RUSSIA, A Jehovah’s Witness to serve two years of forced labor
On June 30, 2023, the judge of the Leninskiy District Court of Novosibirsk, Olga Kovalenko, found 45-year-old Dmitriy Dolzhikov guilty of extremism, sentenced him to three years in prison and a year of restriction of freedom, but his imprisonment was replaced with forced labor. Taking into account the period of detention of Dmitriy under arrest, he will in fact have to serve about two years of forced labor.
Dmitriy Dolzhikov and his wife Marina on the day of the verdict. Photo credit: JW
Dmitry Dolzhikov did not plead guilty: “
I carefully read the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated April 20, 2017 [on the liquidation of legal entities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia], but I have not seen anywhere that the court imposed a ban on practicing the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses and believers would be banned worship God, perform religious services, pray and sing religious songs. There has never been such a ban.”
The criminal case against Dmitriy Dolzhikov was initiated in May 2020. According to law enforcement officers, the believer
“intentionally, out of extremist motives, took part in the activities of a religious association … in the form of participation in religious meetings and meetings of an extremist organization, holding conversations with residents of Chelyabinsk, showing and watching educational videos.”
This is how the security forces regarded the peaceful services, at which believers read and discussed the Bible. Two years after the initiation of the case, a search was carried out in Dolzhikov’s house, the FSB officers brought Dmitriy from Chelyabinsk to Novosibirsk, where he was imprisoned in a pre-trial detention center, where he spent 2.5 months. The security forces persuaded the man to cooperate, threatening to “ruin his life.” The believer spent more than 6 months under house arrest.
In November 2022, the case went to trial. The defense has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the documents from the case materials are dated mainly from 2007-2016, which does not apply to the imputed Dolzhikov period. The whole accusation was based on the testimony of a secret witness and two Orthodox activists who openly expressed hostility towards the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ confession and, according to Dmitriy, told lies, misleading the court.
Friends of the Dolzhikovs on the day of the verdict
In a statement from his spokesperson on Monday, Mr. Guterres affirmed that all military operations must be conducted with full respect for international humanitarian law.
The incursion follows another operation in the camp on 19 June, which left four Palestinians killed and 91 others injured.
The UN’s humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said on Tuesday that as a result of the air and ground operations taking place in the West Bank town, 10 Palestinians including three children were killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
At least 100 others have been injured, of whom 20 are reportedly in critical condition, OCHA said. Thousands of residents have reportedly left the camp since the operation began.
In an apparent retaliatory attack in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Tuesday, seven people were injured, three seriously, when a Palestinian man drove into pedestrians standing outside a shopping centre, according to news reports.
The attacker was shot and killed by an Israeli citizen at the scene. Palestinian militant group Hamas reportedly described the attack as a direct response to the military operation in Jenin.
Lack of basic essentials
Airstrikes in Jenin “significantly damaged” structures in which people were living in both the camp and surrounding neighbourhoods. The agency warned that due to damage to infrastructure, most of the Jenin camp has lost access to drinking water and electricity.
The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), which runs four schools, one health centre and other facilities in the Jenin camp, said that many residents were in urgent need of food, drinking water and milk powder for children.
As of Monday, all UNRWA installations in the camp, operated by 90 staff members, were out of service due to the heavy exchanges of fire, the agency reported.
Ambulances denied access
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that the extent of people’s injuries was placing strain on the “fragile and underfunded” health system and that it was working with partners to deliver more life-saving medical supplies to Jenin Hospital.
UN humanitarians said that the destruction of roads in the refugee camp was restricting access for medical teams and ambulances, and Israeli forces were conducting checks on vehicles, including ambulances, at the entrance of the camp.
According to the UN health agency, ambulances with medical teams have been prevented from entering parts of the refugee camp and reaching persons who have been critically injured.
Attacks on healthcare
At least two hospitals have also been affected by attacks involving use of ammunition and gas canisters.
“Attacks against healthcare, including prevention of access to persons injured, are extremely concerning”, WHO said, calling for “respect and protection of healthcare”, including safe passage to health services in Jenin and across Palestine.
