09/29/22 09/29/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the president and our administration are fully committed to offering and supplying federal support to state officials and doing everything we can to help them both in terms of recovery, but also whatever is necessary to ensure those are safe and out of

ian parts of florida with catastrophic flooding and a record breaking storm surge from -- trapping people underwater in their own homes. more than 2.5 million people have lost power. 14 million floridians remained under a flood alert as the storm moves inland. we will get the latest and look at the link between the climate crisis, hurricane, and rising sea level. then what happens inside prisons when authorities ignore evacuation orders ahead of catastrophic storms? my name is angel and i'm in tampa, floda. we are facing the threat of hurricane ian we want to make sure those who are incarcerated are fe and secure. we are calling on our leaders to take action across the state of florida. amy: then as russia announces it will formally annex four occupied areas of ukraine, we will speak to a prominent

ukrainian journalist who has been investigating potential war crimes committed by russia in areas that were recently recaptured during ukraine's counteroffensive. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. hurricane ian has made landfall as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the continental united states. the storm crashed ashore wednesday afternoon near naples, just shy of category 5, with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, 30 foot wide eye wall, and hurricane force winds that extended 40 miles from the center. high winds and storm surges devastated coastal communities while forecasters say torrential rains will continue to bring life-threatening flooding too much of florida and at the coming hours and days.

the lee county sheriff's as of people may have died in the storm. they enforce the evacuation of more than 1.8 florida homes and knocked out power to some 2.5 million people, many of whom lacked clean water. after headlines, we will go to florida for the latest and also speak with a climate scientist. meanwhile at least 20 cucuban migrants are missing and feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of florida wednesday i'm it heavy serve from hurricane ian. the coast guard said it rescued three of the asylum-seekers while four others managed the swim to shore. this comes as cuban officials are working to restore electricity to millions of people after hurricane ian because the entire electrical grid to collapse -- to cause the entire electrical grid to collapse. in puerto rico, an oil tanker will began unloading 300,000 barrels of diesel fuel to the island after the biden administration granted a limited exemption to shipping

restrictions under the jones act. in a statement, the department of homeland secured he said the fuel was needed to provide electricity to critical facilities as puerto rico recovers from hurricane fiona. nearly two weeks after that storm collapsed the island's fragile lexical bread, about 20% of homes and businesses remain without power. there are widespread shortages of clean drinking water. russia has announced plans to formally annex four regions of ukraine seized by russia's military after its invasion in february. the kremlin says president vladimir putin will announce the annexations during a speech in moscow on friday. this week authorities in the four russian-held regions said residents voted overwhelmingly in support of referenda on whether to become part of the russian federation. the votes were condemned as a sham and a violation of international law by ukraine, the united nations, the u.s. and its allies. meanwhile, ukrainian officials have finished excavating a mass

burial site in a forest in the town of izyum, which ukraine re-captured in a counter-offensive this month. kharkiv's regional governor said most of the 436 people buried at the site had their hands bound, with gunshot wounds and signs of toure. later and had the broadcast, we will speakith ukrainian journalist. german officials are warning of an environmental disaster in the baltic sea after the nord stream pipelines that carry russian gas to terminals in europe ruptured on monday in what the u.s. and eu officials have called an act of sabotage. swedish scientists say they detected two large underwater explosions shortly before pressure through the pipelines plummeted. one of the leaks is producing a nely half-mile-wide pool of bubbling swater. officials estimate some 300,000 metric tons of methane have vented into the atmosphere from th site alone, which would put it among the worst g leaks i history.

methane is a significant contributor to global heating. it can linger in the atmosphere for decades before breaking down, with about 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. finland's government says it will severely limit passenger traffic along its border with russia and will ban russian citizens traveling with tourist visas from entering finland beginning on friday. the announcement came amid a mass exodus of military-age men seeking to avoid conscription in the russian military after president putin announced plans to draft an additional 300,000 troops. in a break from its allies in moscow, kazakhstan on wednesday promised to ensure the safety of an estimated 100,000 russians who've have crossed its border. meanwhile, tens of thousands more have crossed into armenia, georgia, mongolia and other neighboring countries in recent days. vice president kamala harris has wrapped up her four-day trip to

