Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20220305

A30 world news
Diasabra 5 Maart 2022

‘I love Berlin’: Jewish refugee kids reach safety in Germany

(AP) — Maxim and Shaul Slovakia and the Czech Re- lar group of kids on a school
had spent the last 52 hours public, before finally enter- trip. Only the sound track
on a bus full of dozens of ing Germany without any was much more international
Jewish refugee children problems. — it was a Babylonian tangle
that took them from war- of Ukrainian, Russian, He-
torn Ukraine in the dark More than 1 million people brew, English, German and
of night and across six Eu- have fled since Russia invad- even some Yiddish.
ropean borders to safety ed Ukraine last week. Several
in Berlin. thousand have reached Ger- Baby Tuvia — only 5 weeks
many. Many are coming to old — cried a little as the kids
Pale, tired and overwhelmed, Berlin, with hundreds arriv- left the breakfast hall for their
the two teenagers looked ing daily on trains via Poland. rooms. Sada, who had just
around when they finally ar- The Berlin mayor, Frankziska turned 5, proudly held onto
rived in the German capital Giffey, said earlier this week a big birthday balloon as she
Friday morning. There were that around 20,000 refugees walked through the hallways
lots of police officers in front from Ukraine are expected with one of the caretakers,
of their hotel who had cor- to reach the city in the near and Shoshana Khusid, 18,
doned off the street so the future. and one of the oldest, stared
105 children could exit their out of the window worrying
buses as Jewish women from rabbi and the head of the lo- would have to travel through Most of the children from about her parents back home.
Berlin’s Chabad community cal Chabad community, had for help making the 1,000- the Odesa home are foster
spontaneously started sing- received a phone call from a mile (1,700-kilometer) over- kids, some are orphans and a Asked about the future, she
ing at the top of their voices rabbi in the Ukrainian port land trek come true. few are members of the city’s got monosyllabic.
to give them a joyous and re- city of Odesa begging him Chabad community who
lieved welcome. to help get the children and They raised money from were sent out of the country Nobody really knows how
teens from the foster care Jewish aid groups and told by parents who couldn’t flee long the children will stay in
His friend Shaul, 13, nod- home Mishpacha — Hebrew the children to quickly pack their homes. Not all teenag- Berlin — it depends on when
ded, too tired to say much, for family — to a peaceful warm winter clothes. The ers from the foster care home the war ends in Ukraine —
straightened his red-check- and secure place. teenagers also took along could come along. Boys aged but the community is deter-
ered kippa and went over to their cell phones, while the 18 and older had to stay be- mined to do everything to
one of the 15 foster home They soon figured out that little ones clutched their fa- hind as men of military age make them feel at home as
staffers to make sure he and traveling by plane would not vorite stuffed animals tightly. are not allowed to leave the long as needed.
Maxim would be sharing a be an option since about 40 country.
room in Berlin. The chil- of the children had no pass- Thanks to the joint interna- Alina Chubattaya, 59, the
dren’s last names were with- ports, only birth certificates. tional diplomatic efforts the After their first breakfast in director of the children’s
held because they are minors. So they talked to diplomats buses — one for the girls Berlin, the children grabbed home, looked concerned
and security officials from Is- and another for the boys — their backpacks and started when asked about a possible
Only three days earlier, Rab- rael, Germany and other Eu- crossed the borders of Mol- arguing over who got to share return date to Odesa.
bi Yehuda Teichtal, a Berlin ropean countries the children dova, Romania, Hungary, rooms — almost like a regu-

Russians take Ukraine nuclear plant; no radiation after fire

(AP) — Russian troops on the war. for everyone. The end for broke out as a result of Rus- plants around the country.
Friday seized the biggest Europe. The evacuation of sian shelling of the plant and
nuclear power plant in While the vast Russian ar- Europe.” accused Moscow of commit- Atomic safety experts said a
Europe after a middle-of- mored column threaten- ting “an act of nuclear terror- war fought amid nuclear re-
the-night attack that set it ing Kyiv remained stalled But nuclear officials from ism.” actors represents an unprece-
on fire and briefly raised outside the capital, Putin’s Sweden to China said no ra- dented and highly dangerous
worldwide fears of a catas- military has launched hun- diation spikes had been re- Without producing evidence, situation.
trophe in the most chill- dreds of missiles and artillery ported, as did Grossi. Russian Defense Ministry
ing turn yet in Moscow’s attacks on cities and other spokesman Igor Konashen- Dr. Alex Rosen of Interna-
invasion of Ukraine. sites around the country, Authorities said that Russian kov claimed that a Ukrainian tional Physicians for the Pre-
and made significant gains troops had taken control of “sabotage group” had set the vention of Nuclear War said
Firefighters put out the on the ground in the south the overall site but that the fire at Zaporozhizhia. the incident was probably the
blaze, and no radiation was in an apparent bid to cut off plant staff continued to run result of military units over-
released, U.N. and Ukrai- Ukraine’s access to the sea. it. Only one reactor was op- The crisis unfolded after estimating the precision of
nian officials said, as Russian erating, running at 60% of Grossi earlier in the week their weapons, given that the
forces pressed on with their In the atttack on the Zapori- capacity, Grossi said in the expressed grave concern that prevailing winds would have
week-old offensive on multi- zhzhia nuclear plant in the aftermath of the attack. the fighting could cause ac- carried any radioactive fallout
ple fronts and the number of southeastern city of Ener- cidental damage to Ukraine’s straight toward Russia.
refugees fleeing the country hodar, the chief of the U.N.’s Two people were injured 15 nuclear reactors at four
eclipsed 1.2 million. International Atomic En- in the fire, Grossi said.
ergy Agency, Rafael Mariano Ukraine’s state nuclear plant
With world condemna- Grossi, said a Russian “pro- operator Enerhoatom said
tion mounting, the Kremlin jectile” hit a training center, three Ukrainian soldiers were
cracked down on the flow of not any of the six reactors. killed and two wounded.
information at home, block-
ing Facebook, Twitter, the The attack triggered global In the U.S., Pentagon spokes-
BBC and the U.S. govern- alarm and fear of a catas- man John Kirby said the epi-
ment-funded Voice of Amer- trophe that could dwarf the sode “underscores the reck-
ica. And President Vladimir world’s worst nuclear disas- lessness with which the Rus-
Putin signed a law making it ter, at Ukraine’s Chernobyl sians have been perpetrating
a crime punishable by up to in 1986. In an emotional this unprovoked invasion.”
15 years in prison to spread nighttime speech, Ukrainian At an emergency meeting of
so-called fake news, includ- President Volodymyr Zelen- the U.N. Security Council,
ing anything that goes against skyy said he feared an explo- Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador,
the official government line sion that would be “the end Sergiy Kyslytsya, said the fire