Sunday Sit (Zazen for Peace) - Sunday, June 18th, 2023

[Meian]

Please Join Us as we continue to sit, offering our sincere efforts to peace, children, and the injured in Ukraine and around the world.

We will gather for the Sunday Sit on Sunday, June 18th, 2023, beginning at 6 am Los Angeles time, 9 am New York time, 2 pm in London, 3 pm in Paris, 4 pm Kyiv time, and 4 pm Moscow time.

You can check the Treeleaf Calendar for your local time here: https://www.treeleaf.org/now/#calendar

We meet in the Treeleaf Now Scheduled Sitting Room here: https://www.treeleaf.org/now/go.php?l=ssr

Livestream and "any-time" recording can be found here: https://youtube.com/live/Xf0Hp0W9LWM?feature=share

The format of the sitting will be:

- Heart Sutra
- Zazen 40 minutes
- Verse of Atonement and the Four Vows

ALL are welcome! Please, join us! No prior experience is required -- just come sit with us.

Washin and "Zazen for Peace" team

[Jundo]

KYIV, June 14 (Reuters) - Overnight Russian missile attacks killed three people in the Black Sea city of Odesa and three in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

The three killed in Odesa were in a retail chain warehouse that was set ablaze during an attack that damaged a business centre, an educational institution, a residential complex, food establishments and shops, Ukraine's military said.

Video and photographs posted online by a local official showed multi-storey buildings with parts of their walls missing and windows blown out, and firefighters battling flames in what appeared be a warehouse.

Ukraine's air force said it had destroyed three Russian missiles and nine drones during the overnight strikes, the latest launched by Russia since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/fire-breaks-out-ukraines-odesa-russian-missile-attack-officials-2023-06-14/

https://youtu.be/vnmIlynf0oY

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Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

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Flooding from collapsed dam turns Odesa’s coastline into ‘garbage dump and animal cemetery’

Beaches in the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa have been closed off after filthy waters from a collapsed dam washed downstream, posing a “genuine threat” to local residents, authorities say.

The toll from the collapse of the Russia-controlled Nova Kakhovka dam on June 6 has risen to 45, with both sides giving updates on those killed.

The collapse destroyed villages, flooded farmland and cut off power and clean water supplies to tens of thousands of people .

Floodwaters are receding, but debris washed down the Dnipro river – which flows into the Black Sea – turning Odesa’s coastline into “a garbage dump and animal cemetery,” according to Ukrainian authorities.

“The beaches of Odesa have been declared unsuitable for swimming due to a significant aggravation in the condition of water in open water areas (sea, estuary) and a genuine threat to the health of the city residents,” the Odesa municipality said in a Telegram post Sunday.

Odesa’s stretch of sandy beaches and holiday resorts were once popular with Ukrainian and foreign holidaymakers before Russia’s invasion.

The beaches have been largely abandoned by swimmers in recent months as mines continue to wash on the shoreline.

Authorities raised the alarm about the declining water quality, in a Telegram post on Saturday, saying that lab tests had “identified infectious agents over the past week.”

Traces of salmonella, worm’s eggs and worm’s larvae were all found in the water which also “significantly” exceeded permitted levels of E. Coli.

“The presence of all of these biological pathogens in the water of open water areas in Odesa region, including the Black Sea, the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Estuary, and the Danube River, constitutes a genuine threat to the life and health of the population,” the municipality added.

Authorities announced that Odesa residents were also prohibited from selling fish and seafood “unidentified places of fishing” near markets and shopping centers.

It remains unclear if the Nova Kakhovka dam was deliberately targeted or whether structural failure was behind its collapse.

Kyiv says Russia blew up the dam “in panic” ahead of a planned Ukraine counter-offensive, while Russia accuses Ukraine of launching “mass artillery attacks” on the structure to deprive Crimea of water and provide a distraction from the battlefield.

At least 16 people are dead and 31 are missing in flooding from the collapse, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said Saturday.

It added that 3,614 people had been evacuated from the flooded areas “including 474 children and 80 people with reduced mobility.”

... The reservoir supplies water to large swaths of southern Ukraine, including to the Crimean peninsula which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/17/europe/ukraine-nova-kakhovka-dam-deaths/index.html