave him a goal: Run the Boston Marathon, which was then six months away.

Social media facilitated a key connection as he began his pursuit. Nadiia Osmankina, a Ukrainian who came to the United States a year ago for the Boston Marathon and stayed because of the war, saw his story and reached out to him. Running Boston changed her life, she said, and she wanted Moroz to get that same opportunity.

She had connections with both the Ukrainian Running Club in New York City and the president of a foundation, Revived Soldiers Ukraine, that helps wounded Ukrainian service members. The foundations president, Iryna Vashchuk, had been a professional runner and was born in Irpin.

The foundation has a center in Orlando, Fla., where soldiers are fitted for prosthetics. They were able to provide Moroz with both regular walking prosthetics, for daily life, and a specialized type used for running, which are carbon fiber curves that have rubber treads around the edges of the feet.

Moroz arrived late last month and figured that while he was in the United States, he could run some races. The Ukrainian Running Club has a big presence at many races staged by the New York Road Runners, the organizer of the New York City Marathon, and they connected the Road Runners and Moroz so he could pick a race.

But becoming accustomed to new prosthetics, especially running blades, isnt like slipping on a new pair of sneakers.

Its a whole different muscle memory, especially for above-the-knee amputees, said Mary Johnson, who had one leg amputated above the knee after a traumatic injury.

You have to trust that your foot will hit the ground underneath you where you expect, or youll land on the ground, she said.

The Central Park race in early April came just a week after Moroz had arrived in the United States. By then, reality had set in: He wouldnt be competing on his new running blades. Still, he was back out there on a racecourse.

Organizers allowed Moroz and Osmankina to start 10 minutes early so he wouldnt be jostled in the crowded corrals. Except for walking across the starting line, this first race would be in a wheelchair. Some runners from the Ukrainian club cheered at a spot on the course.

Just after he finished, Moroz was already looking ahead to his next race: Boston, in two weeks. Not the marathon, but the five-kilometer race the Boston Athletic Association puts on two days earlier. This year, it fell on the 10th anniversary of the 2013 bombings. Even with his slow early progress, Moroz thought he might be able to run on his new blades in Boston.

Two days before the race, Moroz was practicingon his newwalking prosthetics in Orlando in a parking lot. The fit still wasnt quite right, he said. Small changes, even drinking a glass of water, altered how they would fit. Thats not unusual for amputees. The doctors would tweak one thing and he would try it, and then they would adjust again.

Sean Karpf, who was wounded while serving in the U.S. Army and lost part of one leg below the knee, said that during the first two to three years after his injury, he had needed adjustments every four to six months because of the changes in his residual limb not unusual for amputees.

In the United States, medical insurance doesnt cover adaptive sports equipment, which is not deemed medically necessary and can be expensive. A running blade can cost $12,000 to $15,000. Above-the-knee amputees also need a knee joint, which costs more.

While the Department of Veterans Affairs generally will cover the cost of that type of equipment for American troops injured during their service, the wait can be as long as 18 months. Americans who arent in the military often rely on fund-raising efforts or grants through nonprofit groups. Johnson got her running prosthetic through the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which provides grants for adaptive equipment and camps and clinics for people to learn adaptive sports.

Moroz finally got his running blades a few days before his Boston race, but he wasnt ready to run on them, so he instead used his walking prosthetics for the 5K event. After the race, he put on the running blades for photos at the finish line with Osmankina. He couldnt stand, much less walk, without leaning on someone for balance. When Osmankina stepped away, Moroz nearly fell.

Still, seven months and a day after Moroz had been carried from the battlefield by Polish medics, his life in danger, he ran for the first time, in Boston. It wasnt the marathon, as he had imagined, but that didnt matter. He was running.

Soon, Ukraine will have more capacity to help people injured in the war instead of relying on European and American medical centers. Unbroken, an organization focused on helping Ukrainians heal from traumatic injuries sustained in the war, is retrofitting an old military hospital in Lviv from the Soviet Unionera, said Dr. David Crandell, who is the medical director of the amputee center at a rehabilitation hospital in Boston and part of the World Health Organizations technical working group on rehabilitation for Ukraine. Next month, Unbroken expects to open the former hospital as a center focused on amputee and post-traumatic stress care.