asia with a visit to the demilitarized zone separating north and south korea. earlier today, she spoke after north korea test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles and as south korean officials said the north was preparing its first nuclear weapons test in five years. vice pres. harris: the dprk has a ballistic missile launch program, apparently, including just yesterday, and are destabilizing the peace and security of this region. our shared goal, the united states and republic of korea, is a complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula. amy: south of seoul korea is the largest u.s. overseas military base and one of several american bases in south korea that together house almost 30,000 troops and material. last year the biden administration ruled out redeploying so-called tactical nuclear weapons to south korean soil, though the u.s. military

maintains a large arsenal of long-range missiles and naval-based nuclear weapons capable of devastating north korea. in the occupied west bank, israeli forces killed four palestinians and wounded more than 44 others during a wednesday morning raid on the jenin refugee camp. it's the latest in a series of near-daily raids that the israeli military has been carrying out in palestinian communities. three of the four men who were killed were members of the armed group al-aqsa martyrs' brigade according to al jazeera. this is atta abu rmeileh, a fattah leader in jenin. >> they were deliberately assassinated by israeli occupation forces who stood on rooftops and targeted anything that moved. amy: in oakland, california, at least six adults were injured in a mass shooting on wednesday. the shooting occurred at rudsdale newcomer high school,

which serves students who are at risk of not graduating and have recentlymmigrateto the u.s. after fleeing their home countries because of violence and instability. oakland's assistant chief of police darren allison says a suspect remains at large. >> we are currently actively looking for at least one shooter, although there may be other individuals involved. we have our cease-fire teams as well as our violent crime operations teams actively following up on -- those responsible for this heinous attack. amy: in illinois, wounded survivors and the families of three people killed in a mass shooting during a fourth of july parade in highland park have filed a lawsuit against gunmaker smith and wesson, two gun stores, the man who's been charged in the shootings, and his father. the lawsuit charges the gunmaker and gun sellers acted with negligence and employed deceptive practices, arguing that the shooter was the type of young consumer susceptible to

smith & wesson's deceptive and unfair marketing practices and that the shooting was both predictable and preventable. in california, governor gavin newsom signed legislation wednesday making it easier for farmworkers to cast their ballots in union elections by mail and protecting them from retaliation from their employers. in a statement, newsom said -- "california's farmworkers are the lifeblood of our state, and they have the fundamental right to unionize and advocate for themselves in the workplace." just last month, newsom had threatened to veto the bill, known as ab 2183, but reversed his opposition after president joe biden and other top democrats spoke in favor of it. that followed a long grassroots campaign waged by thousands of farm workers and their allies, who in august marched over 300 miles to california's state capitol in sacramento to demand protections for union supporters. united farm workers president

teresa romero celebrated as the bill became law. >> incredible victory. farmworkers can participate in elections, free from deportations. , cook to see our interview on the organizing efforts, go to democracynow.org. thousands of prisoners in alabama began a labor strike this week to protest overcrowded, understaffed and dangerous prison conditions. the strikers warn that despite a 2020 intervention by the u.s. justice department, conditions within alabama prisons remain "incredibly unsafe, inhumane, and exploitative." the work stoppage, which also calls for sentencing and parole reforms, began on monday after three months of planning by prisoners and with help from groups, including alabama prison advocacy and incarcerated families united. a warning to our audience, the following story contains graphic images. here in new york city, never-before-seen images show

people incarcerated at the notorious rikers island jail locked in caged showers and sleeping next to a pile of feces. the pictures were obtained by the news outlet gothamist after the manhattan district attorney's office requested them while investigating the consequences for people held at rikers as they await trial, sometimes for months or years. this comes as the texas jail project has documented severe overcrowding at the harris county jail in houston, texas, which has surpassed rikers with 19 custody deaths in first eight months of 2022 -- more than the total number of people who died in the jail in nine of the last 10 years. meanwhile, a federal court judge has ordered los angeles county to fix its massive backup and address squalid conditions in the jail's overcrowded inmate reception center after revelations of horrific

treatment and ruled that officers are now barred from chaining anyone to a chair for more than four hours after some had been found to be chained for days. the right livelihood awards have announced the 2022 laureates was up rognizing those who show systemic changes "not only possible but outright necessary in the face of failing governance and the breakdown of international order." this year's laureates include a mother and daughter from somalia fighting against gender-based violence, ugandan organization battling oil and gas companies in order to protect the environment, and ukrainian group documenting war crimes and human rights violations. they were honored for the work promoting democracy in ukraine and at the face of russia's invasion. >> fighting for our freedom in all senses, for freedom to be independent country, for freedom to be ukrainians with our own language and culture and for

