“In the last six months, more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from the front line areas in the east and north,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees on the three-year anniversary of the war on Monday, February 24.
Grandi added that since the beginning of the war, about 10.6 million people have been forced from their homes. While most fled during the early stages of the Russian invasion, he said, displacement and suffering continues.
Drones is swarming over the city every day ‘
Many of those being displaced in the east and north of the country arrive at traffic centers before being helped to find temporary shelter in reused public buildings known as collective places.
Serhii Zelenyi was recently evacuated by bus to a traffic center in the city of Pavlohrad after fleeing daily bombing from Pokrovsk, his hometown of Donetsk, 130 kilometers from Russia’s border.
“It was very difficult in Pokrovsk. The drones were swarmed over the city every day, from morning until late night, ”says Zelenyi. “Sometimes there was a two -hour break, so the bombings started again. It was impossible. ”
The manual worker and small farmer was among the last neighbors to leave, finally deciding that the constant danger, the lack of food, water and electricity and the need to stay in closed environments almost all day was too much.
Upon arrival at Pavlohrad, Mr. Zelenyi received clothes and money assistance from the UN agency, AcnurThrough your local partner organizations, and now you are wondering what it will do next. “I lost everything,” he said, “I need to start from scratch.”
A safe space to cry
The story of Zelenyi is not uncommon, says Alyona Sinaeva, Psychologist at Priska, an UNHCR’s partner organization in Pavlohrad. Those arriving from the front line regions are: “In acute stress, because they come from cities where active fights are taking place.”
The UN continues to work with local organizations to distribute food help.
The center offers a safe place for traumatized civilians, while Proiska and other UNHCR partners provide evacuates that they arrive clothing, cash assistance to buy essential items, hygiene kits, legal assistance and psychosocial support.
“In this space they can relax and cry. These are the emotions they haven’t been able to appear so far, ”said Sinaeva. “People are tired. Tired of war. Everyone is tired. ”
Three years since the total scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine and 11 years since the beginning of the East War and the occupation of Crimea, destruction and displacement remain a daily reality and about 12.7 million cerk people of one third of the population still in Ukraine-Humanitarian Assistance.