The agency recalled that there had been a “significant increase” in attacks on healthcare in the West Bank this year. The first five months of 2023 saw “at least” 124 WHO-documented attacks, resulting in 39 health worker injuries and affecting 117 ambulances.
One of the most interesting, strangest and most startling bets in the world since the beginning of this year – a case from Uganda that happened four months ago. Then worried parishioners of Pastor David Ochieng were stunned to see the church door padlocked for several days.
This raises doubts about the priest’s fate and his emirs turn to the police. It turns out that Ochieng won 100 million Ugandan shillings. The news became public knowledge after the pastor contacted a local newspaper, aware of the concern he had caused with his absence.
“One day I received an offer on the phone to bet on certain matches. It seemed like a bargain and I decided to give it a shot with a large chunk of my savings. I bet 1 million shillings. There was no answer for a long time and I started writing to the people who tricked me. I wrote to them that they are scammers. A few weeks later they replied that I won 100 million and transferred the money to me. It turned out that the matches were fixed and because of that there was a delay in the payout. The check has shown that there is no violation on my part. I closed the church as it was my way of supporting myself until now. Now I have made more money than I ever dreamed of and there is no point in working,” David Ochieng admitted.
It should be noted that the amount actually won is not large. His bet of 1 million Ugandan shillings is equal to 250 euros, and the winning of 100 million is actually 25,000 euros.
On the occasion of the visit of the Pope’s special envoy to Moscow and Kiev
According to official reports, the content of Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi’s talks in Moscow on June 28-28 included “humanitarian issues”. Therefore, after the much-anticipated meeting with Yuri Ushakov, assistant to the Russian president on international affairs, the special envoy of the Pope visited the children’s ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. According to the Vatican’s official website, the focus of the conversation was “the issue of over 19,000 Ukrainian children who ended up in Russia” – an issue on which President Zelensky sought help from the Holy See during the audience with Pope Francis in May this year.
Many of these children lost contact with their parents as they were taken to children’s camps, and some ended up in Russian foster families. Lvova-Belova herself adopted the teenager Philip from Mariupol, shortly after which the famous order from the International Criminal Court appeared.
According to Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov Dzyupi has not reached concrete agreements in Moscow, but there is reason to continue the dialogue.
It is worth noting that the papal legate’s visit to Moscow took place on the feast of the founders of the Roman Catholic Church, the apostles Peter and Paul, which Roman Catholics celebrate as “Pope’s Day”. Perhaps there is some symbolism in this…
Not an ultimatum, but a negotiating position
The Vatican has traditionally been tight-lipped on details when it comes to attempts to engage in the reconciliation of warring states or peoples. Vatican diplomacy has a reputation for being one of the most secretive and mysterious, even more so in an age when an experienced Jesuit occupies the papal throne. What is known is that Francis’s “peace plan,” unlike other such initiatives, does not include a ceasefire request as a precondition for negotiations. What is usually interpreted as an “ultimatum” from the Russian or Ukrainian side is seen in the Vatican as “negotiating positions” from which to move towards a compromise.
Perhaps this approach is now perceived more favorably in Moscow than in Kiev. On June 19, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Alexander Grushko, stated: “We appreciate the balanced position of the Vatican.”
Although Dzupi’s visit to Kyiv on June 5-6 was at a higher level (he was received by President Zelensky), Ukrainian elites and society are skeptical of the Vatican’s efforts.
Many Ukrainians are offended by Francis’ words, which they see as a remnant of his “left” Latin American experience (before he was elected pope, he served in Argentina).
But, for example, Leonid Sevastianov, the head of the World Union of Old Believers, who is in constant contact with Pope Francis and was appointed by him as an “ambassador of peace”, is sure that in the conditions of the helplessness of the major international institutions, only the Vatican can provide the necessary conditions and format for starting negotiations. According to his information, thanks to Dzupi’s mission, the contours of the negotiating groups have begun to take shape. In this regard, it should be noted that, unlike the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yuriy Ushakov is not subject to Western sanctions.
