“In the past six months only, more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from front line areas to the east and north,” said Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Three Years’ Birthday Refugees on Monday, February 24.
Grande added that, since the start of the war, around 10.6 million people have been forced from their home. While most have fled during the early stages of the Russian invasion, he said, displacement and suffering continue.
Drones “swarming on the city every day”
Many of those who are moved to the east and north of the country arrive in public transport centers before being helped to find a temporary shelter in reused public buildings called collective sites.
Serhii Zeleyi was recently evacuated by bus for a public transport center in the eastern city of Pavlohrad after fled the daily bombings of Pokrovsk, his hometown, in the front line Donetsk region, 130 kilometers from the border with Russia.
“It was very difficult for Pokrovsk. The drones were teeming every day in the city, from morning until late in the evening, ”explains Zelenyi. “Sometimes there was a two -hour break, then the bombings started again. It was impossible.
The brilliant man and the small farmers were among the last neighbors to leave, finally deciding that the constant danger, the lack of food, the water and the electricity, and the need to stay inside almost the whole day was too much to bear.
Upon his arrival in Pavlohrad, Mr. Zelenyi received clothing and cash aid from the United Nations Agency for Refugees, HcrThrough his local partner organizations, and now wonders what he will do next. “I lost everything,” he said, “I have to start from scratch. »»
A safe space to cry
The story of Mr. Zelenyi is not unusual, explains Alyona Sinaeva, psychologist of Proliska, the partner organization of the UNHCR in Pavlohrad. Those who arrive from the front line regions are: “In acute stress because they come from cities where active fights take place.”
The UN continues to work with local organizations to distribute food aid.
The center provides a safe place for traumatized civilians while proliska and other UNHCR partners offer evacuates arriving clothes, cash assistance to buy essential elements, hygiene kits, legal aid and psychosocial support.
“In this space, they can relax and cry. These are the emotions that they have not been able to appear so far, ”said Sinaeva. “People are tired. Tired of war. Everyone is tired.
Three years since the large -scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and 11 years since the start of the war in the East and the occupation of Crimea, destruction and displacement continue to be a daily reality and around 12.7 million people – about a third of the population still living in Ukraine – need humanitarian aid.
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First published in this link of The European Times.
