humanwritten_en.txt

Ukraine’s counter-offensive is just a few days old. But its shape is gradually becoming clearer. One axis points east, at the area around the bloodily contested town of Bakhmut and in Luhansk province. Another aims south and south-east from Vuhledar in Donetsk province. The third is perhaps the most important. On June 8th it became apparent that Ukraine had launched a major southward assault in Zaporizhia province, which forms the central part of the war’s long frontline. It looks like the biggest one yet.
Although the attack began earlier, overnight on June 8th Ukrainian troops advanced in two prongs from Orikhiv, a small Ukrainian-held town, according to a source familiar with the course of fighting. One advance hugged the Konka river, a tributary of the Dnieper that snakes east of the town. The other occurred further east. Russian military bloggers on Telegram, a messaging platform, described a fierce assault with heavy artillery bombardment and the use of tanks.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have repelled an attack in Novodarivka, which lies almost 70km east of Orikhiv. On June 8th Yevgeny Balitsky, the leader of Russia’s puppet government in the occupied part of Zaporizhia, ordered residents in Tokmak and a pair of towns on either side, Vasylivka and Polohy, to evacuate to Simferopol in Crimea. There was reportedly heavy fighting around the area.
There are some early signs that the attack in Zaporizhia differs from those in the east and south. One is the scale and intensity of the Ukrainian assault. Another is the equipment that is being used. Drone images published by Russian media appear to show German Leopard tanks, including the most advanced 2a6 variants; American Bradley armoured fighting vehicles; and m113 armoured personnel carriers in Mala Tokmachka, a village to the east of Orikhiv. That would suggest that Ukraine has committed several of its nine Western-armed and -trained brigades—including some of the best-equipped ones, according to leaked Pentagon documents from February—in the area.
Military experts and officials had long thought that Zaporizhia was a logical place for Ukraine to focus its offensive. Its position at the heart of the frontline means that any attack there could trap large numbers of Russian troops in a pocket to the west, in Kherson province. Many could also be trapped in Crimea itself, if Ukraine managed to strike the bridge over the Kerch strait again. If Ukraine could get to the key city of Melitopol, it could strike at Russian road and rail supply lines running westwards to Crimea, in essence severing the so-called land bridge that connects Russian territory to the occupied peninsula. Just getting to within artillery range of the links would also cause big problems for Russia
Four children have been found alive after surviving a plane crash and spending weeks fending for themselves in Colombia's Amazon jungle. Colombia's president said the rescue of the siblings, aged 13, nine, four and one, was "a joy for the whole country".The children's mother and two pilots were killed when their light aircraft crashed in the jungle on 1 May. The missing children became the focus of a huge rescue operation involving dozens of soldiers and local people.President Gustavo Petro said finding the group was a "magical day", adding: "They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history."
The children belong to the Huitoto indigenous group. Mr Petro shared a photograph of several members of the military and Indigenous community caring for the siblings, who had been missing for 40 days.One of the rescuers held a bottle up to the mouth of the smallest child, while another fed one of the other children from a mug with a spoon.
A video shared by Colombia's ministry of defence showed the children being lifted into a helicopter in the dark above the tall trees of the jungle. They have been flown to the nation's capital Bogota, where ambulances have taken them to hospital for further medical treatment.
The children's grandmother, Fatima Valencia, said after their rescue: "I am very grateful, and to mother earth as well, that they were set free." She said the eldest of the four siblings was used to looking after the other three when their mother was at work, and that this helped them survive in the jungle. "She gave them flour and cassava bread, any fruit in the bush, they know what they must consume," Ms Valencia said in footage obtained by EVN.
The Cessna 206 aircraft the children and their mother had been travelling on before the crash was flying from Araracuara, in Amazonas province, to San José del Guaviare, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure. The bodies of the three adults were found at the crash site by the army, but it appeared that the children had escaped the wreckage and wandered into the rainforest to find help.