Sevastianov himself was forced to go to the police instead of the meeting scheduled for June 28 with the cardinal, where he was taken to testify about “collaboration with the Vatican.” The Old Believer leader insists that he does not cooperate with the Vatican, but communicates personally with the Pope as a person who gives the world hope for reconciliation, bypassing any state institutions.
A chance for the Russian Orthodox Church
Contacts with the Vatican are an important (if not the only) tool to restore the international legitimacy of the Moscow Patriarchate, which was almost destroyed after February 24, 2022. The Vatican is aware of this – and the ecclesiastical part of Zuppi’s visit to Moscow was more colorful than the secular.
The cardinal stopped at the Apostolic Nunciature (Vatican embassy), and in the early morning of June 28, he went to the miraculous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, exhibited in the temple at the Tretyakov Gallery (“St. Nicholas” in Tolmach). Previously, the Rublev icon of the Mother of God was also periodically transferred to the same church, which provides museum premises, but now it ended up in the precarious conditions of the Christ the Savior temple. Cardinal Zuppi wisely did not go there.
According to the rector of the church “St. Nicholas” he did not even notice the cardinal’s visit – he came to the temple without any pomp and in civilian clothes.
Metropolitan Antony (Sevryuk), head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, flew to Rome on June 16 to prepare the meeting between Dzuppi and Patriarch Cyril. He discussed the agenda of the meeting not only with Pope Francis and the Secretary of State of the Holy See, but also with the community “St. Egidius”, whose representatives accompanied Card. Dzupi to the Danilovsky Monastery, where they were received by His All-Holiness Patriarch Cyril on June 29.
Leonid Sevastianov calls on the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church to appreciate the favor of Francis: “The current pope is loyal, but we don’t know who will be next. If the Moscow Patriarchate is not set on complete isolation, it will have to accept the idea of a papal visit to Russia – even if only in transit. For example, the option of Cyril and Francis meeting at the airport where the papal plane will land for refueling in early September on its way to Mongolia is being discussed. It was at an airport – in Havana – that the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church met for the first time in history.
Of course, the Russian Orthodox Church has its turbo-radicals who declare themselves completely isolated from the West, such as the “exarch of Africa” Leonid (Gorbachev), who claims: “Russia does not need any pope… We have a mother – the Motherland!”
However, such a position is in clear contradiction with the patriarchal position. “In the current conditions, which are marked by many risks and many dangers – he said at the meeting with Card. Dzupi, – [our] churches can work together to prevent the negative development of political circumstances and serve the cause of peace.
However, the patriarch’s rhetoric during the meeting in the Danilovsky Monastery reminds of the “language of double standards”.
On the one hand, Kirill exclaimed: “The suffering of the Ukrainian and Russian people deeply hurts my heart!” – and stated that a large part of his congregation lives in Ukraine. On the other hand, in the last sixteen months, he has not once expressed his condolences to the Ukrainians. Patr. Kirill assured Dzupi that “… in all our churches we offer special, unceasing prayers for peace in Ukraine.” Only a day before, however, the Patriarchate of Constantinople reinstated the Moscow priest Ioan Koval, whose “guilt” came down to the fact that the word “victory” was replaced by the word “peace” in the patriarchal prayer.
However, the cardinal invited the patriarch to visit Bologna and Rome – after the beginning of the Special Military Operation, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has made only one foreign visit to Belarus.
Before Dzupi’s visit to Moscow, Pope Francis also worked on the Ukrainian issue. He received in the Vatican the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez. Both have invitations to visit Moscow, but are in contact with Western leaders and are offering their own options for ending the Special Military Operation (SMO). Despite his advanced age, Francis shows remarkable diplomatic adaptability and is prone to changing tactics. His initial “equal distance” from the parties to the conflict has been replaced by vacillations perceived as either “pro-Moscow” or “pro-Ukrainian”.
Today, he avoids the mistakes of the first months of the SMO and sets out on the path of building an international humanitarian coalition. Who knows, maybe it is the “humanitarian” notes that will be heard by the leaders who have become hostages of unfulfilled geopolitical fantasies.