freedom to have democratic choice, which means to build and to develop our country where human rights of everybody are protected. amy: to see our interview, go to democracynow.org. and longtime progressive journalist and anti-war activist william rivers pitt has died of a heart attack at the age of 51. for nearly two decades, pitt served as managing editor and senior writer for the news site truthout.org. in 2002, he co-authored the book "war on iraq: what team bush doesn't want you to know" with former weapons inspector scott ritter. william rivers pitt spoke out repeatedly against false claims by then-president george w. bush that saddam hussein had acquired weapons of mass destruction. >> 2003, mr. bush said there was, what was a, 20 6000 liters of anthrax and 500 tons -- one

million pounds -- of mustard agent. mobile biological weapons for use of nuclear bombs. by the way, the page scrubbing all of this is still on the white house website today. it is called disarm saddam hussein. you can find it yourself. amy: and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, we go to florida to look at the catastrophic damage caused by hurricane in, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the continental united states. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i'm amy goodman, joined by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today's show in florida where authorities say hundreds maybe dead after hurricane ian made landfall wednesday along the state's southwestern coast as a powerful category 4 storm, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the area. ian was about 500 miles wide when it crashed into florida with a 30-foot wide eye wall and hurricane-force winds that extended 40 miles from the center. satellite images show the storm engulfing the entire state. high winds and storm surges devastated coastal communities. some storm surges were 12-feet high and some cities saw more than a foot of rain fall. more than 2.5 million have lost power as we broadcast and many are also without water. rescue teams are working in the dangerous conditions to find people trapped in their homes.

earlier this morning, the sheriff of lee county, florida, spoke by phone to "good morning america." >> the fatalities are in the hundreds. there are thousands of people that are waiting to be rescued. cannot give a true assessment until we are actually on scene assessing and we can't access people. that's the problem. >> fatalities in the hundreds? >> so far, confirmed in the hundreds. meaning we are responding to drownings -- again, unsure the exact details because we are just starting to scratch the surface on this assessment. we're doing everything we possibly can to protect and preserve lives, and we are in full force during that post of amy: that is lee county, florida, sheriff being interviewed by george stephanopoulos on "good morning america."

hurricane ian is now a tropical storm and is dumping torrential rains as it heads toward georgia, virginia, north carolina, and south carolina after leaving a path of catastrophic damage. for more, we go to tampa, florida, for an update from sean kinane, news and public affairs director at community radio station wmnf. sean, you are hunkered down there at wmnf and your building is built to withstand a category 5 storm. i have visited it repeatedly. it was in the track of ian repeatedly but ultimately it hit south of you. you are staying there because you live on an island where you could not go back. i'll come back to democracy now! give us the latest as you serve the community with information. >> in tampa, i am in a building that can withstand a category 5 hurricane but lucky for the people of the tampa bay area, that is not what struck here.

we were spared. the most important story right now is what is happening down in southwest florida as you heard from the sheriff of lee county where hundreds of people are confirmed dead from this storm with the unbelievable storm surge that came through, several feet of water and major cities southwest florida like naples and fort myers. it has been devastating. we don't know the full extent of e damage yet because iis now daylight, perhaps safe enough to go outside for people in these emergency crews to assess the damages. nermeen: could you talk a little bit more about where these fatalities, if there has been any talk about where the most facilities occurred and also if there is any word o when power might be restored, 2.5 million people now without electricity. >> i don't know that much

first-hand about the fatalities most of all i know is what i'm hearing from the lee county share. just to give people perspective, the largest city in lee county is fort myers. that iright wherehe storm came ashore. there are two barrier islands instruct, ptiva and sanibel, on the way in. it struck these are your islands first and went ashore in lee county. there is going to be the most casualties there perhaps, but there is very strong rains and storm surges all along the coast from naples almost to sarasota. perhaps there could be some there. i don't have any knowledge about that. now we are also worried about river flooding inland. some of these rivers are going to be flooding for days and days from now because of how much rain has been accumulating upstream. amy: i want to bring in dr. harold wanless.