Demand is high. The First Union Hospital in Lviv is receiving 25 to 100 new trauma patients each day, Crandell said. He estimates that the country will have to accommodate 5,000 to 6,000 new amputees because of the war.

You can imagine what Boston saw at the Boston Marathon, every single day for a year, Crandell said.

This race, which Moroz had been inspired to run only months earlier from his hospital bed, began with Osmankina riding in the wheelchair, holding a flag, as Moroz pushed her. A little farther on, a slippery patch on the road made him slide, and before the second turn on the course, they had switched positions. Osmankina pushed Moroz, his feet lifted so the heels of his everyday prostheses wouldnt catch on the ground. He lifted his arms up, encouraging the spectators who lined the course to cheer louder.

They arrived to fans. Andriy Boyko, a Ukrainian who lives in Melrose, Mass., a suburb north of Boston, showed up with his family to cheer from the sidelines. Moroz later said he had heard many people cheering for him and for Ukraine during the race, which he had not expected.

As they approached the end of the race, Moroz and Osmankina switched places again. Moroz ran, pushing his guide over the finish line.

The marathon would be there when he was ready. As he spoke, a good 20 minutes after he had crossed the finish line, his hand still trembled from the adrenaline.

It might be I will not sleep tonight, he said.

Read the rest here:
He Lost His Legs in the War in Ukraine, but Not His Will to Run - The New York Times

UNITED NATIONS (AP) Russia couldnt escape its war against Ukraine during its highly contentious presidency of the U.N. Security Council, and the war will still loom over Switzerland as it takes over the monthlong presidency Monday for the first time since becoming a full member of the United Nations in 2002.

Switzerlands U.N. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl said at the traditional opening press conference that her countrys approach has been to work for unity of the councils 15 members and to be a bridge builder. She conceded, nonetheless, that she expects some heated or polarized discussions.

Fireworks are almost certain during Switzerlands signature events, starting Wednesday with a session on how to ensure trust to sustain peace in the future and another on May 23 on protecting civilians in armed conflict.

The council is also highly likely to hold a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, she said, which is certain to pit Moscow against Kyivs allies.

We will try to conduct tho (open) meetings in a calm way, Baeriswyl said. When it comes to closed consultations, I may be asking in a little more active way council members to really stay respectful with each other.

Russia started its presidency by giving the spotlight to its commissioner of childrens rights, who is accused with President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. Then, it went after the West by claiming it is violating international laws by arming Ukraine.

At its premiere event last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov defended his countrys military action and accused the U.S. and its allies of undercutting global diplomacy the foundation of the United Nations ,which was created to prevent a third world war.

Envoys from the U.S. and several allies responded to the video briefing by Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian childrens rights commissioner, by walking out of the council chamber. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzias accusations about arming Ukraine drew a blistering response that Ukraine has every right to defend itself against Putins invading army.

And U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Western envoys berated Lavrov for violating the U.N. Charter by attacking Ukraine and occupying part of its territory.

Switzerland Ambassador Baeriswyl was among those who accused Russia of violating the U.N. Charter, saying Ukraines state sovereignty, territorial integrity and the prohibition of the use of force continue to be flouted by the military aggression of a permanent member of the Security Council against its neighbor.

The presidency of the Security Council, the U.N.s most powerful body charged with maintaining international peace and security, rotates monthly in alphabetical order of its 15 members.

John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, said Russias presidency shows the dysfunctional nature of the Security Council, which has been paralyzed over Ukraine since Putins February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbor. He said the same holds true during Chinas council presidency.

Obviously, theyre not going to permit any serious discussion of some of the real security crises around the world, and even if they did permit the discussion, they would block the council from doing anything through the veto, he said in a phone interview with AP.