Reference
Card. Matteo Maria Zuppi is sixty-six years old, born in Rome and a graduate of the Pontifical Lateran University. He became a priest at the age of twenty-five and served in the archdiocese of Rome. Since the 1980s, it has been working closely with the community “St. Aegidius”, which carries out delicate orders of the Holy See to settle international conflicts. He was one of four mediators in the negotiations between rival factions in Mozambique that achieved peace and ended the country’s civil war in 1992. He also participated in negotiations between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish government and between Basque separatists and the Spanish government. On January 31, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Zuppi as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rome. On October 27, 2015, Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Bologna. In 2019, Zuppi became a cardinal, and in May of this year he headed the Italian Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference. In May of this year, Francis appointed him as his special representative for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.
On the last day of the Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU, the member states, at the level of the Committee of Permanent Representatives – COREPER I, approved a legislative proposal that preserves the previous approach to classifying essential oils, the Bulgarian Ministry of Health reported.
In relation to the European Commission’s proposed Regulation amending the legislation on the classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures, the Council accepted the arguments of Bulgaria and seven other member states about the difficulties in adopting the proposed approach and included a review clause requiring new analyzes by Commission to be presented after 4 years.
The position in defense of the producers of essential oil crops in Bulgaria was presented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Kiril Vatev, at the meeting of the Council on Agriculture and Fisheries, which took place on June 26 and 27 in Luxembourg. He then stated that Bulgaria insists on maintaining the current approach to the classification of essential oils in order to continue the traditional cultivation of the crops in the EU from which they are extracted and to preserve the incomes of farmers and seasonal workers employed in the sector. Minister Vatev insisted that essential oils be excluded from the concept of complex substances, so that they continue to be classified under the current rules as substances and not as mixtures.
The decision of the Council of the EU is a positive development for producers of natural ingredients for perfumery and cosmetics. Negotiations with the European Parliament to agree on the final text of the regulation are still pending.
Minister Vatev commented that the decision reached was an achievement of the entire government and personally of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov. The Prime Minister categorically defended Bulgarian rose oil and other natural essential oils at the meeting of the European Council. During the debate on the topic “Economy”, he pointed out a significant omission in the draft Regulation on the Classification, Labeling and Packaging of Chemicals (CLP), which places essential oils in the column of dangerous chemical mixtures. “When we discuss whether something is harmful, we have to we look not only at what the substance is, but also what is its concentration. It depends on her whether the substance is dangerous or not. In the text of the regulation, which is being presented, the word “concentration” is missing, Academician Nikolay Denkov, who is a world-renowned scientist in the field of chemistry and physical chemistry, explained to journalists in Brussels.
In front of the other leaders, the Bulgarian Prime Minister defined the European regulation being prepared as an abuse of science. He specifically asked the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to refine the text because “it is not as scientific as it should be”, and he received her understanding.
Local young people in the city of Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine, are teaming up with the UPSHIFT programme, run by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), to care for animals evacuated from dangerous regions.
Over 300 young people have joined the initiative to house the abandoned pets, mainly cats and dogs, and which hopes to encourage people to care about animals.
A night in the car can exceed a night in five-star hotels up to 3000 euros, and before that – to end up in detention.
Greece introduced a new fine at the beginning of the summer. We pay up to 3000 euros if we allow ourselves to stop and sleep in our vehicle in an unregulated place in the Southern country. Sanctions start at 300 euros.
According to the Greek law, staying overnight in a car is prohibited in public places, on beaches, in archaeological sites, and even in parking lots.
It is forbidden to spend the night even if we are with a camper or caravan. It is imperative that we find one of the rest areas created for the purpose of spending the night. Otherwise, we could end up in jail.
The fine will be imposed by the police officers on the spot. If it goes to court, however, it can swell significantly and the night on the seat surpasses the night in the five-star hotels by up to 3,000 euros. A large part of the tourists, especially from the Balkan countries, were dissatisfied with the news.
Photo by Felix Haumann: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-van-on-brown-field-under-white-clouds-3796556/
I would like to illustrate my point by outlining the contributions to the idea and practice of Muslim-Christian dialogue made by two key individuals in recent Turkish history. Long before the Second Vatican Council, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1876-1960), one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the 20th Century, advocated a dialogue between true Muslims and true Christians. The earliest statement of Said Nursi concerning the need for dialogue between Muslims and Christians dates from 1911, more than 50 years before the Council document, Nostra aetate.