sean, i hope you can stay with us. dr. harold wanless is a professor of geography and urban sustainability. hurricane ian is the 121st hurricane to hit florida since 1851, which has faced more hurricanes than any other state, and millions of residents living along its coast lines. the storm first hit cuba as a category 1 storm before it intensified to category 4 when it made landfall in florida. we want to talk more about the rapid intensification of these storms and the sea level rise that has already occurred along florida and how that is affecting the storm's impact. we go to coral gables, where we are joined by dr. harold wanless, professor in geography and urban sustainability at the university of miami. he is on the board of directors of the cleo institute, a nonprofit dedicated to climate crisis education and advocacy.

so you are in coral gables. if you can talk about everything you are seeing in florida now and where the global heating plays such a keyole? >> thank you for having me. one of the things we have been seeing, certainly was true with ian, when the windshear is down, the water is warm, the ocean water is getting much armor because of climate, were seeing the storms just exploding in intensity. this is forecast by the hurricane folks and exactly what isappening again and again. we watched this one as it left cuba explode into the category 4 storm. and that is in large part because of the warming oceans, caribbean sea, southern gulf of

mexico are extremely warm for this time of year. that really drove it. the other thing that we have seen with many storms, maybe only a little bit with this is the steering currents tend to be weaker so they tend to slow down and hang around. the one that hit houston a few years ago it's a good example of that. they end up maybe not testing a windstorm but dumping huge amounts of rain. that sort of happened here. slow down as it moved on to florida and the rain around orlando, what will be catastrophic. one thing about this storm is the places that were really hit were very low barrier islands. sanibel and captiva, kyl costa.

these are extremely low and vulnerable. we have not really heard much of anything from the they got the main onshore surge. we saw pictures yesterday of naples with the water coming in and marco. we saw some of fort myers beach. those outer barrier islands are right in the path of the eye wall storm surge, and that is going to be a huge problem for those islands. it is going to be tragic when you see the evidence of what has happened. nermeen: could you elaborate -- even though hurricane ian was downgraded to a tropical storm, what do you expect to unfold in the next few days and it the worst hit areas in florida? >> well, it is not just florida

anymore. there is state of emergency on up the coast all the way to virginia now. because it is exiting florida now with 65 mile per hour winds. it is prime once it gets over the gulfstream, again, warm water, it is prime reform as some level of huicane. and then itill drawing huge massive moisture. that is the extreme. the problem with all of the rain we've had in florida, a i don't know the final numbers, we are only -- most of the state is less than 100 feet in elevation. a ttle bit is higher. so there'really nbig slope for the water to pour off of, which means you're not going to

have catastrophic floods coming out of the rivers. but the water is going to stay flooding for days and days and days in many of these intense rainfall areas. that is the second whammy. florida draining back into fort myers area, on the rivers there, it is going to make it slower for even the storm surge to come back down. it had an angle for the storm was moving up the coast rather than straight into it and that meant the storm surge could move -- push in for hours and hours. we saw that yesterday. when andrew hit miami-dade county in 1992, the storm surge probably lasted 10 or 15

minutes. it was a fast-moving storm giving straight in. in and out and that's it. this is a huge penetration of storm surge. amy: dr. wanless, at this time when everyone is paying attention -- you can only imagine what pakistan is like when you have one third of the entire country underwater. this is a very close up look at what that feels like here in the united states. but this time when everyone is paying attention, it seems it is critical to talk about precisely what you're talking about, how global heating plays a role in this and yet you have the director of the national weather service saying on cnn, you can never predict if a hurricane is caused by climate change, any particular hurricane. that may be true, the bigger point he's making is who knows if it is the climate crisis? you make a very different point, especially when you're talking about sea level rise.