Bolton said its unfortunate but ironic to say the least that the promise at the end of the Cold War in 1990-1991 that the Security Council could really be effective and address global crises after decades of paralysis because of the veto power of the United States and the Soviet Union has ended, alluding to the ongoing paralysis over Ukraine and other hotspots because of Russias veto.

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Ukraine war looms over Switzerland UN presidency - The Associated Press

In her book Gulag: A History, Anne Applebaum writes, The more we are able to understand how different societies have transformed their neighbors and fellow citizens from people into objects, the more we know of the specific circumstances which led to each episode of mass torture and mass murder, the better we will understand the darker side of our own human nature.

Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.

Anne, who received the Pulitzer Prize for Gulag, has made one of her professional preoccupations (to borrow from Robert Burns) mans inhumanity to manspecifically, though not exclusively, the inhumanity manifest in Soviet and post-Soviet history. Her book Red Famine is the definitive study of Stalins calculated starvation of Ukraine. Annes work on that catastrophe prepared her to write about Ukraines latest calamity, a calamity whose author is Stalins worthy successor. Readers of The Atlantic have benefited from Annes erudition, vision, and trenchant writing.

On our most recent visit to Ukraine, the darker side of human nature was plainly visible. One day, in Kherson, the still mostly abandoned southern city only recently liberated by the Ukrainian army, a Russian missile struck a supermarket parking lot. Anne and I were nearby, interviewing Ukrainian soldiers. The missile was meant to murder and terrorize; mission accomplished. Three people died in this attack, and three more were injured, including an elderly woman. A few hours after the strike, all that was left was a modest crater, bits of shrapnel, and smudges of blood on the asphalt. This sort of scene is repeated up and down the Dnipro River: the Russians on one bank, firing artillery and short-range missiles at civilians; the Ukrainians firing back with whatever they have, which is often not enough.

Anne and I first met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year, a short time after Russias full-scale invasion began, and in that meeting one of the main subjects was, indeed, ordnancehow many rockets and artillery shells Ukraine needed simply to survive the Russian onslaught. When we saw Zelensky again, this past March, the conversation was more expansive, about democracy, education, technology. In this interview (which we conducted with Laurene Powell Jobs, the chair of The Atlantics board of directors), Zelensky spoke with urgency about the need for the West to remain unfaltering in the face of Russian aggression. This is the subject of the story Anne and I wrote for this issue.

From the June 2023 issue: The case for the total liberation of Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is about much more than Ukraine; it is about the very subjects that animate this magazine: democracy, freedom, justice, humanism. So Anne, and others, will continue to cover this war and its consequences vigorously and ambitiously. As you will see, the pictures accompanying our story were taken by Paolo Pellegrin, one of the greatest living photographers, and the cover was designed and drawn by Bono, who, in addition to being Bono, is a gifted illustrator. Not long ago, he told me that he sometimes redesigned and reimagined Atlantic covers on his iPad. I was, as you might imagine, curious about this hobby, and I asked to see his sketches. They were very good. I suggested that he make an actual Atlantic cover. Zelensky, a man we both admire, was a natural subject for his first go. Like Anne, Bono is preoccupied with issues of freedom and dignity, and, working with Oliver Munday, our associate creative director, he made a stunning cover that captures the resolve of Ukraines wartime president.

In other news, The Atlantic has won the most prestigious honor awarded by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Our magazine won this prize last year as well. We have a staff, and a mission, without parallel in American journalism, and it is gratifying to receive this recognition. This is a tribute to our entire team, and in particular to people like Anne Applebaum, and to the five staff writers who were finalists this year for their outstanding feature stories: Caitlin Dickerson, George Packer, Jennifer Senior, Clint Smith, and Graeme Wood. We are trying to build at The Atlantic the worlds greatest writers collective, in order to serve our readers as best we can. I thank all of you for your support and loyalty.

This editors note appears in the June 2023 print edition with the headline War and Consequences.

When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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War and Consequences in Ukraine - The Atlantic