Said Nursi was led to his view about the need for Muslim-Christian dialogue from his analysis of society in his day. He considered that the dominant challenge to faith in the modern age lay in the secular approach to life promoted by the West. He felt that modern secularism had two faces. On the one hand, there was communism that explicitly denied God’s existence and consciously fought against the place of religion in society. On the other, there was the secularism of modern capitalist systems which did not deny God’s existence, but simply ignored the question of God and promoted a consumerist, materialist way of life as if there were no God or as though God had no moral will for humankind. In both types of secular society, some individuals might make a personal, private choice to follow a religious path, but religion should have nothing to say about politics, economics or the organization of society.
Said Nursi held that in the situation of this modern world, religious believers – Christian as well as Muslim – face a similar struggle, that is, the challenge to lead a life of faith in which the purpose of human life is to worship God and to love others in obedience to God’s will, and to lead this life of faith in a world whose political, economic and social spheres are often dominated either by a militant atheism, such as that of communism, or by a practical atheism, where God is simply ignored, forgotten, or considered irrelevant.
Said Nursi insists that the threat posed by modern secularism to a living faith in God is real and that believers must truly struggle to defend the centrality of God’s will in everyday life, but he does not advocate violence to pursue this goal. He says that the most important need today is for the greatest struggle, the jihad al-akbar of which the Qur’an speaks. This is the interior effort to bring every aspect of one’s life into submission to God’s will. As he explained in his famous Damascus Sermon, one element of this greatest struggle is the necessity of acknowledging and overcoming one’s own weaknesses and those of one’s nation. Too often, he says, believers are tempted to blame their problems on others when the real fault lies in themselves – the dishonesty, corruption, hypocrisy and favoritism that characterize many so-called “religious” societies.
He further advocates the struggle of speech, kalam, what might be called a critical dialogue aimed at convincing others of the need to submit one’s life to God’s will. Where Said Nursi is far ahead of his time is that he foresees that in this struggle to carry on a critical dialogue with modern society Muslims should not act alone but must work together with those he calls “true Christians,” in other words, Christians not in name only, but those who have interiorized the message which Christ brought, who practice their faith, and who are open and willing to cooperate with Muslims.
In contrast to the popular way in which many Muslims of his day looked at things, Said Nursi holds Muslims must not say that Christians are the enemy. Rather, Muslims and Christians have three common enemies that they have to face together: ignorance, poverty, dissension. In short, he sees the need for dialogue as arising from the challenges posed by secular society to Muslims and Christians and that dialogue should lead to a common stand favoring education, including ethical and spiritual formation to oppose the evil of ignorance, cooperation in development and welfare projects to oppose the evil of poverty, and efforts to unity and solidarity to oppose the enemy of dissension, factionalism, and polarization.
Said Nursi still hopes that before the end of time true Christianity will eventually be transformed into a form of Islam, but the differences that exist today between Islam and Christianity must not be considered obstacles to Muslim-Christian cooperation in facing the challenges of modern life. In fact, near the end of his life, in 1953, Said Nursi paid a visit in Istanbul to the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church to encourage Muslim-Christian dialogue. A few years earlier, in 1951, he sent a collection of his writings to Pope Pius XII, who acknowledged the gift with a handwritten note.
The particular talent of Said Nursi was his ability to interpret the Qur’anic teaching in a such way that it could be applied by modern Muslims to situations of modern life. His voluminous writings which have been gathered together into the Risale-e-Nur the Message of Light express the need for a revitalization of society by the practice of everyday virtues like labor, mutual assistance, self-awareness, and moderation in possessions and deportment.
Note about the author: Father Thomas Michel, S.J., is a visiting professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome. He previously taught theology at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar and was a senior fellow with Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and Woodstock Theological Center. Michel has also served on the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, leading the office for engagement with Islam, as well as headed the interreligious dialogue offices of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences and the Jesuit secretariat in Rome. Ordained in 1967, he joined the Jesuits in 1971 and subsequently earned a doctorate in Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Chicago.