>> because of the changing speed of the gulfstream, all around south florida -- we are on the left side of the gulfstream in florida -- since 1930, we have had a foot of sea level. an equivalent storm 90 years ago would have been dealing with land that was afoot more higher. it is not that climate change may be something that -- we have formed the ocean. that is putting more moiste into the atmosphere. we have expanded the ocean because of this warming. and that has raised sea level rise. we are building -- elting i said and is celebrated rate. dramatic influence on sealevel rise. and all these things --

all of the ring whether it is hurricane or rain storms or even snowstor on land, as the atmosphere warms, it holds more moisture. water vapor. as it moves on land and cools down, it makes these rains we are seeing more and more of an even steadier snowstorms during the winter. the increase in severe flooding is not just along the coast of hurricanes, but also where the atmosphere has moved [indiscernible] and is creating precipitation events that are causing many of the floods we have seen. all of these are realities --

everything i've set is a reality of global warming because of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. we were just talking about the imports of methane. these things are increasing everything from the warming atmosphere to warming ocean to the melting of ice to the increasing of precipitation over land. nermeen: given that, how much has development along these coastal areas changed to make buildings more secure and able to withstand the effects of these increasing number of extreme weather events? amy: and should there be so much development? >> you could ask should there be

so many people along with it. there are four times the number of people when i was born in 1942? it is amazing. and we are expanding out into places -- most of our new development on barrier islands is places we felt was too low, too vulnerable, too narrow. and now people want to live there. so many examples -- you look at it and say, that looks very risky. but it is what we're doing. we do it with houses and suddenly they turn into high-rise condominiums there also extremely vulnerable. sea level rises -- left out of the ocean. in the next few decades, we are really going to see that. for every foot of sea level rise

on the coast, should have 1000 to 2000 feet of land. [indiscernible] we just had this rise in sea level. we're trying to deal with that. we're having more rise in the future because of the accelerating icemelt. america dr. harold wanless, thank you for being with us, professor in geography and urban sustainability at the university of miami. sean kinane, this is what you do every day, bringing out information. your final comment as you broadcast in the midst of the storm? >> what i would say to dr. wanless' point about the barrier islands and how dangerous it is for people to be building there and living there come just to give an example, this sand about islands causeway comehe sample causeway was wiped away the

storm. we see pictures of this bridge. the only road from the mainland to sanibel island and captiva island. how do you get supplies to these people? how do people evacuate if they did not evacuate already? this is a very powerful storm and we don't know what to expect next as cleanup crews are just now going out to look at things and to answer nermeen's question, she was asking when power will be restored to people. we don't know but we did hear from duke energy florida who said they have to wait until the wind dies down in order to restore the power to these people. that might be this afternoon your st. petersburg, which is -- but who knows how long that is in orlando or cocoa beach, places where the wind is still howling. amy: sean kinane, thank you for being with his news & public , affairs director at community radio station wmnf in tampa, florida.

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as millions of florida residents in the path of hurricane ian were ordered to evacuate, advocates pushed authorities also evacuate of a what they say are as many as 176,000 prisoners -- right people incarcerated in prisons, jails, and detention centers. some prisoners saw their units evacuated, others were put on lockdown with minimal staff. the lee county sheriff's office had they declined to evacuate people from the 457 bed fort myers jail even though the county map shows the jail is in the mandatory evacuation zone. this morning on "good morning america," lee county sheriff confirmed fatalities were in the hundreds in the region. when hurricane ida devastated southern louisiana last year, many people were in prisons and jails that did not evacuate. in the weeks following the storm, they faced limited access to clean water, food, electricity, and medicine. many also remember how people

held in the orleans parish prison after hurricane katrina struck new orleans in 2005 were deserted in their locked cells as sewage-tainted water rose up to their chests. for more, we are joined in tampa by angel d'angelo, with the restorative justice coalition, as well as the campaign to fight toxic prisons. welcome to democracy now! tell us what you have learned. in this latest news out of lee county that they refused to evacuate the jail even though it was in the evacuation zone. >> good morning. we are very concerned about the conditions in lee county as well as throughout the entire zone where ian has landed. we have not gotten for updates on the status of people incarcerated but we know, as you imagine earlier, from past incidents is that jails, prisons come immigration centers, juvenile hallsan be dangerous places during orms, especially

with long-term power outages. not just the windfall we are about, we're worried about the conditions in the days and weeks following with no ac, lack of sanitation, water, lack of appropriate staff and access to health. nermeen: yesterday, the florida department of corrections issued a press release outlining some of the safety measures they put in place saying approximately 2500 inmates had been evacuated. could you put that in context, how many inmates there are in florida? we mentioned a little in our introduction. in prisons and jails and detention centers, 2500 have been evacuated? >> i don't know the number offhand, including all of the jails, prisons, federal jails, state level, juvenile centers, immigration centers, but i know florida is a large state as far as our mass incarceration. the united states being the holder of 25% of inmates in the

