KATHMANDU, APRIL 13
A woman climber from Ukraine has arrived here to scale the world's highest peak this season to send a message of peace to the world.
Antonina Samoilova, 33, from Cherkassy said she would carry the Ukrainian flag to the top of the world to boost morale of her fellow citizens who are fighting the Russian invasion.
"I have decided to climb Mt Everest with a message of peace as well as my stand against Russia's invasion on Ukraine," Antonina who arrived from Mexico, told THT Online.
Antonina, the only Ukrainian on Everest this season, also shared that she wanted to boost morale of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy and the countrymen to stand firm against the Russian act.
Antonina said that her father and brother had been fighting the Russian troops back home.
Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, owner of 14 Peaks Expedition Pvt Ltd said that his company is managing her expedition to Mt Everest this season.
"She has already climbed Mt Vinson, Elbrus and other peaks. So, she can definitely make it to Everest," Sherpa said.
Antonina said she, along with her partner, has been running a restaurant in Kiev. "I don't even want to recount the ongoing scene in my country but I believe we will win the war," she said, adding that she was proud of President Zelenskyy for everything he has been doing for the nation and its sovereignty. "The entire world is supporting Ukraine and its people in the time of crisis," she believes.
After scaling Everest, I will return to Ukraine to join my family at the earliest, she added.
She will be a part of an 11-member international expedition and the Department of Tourism is issuing a climbing permit to here later today, according to Sherpa.
Moscow's nearly seven-week long incursion, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, has seen more than 4.6 million people flee abroad, killed or injured thousands and left Russia increasingly isolated on the world stage, according to Reuters.
The Kremlin says it launched a "special military operation" on Feb. 24 to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext for the invasion.
US President Joe Biden said for the first time that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, as President Vladimir Putin said Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation and achieve its goals.
"Yes, I called it genocide because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian and the evidence is mounting," Biden told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One on Tuesday.
