Dubno, a town of almost 40,000 people, is currently home to 1,537 evacuees from Ukraine's areas most at risk of Russian attacks.
"People who have been displaced from Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv Oblasts are coming to us. These are families with children and the elderly"
- said Zoriana Dowhanyk, PCPM representative for western Ukraine.
"Refugees from occupied areas are still arriving. It's not on the same scale as two years ago, but new people are still coming in. In the last three months alone, about 130 new displaced people have arrived in Dubno.”
- the humanitarian aid provider added.
“I came here just as I was, without anything. My home is no more, not a stone has been left on top of another.”
- Valentina Cherkashin told PAP about her evacuation from the vicinity of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region in April this year.
“I was in hell. Everything was burning. I wouldn’t want anyone to experience what I experienced.”
- the evacuee confessed with tears in her eyes.
“What the refugees lack most is hope for the future, care and conversation. I talk to older people - and each of them wants to return home. Their homes were bombed, there is nothing there, yet they still want to return.”
- Dowhanyk noted.
Representatives of the organisation emphasise that interest in helping people from Ukraine is clearly decreasing - despite the fact that the numbers of those in need continue to amass, as Russia continues its unlawful attack and the total destruction of any civilian infrastructure within range seems to be among its goals.
Recently, PCPM has published a special report on aid for Ukraine, providing a deeper insight into the matter. It is available on the organisation's website.
According to the April report of another non-profit, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) - the highest percentage of internal displacements was recorded in the frontline areas - 91% in Zaporizhia Oblast and 85% in Kharkiv Oblast. The main regions that receive evacuees are Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, which received 14% of the displaced, and Kharkiv Oblast - 12%. Kyiv alone provided shelter to 10% of internal refugees.
Russia first illegally invaded Ukraine in 2014, and has occupied a significant part of the country ever since. On February 24, 2022, Moscow took things further - mounting an unlawful and unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and starting the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Numerous reports from a variety of sources state that since the full-scale invasion started, Russians have committed countless war crimes in Ukraine - breaking the Geneva convention on a daily basis and killing tens of thousands of civilians.
The list of Kremlin's transgressions reported includes regular attacks on non-military targets, murdering and torturing war prisoners as well as civilians en masse, kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children into Russia or using internationally forbidden weapons.
Sunday is day 956 of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine.
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Source: IAR, PAP