world. florida being one of the top in the united states. the amount they evacuated certainly does not scratch the surface. i know there have been some where we have two jails, campaigned --they did move some. that is one exple of an evacuation that happened. prioritizing safety. we are not sure why lee county and charlotte county who were in danger zones did not take action. amy: so talk about what authorities say when you demand these prisons be evacuated? where do they get evacuated too? >> and charlotte county, we were contacted and told the jail itself -- we hear the building is 30 as

quite a common line from prison and jail authorities. whetheor not that is true, it may even be true, not just the windfall we're worried about or [indiscernible] we heard stories of flooding in 2018 during hurricane. roof dame, shortage of staff and lack of access to health care. it is the days and sometimes weeks after the storm. authorities on top of that, considering risking the lives of their own staff as well as the people who are forced to stay there during incarcerations. amy: just to give some numbers, florida has the third greatest number of prisoners. california -- texas is number one with 100 -- close to 136,000. california is second with more

than 97,000 prisoners. florida is number three with over 81,000 prisoners. this is from 2020. as you say, the issues are also issues like contamination of water and everything inside the prisons. are you speaking to people inside? do you have access? one of the biggest problems is people having access, ludlum prisoners, to the outside world at a time like this. >> we did have a member who spoke with someone who was incarcerated that had concerns. [indiscernible] paso is not necessarily an a threat area but all of what it was under a emergency. [indiscernible] finally able to call me after two weeks.

barely are there was a storm. not aware of the intensity. when asked about the situation in general, he said he felt the building was se as far as the exterior that he identified to me he is not heard of safety protocols and even said to me a correctional office -- we don't care about y'all. amy: angel d'angelo, thank you for bringing attention to this very critical issue. we will continue to cover it. angel is with the restorative justice coalition as well as fight toxic prisons. he is speaking to us from tampa, florida. next up, as russia announced it is formally going to annex four occupied areas of ukraine, we will speak to prominent ukrainian journalist who is just back from an area that has just been retaken by ukraine. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "fantastic voyage" by coolio. the 59 year-old grammy-winning rapper died on wednesday. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we end today's show looking at the war in ukraine. russia has announced it will formally annex four areas of occupied ukraine on friday. this comes after voting end tuesday in hastily organized series of referenda that were widely denounced by ukraine and its allies as a sham. ukrainians living in the occupied areas could soon be drafted into the russian military. last week, russian president vladimir putin announced a partial military mobilization to draft at least 300,000 people. this has prompted widespread protests in russia and a mass exodus of draft age men. at least 200,000 russians have fled the country over the past week.

this all comes after ukraine launched a successful counteroffensive in the kharkiv region, recapturing 3400 square miles of land seized by russia. that's more land than russia had captured in the past five months. investigators are now uncovering evidence of potential war crimes including mass graves and suspected torture chambers. we go now to nataliya gumenyuk, ukrainian journalist based in kyiv. her latest piece in the guardian is headlined "putin is mobilizing 300,000 more soldiers to fight his war. but ukrainians feel hope, not fear." her other recent piece appeared in "the washington post" headlined "ukrainians are rejoicing at victory -- and awash in trauma and grief." she is the founder of public interest journalism lab and her work focuses on human rights, conflict reporting, and documenting war crimes with the reckoning project.

nataliya gumenyuk, thank you for being with us, joining us from austria. can you talk about your trip to izyum what you found, what is been discovered? >> apart from the joy of the territory where around one had 50,000 fleet, we also find horrendous things like the mass graves. towns, villages. i've seen in a couple of them, in any major small town, it would be a torture chamber where people would be kept without any reason, largely male, but also female. we see tortured with electric shock, bean.

severe conditions. and at the kharkiv region, the local authorities, ukrainian authorities speak about the type of torture chambers -- sing with their own eyes and talking to the people who were liberated. this is unfortunately not much news for us. we've been following the situation. when discussing the so-called annexation [indiscernible] we hear similar reports the last month for ukraine and still the critical point for other towns. [indiscernible] not just to regain a territory but free people from the

persecutions which have taken place. nermeen: could you elaborate on the number of people you spoke to and the kinds of stories you heard in the areas where you recently were? >> for my team, we have spoken hundreds of people in the last half of the year which tells us more or less the consistent story. speaking about [indiscernible] dozens and dozens who experienced torture themselves and have been kept in the basement. the irony is that -- we can see similar patterns, people tortured particularly by russian

soldiers -- [indiscernible] shocking even for me at this stage. the person -- man, let's say, constitute danger. [indiscernible] nermeen: were there incidents that other human rights organizations have documented sexual violence against women? >> i think the u.n. issued a report -- things were recorded. we know cases are out there.