Photo: The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
This year we invite avid photographers across Europe to capture both the good — sustainable, and not so good — unsustainable — production and consumption patterns, habits and behaviours in our daily lives. This year’s European Environment Agency (EEA) photo competition‘ZeroWaste PIX’, launched today, calls us all to reflect on the state of modern lifestyles.
The aim of ZeroWaste PIX is to raise awareness and inspire change, conveyed through photographs, whether it is an image of factories, landfills or a community garden that bring people together around a shared sense of purpose.
Our production systems and consumption patterns are vital aspects of our economy and livelihoods. As consumers, we enjoy numerous conveniences and benefits to our quality of live due to industrial production. However, we know this comes at a huge cost to our environment and increasingly to our own health and well-being. Our production and consumption systems have led to increased pollution and relentless resource extraction, degrading our nature and causing biodiversity loss.
Participants can enter photos in four categories:
Circular and smart
Eco-lifestyles
Wasteful production
Consumption mania
The winner of each category will receive a cash prize of EUR 1,000. Additional prizes are awarded to the best youth entry as well as the public’s favourite photo, determined by an online vote.
Participants have until Tuesday, 3 October 2023 to submit their photographs. Winning entries will be announced 10 November 2023.
Who can participate?
Participants have to be at least 18 years old and citizens of one of the 32 EEA member countries or six cooperating countries, including the 27 EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
Due to the large amount of precipitation throughout Europe, the water volumes coming from the Danube River are significantly superior in quantity to the water from the exploded dam
Russia has rejected a UN offer to provide aid to residents affected by flooding following the destroyed Kakhovka dam. This is claimed by the world organization, quoted by world agencies.
The death toll has risen, and polluted water has forced the closure of beaches in southern Ukraine.
The destruction of the Moscow-controlled dam on June 6 caused flooding in southern Ukraine and the Russian-occupied territories of Kherson District, destroyed homes and farmland, and cut off water supplies to the civilian population.
The death toll rose to 52, with Russian officials saying 35 people had died in Moscow-controlled areas and Ukraine’s interior ministry reporting 17 dead and 31 missing. Over 11,000 people have been evacuated from both sides.
The UN called on Russia to act in accordance with its obligations under international humanitarian law.
The Kremlin accuses Kiev of carrying out the sabotage against the water facility, whose water flow was the size of the Great Salt Lake in the US, to cut off a key source of water supply to Crimea and divert attention from a “hesitant” counter-offensive against Russian forces.
Ukraine, in turn, blames Russia for blowing up the wall of the Soviet-era dam, which has been under Russian control since the early days of the war.
A team of international legal experts assisting Ukrainian investigators in their investigation said in their preliminary findings that it was “highly likely” that the destruction of the dam in the Kherson region was caused by explosives planted by Russians.
Authorities in Odessa have banned bathing on the once-popular Black Sea beaches there, as well as the consumption of fish and seafood from unidentified sources.
Water tests carried out last week showed dangerous levels of salmonella and other “infectious agents”. Cholera monitoring was also carried out.
Although the floods have subsided, the Dnieper River, on which the Kakhovka Dam was built, has carried tons of debris into the Black Sea and along the coast of Odessa, causing an ecological disaster, according to Ukraine.
Toxic levels in marine organisms and on the seabed are expected to worsen, and the risk of landmines washed ashore increases.
As of June 29, the development of a favorable hydrodynamic situation is being observed, which currently limits the possible entry of potentially polluted waters after the demolition of the wall of the Nova Kakhovka HPP in the Bulgarian Black Sea water area and the coast. This is clear from an analysis of the Institute of Oceanology “Prof. Frittjof Nansen”.
In the last few days, the development of a favorable hydrodynamic situation has been observed, which is expressed in the fact that the jet of the coastal current in the Danube Delta region spreads in a northeast direction with a maximum speed of 35 cm/sec, i.e. a countercurrent to the prevailing transfer is formed, which holds back the spread of river waters in the Danube Delta area.
After the potentially polluted waters that entered the Black Sea through the Dnieper Bay were initially concentrated in the Gulf of Odessa, their spread gradually began in the water area of the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea, scientists from the Institute of Oceanology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences inform Maritime.bg.
