Move over, Jeff Bezos. Mark Zuckerberg is looking like this summer's Poseiden.
29.06.2024 - 10:37 / euronews.com
Kyiv International Airport, which had been closed since the war began, was specially opened up to welcome the ten, some of whom flew in by helicopter whilst others arrived by bus.
Some of those released had been captured before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
It is rare for individuals detained after 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea, to be released but the Vatican is known to have been involved in securing their freedom.
Two of the freed, Ivan Levytskyi and Bohdan Geleta, were monks. Levytskyi had been detained in 2022 inside his church in the occupied city of Berdiansk in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Amongst those freed was Nariman Dzhelyal the deputy head of the Mejlis, a representative body for the Tatars community that live in Crimea. The body relocated to Kyiv after Russia seized the peninsula. Dzhelyal, who continued to live in Crimea despite the annexation, was seized one year before the war.
“I was in captivity, where many Ukrainians remain,” he said. “We cannot leave them there, because the conditions, both psychological and physical, are very frightening there.”
In the main hall of the airport, where pre-war advertisements still hang, former prisoners wrapped in blue and yellow flags reunited with their families and called those who couldn’t be there.
“I really want to hug you. I’ll be with you soon, Mommy,” said Isabella Pekh, the daughter of freed art historian Olena Pekh, said over a video call. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t meet you.”
Isabella Pekh's mother was detained in the occupied part of the Donetsk region. For nearly six years, Isabella spoke at international conferences and appealed to foreign ambassadors for help in freeing her mother. Eventually, her efforts succeeded.
“It was six years of hell that words cannot describe. But I knew I had my homeland, I had people who loved me, I had my daughter,” Olena Pekh said.
According to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 3,310 Ukrainians have so far been released from Russian captivity.
But many thousands of Ukrainians, both civilians and military personnel, remain imprisoned.
Move over, Jeff Bezos. Mark Zuckerberg is looking like this summer's Poseiden.
Becoming the top tourism boss for Anaheim ought to be a fairy tale dream, given that Disney plans to invest $2 billion in enhancing the city’s flagship attraction there. But Mike Waterman, who was named CEO ofVisit Anaheim in April, has some tough issues to tackle.
A Swedish town is trying to attract more residents by selling land for just 1 krona (€0.08) per square metre.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, June 28, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
HomeToGo, the short-term rental price comparison business, plans to go a couple of steps further than Airbnb to comply with the California junk fee law that kicks in July 1.
I've lived in Los Angeles for five years, so I'm about 30 minutes inland from Santa Monica. It's a beautiful, classic Southern California destination with a beach, a pier, and an abundance of classy shopping and dining spots.
The European Union on Thursday signed a security agreement with Ukraine, pledging to continue providing the war-torn country with military, financial, diplomatic and humanitarian support over the long term.
Finnair is showing off its new Schengen Lounge at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (HEL) that's slated to open on July 9. The lounge will primarily serve customers traveling on short-haul flights within Europe and passengers connecting in Helsinki from the U.S. and traveling onward to Finland's Lapland and the wider Nordic and Baltic regions.
Georgia's summer season has begun but a significant share of visitors are missing: Israelis.
The Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) has largely stayed out of the headlines in recent years, but the 60-year-old organization said that it has never stopped advocating for its travel advisor members, mostly when they have a supplier dispute.
Registration for Travel Weekly's 2024 CruiseWorld is now open.
In a small boat bobbing in the waves between towering offshore windturbines, researchers in Europe’s Baltic Sea reach into the frigid water and remove long lines stretched between the pylons onto which mussels and seaweed are growing.