Paul Lemaire is a photojournalist who has recently left southern Ukraine. Here we present a photo essay from his time in the countryside around the city of Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea between Odesa and Kherson. At the end of April, Paul spent some time with farmers Vladimir and Ivan, as they’ve tried to carry with their work in rural Ukraine. Here we feature, for the first time, his photos from this visit. All photos (c) ARC2020.
Zelenyi-Hai, 20km east of Mykolaiv. Ivan is a grape farmer. War has severely damaged water supply from Russian-occupied Kherson. « This is our land, this is our home, we will not leave ». 5km from the front line, Ivan refuses to leave with his children. “Where would we go? He points out that he will lack the inputs and water to grow his grapes. The season is particularly dry in Ukraine this year. There may be unexploded ordnance in the fields » he says. The school in the village of Zelenyi Hai, 15 km east of Mykolaiv. In April, fighting devastated this town. Belligerents exchanged positions on 27 April 2022.« This Russian missile is part of the scenery in this region where some villages further east and south have been occupied for weeks. » Ivan says.A Home Guard soldier approaches an unexploded bomb in a field 10km north of Mykolaiv.
In the agricultural offices of the regional directorate in Mykolaiv. The building was bombed on in March.10 KM north of Mykolaiv, Vladimir’s looks on at his 700 hectares of land, including his cabbage fields.«It doesn’t fit into my head… how could they… Now we have to get used to this shooting. We go to work in the morning, we come back in the evening. We are still working.» Vladimir says. « Here’s our sprayer, we’re spraying today. Working. People are all working. Growing pigs, grains. Life goes on. It’s a bit scary but you can live with that. During the daytime, when you work, it’s fine, at night it’s somewhat creepy. »« I found this bomb fragment in my field » recounts Vladimir« Strength to the soldiers » is written in the dust on this sign in the hall of the Mykolaiv regional headquarters. On the poster « Mykolaiv, happy region »« We are still still waiting for the harvest in August»
What are the implications – on the farm, in the region, the EU and globally – of the ever-increasing production milk production in the EU? Stuart Miekle explores. […]
UPDATED 17/09/2015 at 12.42 CET (with US Chamber of Commerce information in final paragraph) Critics have rounded on yet another fudge by the EU Commission on the highly controversial ISDS – Investor State Dispute Settlement – element of TTIP – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Today at midday, the Commission announced “a new Investment Court System which would replace the ISDS mechanism in all on-going and future EU investment negotiations.” It “has approved its proposal for a new and transparent system for resolving disputes between investors and states – the Investment Court System. This new system would replace the existing investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in all ongoing and future EU investment negotiations, including the EU-US talks on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).” The Commission’s First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said “With our proposals for a new Investment Court System, we are breaking new ground. The new Investment Court System will be composed of fully qualified judges, proceedings will be transparent, and cases will be decided on the basis of clear rules. With this new […]
The European Parliament last week called on member states to step up enforcement of existing rules on protecting livestock during transport. MEPs are urging member states to ramp up spot checks, use tracking technology to monitor compliance, and apply tougher penalties for offenders. Transport times should be cut, but the preference is to phase out live exports altogether in favour of local slaughtering. And when animals are transported to non-EU countries, EU standards should be applied. […]
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