Two streams formed. The first, in which larger volumes of water entered, was compressed by the currents and spread into the coastal area through a series of small-sized eddies.
The second includes relatively small volumes of polluted waters and gradually occupied the water area adjacent to the Crimean Peninsula. Active mixing and dispersion of pollutants took place in it.
Around June 18-19, the flow from the Odesa Bay merged with the waters coming from the Danube River, and at present they cannot be differentiated except with the availability of information or data on characteristic markers of pollution from “Nova Kakhovka” Hydroelectric Power Plant, oceanologists point out.
Currently, such markers are not available, and in this regard, the responsible institutions monitor the concentrations of specific pollutants, such as copper, zinc and aluminum, heavy metals, radionuclides and biogenic elements (nitrogen, phosphorus).
It should be borne in mind that due to the large amount of precipitation throughout Europe, the water volumes coming from the Danube River significantly exceed the amount of waters from the “Nova Kakhovka” that can potentially reach the estuary, and similarly contain biogenic elements and pollutants.
The freshwater inflow was responsible for the low coastal salinity in late May and early June, which dropped to 10-11. The salinity is currently increasing and is around 14.
In general, these are normal seasonal fluctuations, but this year they are particularly sharp due to the influx of huge volumes of fresh water from the Danube River, which further helps the dispersion of potential pollution from Nova Kakhovka, the scientists commented.
In the last few days, the development of a favorable hydrodynamic situation has been observed, which is expressed in the fact that the jet of the coastal current in the Danube Delta region spreads in a northeast direction with a maximum speed of 35 cm/sec, i.e. a countercurrent to the prevailing transfer forms, which holds back the spread of river waters in the Danube Delta area, say the IO – BAS.
A countercurrent to the prevailing transfer is formed, which prevents the spread of river waters in the Danube Delta area.
Scientists point out that the formation of an anticyclonic vortex is expected, which will characterize the water exchange in the coming days, which will also favor the retention of river waters.
The formation of an anticyclonic vortex is expected, which will characterize the water exchange in the coming days, which will also favor the retention of river waters.
The second formed flow, according to scientists, is currently intercepted by the quasi-stationary Crimean gyre, and small volumes of it enter the main Black Sea circulation system.
Very small volumes of the second flow of potentially contaminated waters that reached the Crimean Peninsula region enter the main Black Sea circulation system.
Satellite data from Sentinel 2 show that low salinity cyanobacterial blooms continue to occur in Odessa Bay. Blooms with greater intensity are also observed in the Tendriv Bay, which is not directly polluted by the waters of “Nova Kakhovka”.
The latest results of the analysis of chlorophyll in seawater show that its concentration in the Varna Bay is 2.8 times higher than that at the Krapets station. Blooming concentrations were not measured in Zlatni Piastsi and Shkorpilovtsi stations.
In the Krapets region, various species of diatoms (Cerataulina pelagica, Cyclotella meneghiniana, Dacctiylosolen fragilissimus, Chaetoceros) continue to predominate, while in the Varna Bay dinoflagellates (Gyrodinium spirale, Oblea rotunda, Gymnodinium, Gyrodinium) are found.
Scientist from Romania with hot data: Is the Black Sea polluted?
The health authorities also carry out constant monitoring of the waters near the beaches, she assured
At the moment, no pollution has been detected in the waters of the Black Sea near Romania. This was announced to Maritime.bg by Dr. Laura Boichenko, biologist, scientific director of the Romanian National Institute for Marine Research “Grigore Antipa”.
Boychenko reported that our northern neighbor also carries out constant monitoring in the Black Sea water area.
“We have a coast station near Constanta and so far no changes have been detected,” she added.
Dr. Boichenko commented that the last samples of the waters of the Black Sea were taken south of the border with Ukraine on Monday, pending the results of the tests.
“The health authorities in Romania also carry out constant monitoring of the waters near the beaches, there have been no changes in their quality,” announced the head of the Romanian institute.
According to her, both in Bulgaria and Romania, the media creates panic in the population.
