From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   As Floodwaters Recede, Ukrainian Authorities Brace for Possible Disease   
   Outbreaks   
   By Megan Specia, June 17, 2023, NY Times   
      
   Even in areas that escaped the flooding, the potential for disease remains. In   
   the Black Sea port of Odesa, household garbage, mines, plastic, branches and   
   dead animals have been washing up along the city’s coastline after the dam   
   disaster.   
      
   The Odesa City Council on Saturday banned residents from swimming in the   
   region, saying in a statement that dangerous pathogens that pose “a real   
   threat to the life and health of the population” had been found in the local   
   waters.   
      
   In Russia on Saturday, Putin held talks at the Konstantinovsky Palace outside   
   St. Petersburg with a delegation of 7 senior African leaders seeking to   
   mediate between Russia and Ukraine.   
      
   Putin, who has never acknowledged that Russia started the war, presented a   
   litany of grievances against the West and blamed Ukraine for the lack of   
   dialogue. “Not we, but the leadership of Ukraine announced that it would not   
   negotiate,” official    
   Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying.   
      
   Neither side seems particularly open to peace talks. Ukraine insists that   
   Russia first withdraw from the roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory that it   
   occupies, while the Kremlin demands that Ukraine cede the territory because of   
   its heavily ethnic Russian    
   population, demilitarize and distance itself from NATO.   
      
   The high-level African delegation arrived in Russia a day after having   
   strained exchanges with Zelensky in Kyiv.   
      
   President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, who led the delegation, said that   
   the conflict had to be settled through negotiations and diplomatic means. The   
   delegation included President Macky Sall of Senegal as well as the presidents   
   of Zambia and the    
   Comoros, plus top government officials from Egypt, Uganda and the Republic of   
   Congo.   
      
   “We would like this war to be ended,” because it is having a negative   
   impact, driving up prices of grain and fuel in Africa and elsewhere, Ramaphosa   
   said. “This war is causing a great deal of instability and harm to various   
   countries around the    
   world.”   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/17/world/europe/ukraine-dam-flood-disease.html   
      
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