we can ourselves not verify. but let's say trusted sources. they had report it themselves or the cases not considered. because of the trauma, makes investigations more difficult. and you have just come from izyum. there headlined, we reported ukrainian officials have finished excavating a mass burial site in a forest there, which ukraine recaptured. kharkiv's regional governor said most of the 436 people buried in the site had their hands bound with gunshot wounds and signs of torture. can you talk about this area izyum, its significance, and if

you also have found this kind of , well, what many would call war crimes? >> we found a lot. i won't say there's a significance of this town. because first, the number of towns -- liberated. comparing reagan the territory after the first months of the war, we can speak of towns where -- makes the situation worse and the number of casualties bigger. we spoke to people trying to escape from those territories, which is difficult since may. we know in that village, there's a house where for instance 10 people are missing and that amount of people --

the smaller the town, the smaller -- we can only speak about present. it is not the operation that is the problem. it is the system which, of course, -- so i think very important message would be it is not just about uncovering. it is something that was happening that might happen now. [indiscernible] especially because the town had been retaken. nermeen: what are the other towns now for your work is focused? meaning what counts do you expect to be retaken now? are you able to hear anything from people there were russian

forces are still in control? > absolutely. something we're doing on a daily basis for half a year. the territories which russia is trying to announce the annexation. the success of the crooning counteroffensive, defense going on strike -- won't be a surprise any longer. [indiscernible] media using the term referenda or something. what we know talking to people, rigged elections where you write down the ballot --

there was not enough visual evidence 10 -- the military coming houses and forcing them to vote. should be caught a referenda if somebody comes your house with a gun? [indiscernible] amy: you founded the public interest journalism lab. you certainly have been critical of your own government, ukraine, as a journalist around issues of corruption and other issues. what about now during the war? have you also found atrocities committed by ukrainian soldiers? what are your thoughts as well on the fact so many russian men

are fleeing russia right now so as to not serve in ukraine? two different questions. >> so i think it is very important to understand we really to think about laces where war happens as authoritarian places, whether it be like a free speech, neutralization, things like that. interesting enough, ukraine is a democratic state with a democratically elected government. therefore, we feel there is some instability becausof the security concern but the very same thing i write -- we talked to numerous international organizations. there is a different tactic. on the my friends were human righ defenders, many of them are fighting themselves.

the're also captured as prisoners of war. these are people who our human rights defenders themselves. talking to them, just checking myself, they would say the war is waged in a different way. we have some information on the early stage whether the ukrainian army, how they treated the russians before. as far as i know -- what we really see from the russian army is this impunity which was in chechnya, in syria. cooperating also with the syrian lawyers somehow to avoid prosecution in a way. [indiscernible] it is the strategy seen in different places.

that would be my answer to this. if that would be so, we would be talking about that. amy: an issue of russian people fleeing by the hundreds of thousands so they don't serve in the war in ukraine? >> that is absolutely -- i have a lot of friends and colleagues. we know it is really tremendous -- either way, the term uplifted. so far russia wages this war in a way -- it happens from the television. it doesn't come -- now comes to every family. we know the security at because extend.

the advice with my russian friends is -- [indiscernible] ukrainian men were not allowed to leave the occupied territory. it goes against the geneva convention. we also had the situation in occupied crimea, indigenous population which also disproportionately now drafted. more populations, indigenous populations. they are drawn into the slaughter. ukrainian army -- it is a tragic move. we think it might create some

disturbance within russia and the stability of the russian regime might be shaken by these decisions, this war could influence middle-class russian -- especially in the regions where villages, were all the males were taken. amy: 10 seconds. >> that would be a. amy: i want to they give for being with us, nataliya gumenyuk, ukrainian journalist based in kyiv. speaking to us today from vienna. we will into her pieces in the guardian and "the washington post." deep condolences to the family of former democracy now! engineer frank garfi who has passed away at the age of 57. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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