Themes by tag: occupation

The russians abducted 47-year-old Serhii Hrypun from Nove village of Zaporizhia Oblast, where he worked for an agrarian firm. The russian military personnel entered the premises of Serhii’s firm and established their headquarters there. Getting in touch with him became impossible, and his relatives had not received any information about him for several weeks. His daughter Yulia, who is searching for her father, told the Media Initiative for Human Rights that she found out about his whereabouts in April from a released hostage who had seen Serhii in russia. Serhii Khrypun is held captive in Kursk pre-trial detention center. The kidnapped Ukrainians are subjected to torture; for instance, they were beaten with a stun gun and truncheons on the day they arrived at the detention center. The released hostage also told Yulia about Serhii’s condition, who had broken ribs and bruised legs.

• casualties
• occupation
• russian crimes

Stefan Vorontsov returned to Ukraine on the eve of the all-out invasion. He studies in Poland but decided to visit his parents. The war caught him in Nova Kakhovka; Stefan’s life has been closely connected to his native city since that time. Within 40 days under the occupation, he managed to set up a volunteering headquarters and establish HUMANITY, an NGO that supplied food and medicines to residents of Nova Kakhovka. The organization also evacuated city residents from the occupation. Stefan decided to leave Kherson Oblast when a local resident told russians about his activities.

• occupation
• volunteers
• Kherson

On September 12, beauty volunteers from Kyiv will visit the village of Dymer in Kyiv Oblast. Nail technicians, hair stylists, makeup artists, and massage therapists will work with locals for free. The idea of beauty volunteers for the liberated villages came from Olha Belytska, a makeup artist. This spring, she worked for patients at Okhmatdyt Hospital in Kyiv, where she heard some women complaining about lying there without hairdo and makeup, having just come to after barely escaping projectiles and cluster bombs. Thus, Olha and her friends come to the de-occupied towns and villages of Kyiv Oblast every week to help people feel beautiful again after the horrors of the occupation.

• casualties
• occupation
• volunteers
• Kyiv

In March, Oleksandr Kryvosheia, a farmer, called the Ukrainian artillery fire onto his warehouse in Kozarovychi village in Kyiv Oblast, where russian invaders were based. The russians occupied his farm on February 25 and lived there for more than a month. Over this period, the invaders ate more than a hundred sheep, half of his livestock. The building’s roof, seed grain, and equipment burned down due to the Ukrainian artillery strike on the farm. However, Oleksandr does not begrudge the property destroyed by the Ukrainian missiles. On the contrary, he says, chasing away the enemy was the most important thing.

Now, he is restoring his farm from scratch. The Keep Going project raises UAH 600,000 for Oleksandr to install the new roof on the warehouse. Half of the target amount has already been raised.

• casualties
• occupation
• reconstruction
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Sociotherapy City Crisis Center in Kyiv offers special anti-stress therapy pro bono to the Ukrainian survivors of crisis events during the war. The Center’s personnel will assist with symptoms of an acute stress reaction, anxiety, or depressive disorders. The Center welcomes people who survived the occupation or evacuation or stayed in active combat areas. The therapy sessions are organized in groups and as individual sessions with a psychologist.

• casualties
• doctors
• occupation
• psychological support
• Kyiv

The team of Starobilsk Hospital spent a month under occupation in Luhansk Oblast. Initially, the medics decided not to leave the city because they believed they should help patients despite the russian occupation. However, their work became impossible within a month, and the physicians decided to head for the territory controlled by Ukraine. They resumed their work in Dnipro; however, they needed time and much money to do so because the russians prevented them from taking the equipment.

• doctors
• occupation
• Dnipro

At the very beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion, a rescue worker from Mariupol had to deliver his wounded relative to the hospital because a projectile hit his house. In addition, he spent several days moving his family to a safe place. He repaired his car perforated with shell fragments under fire and got through 50 invader checkpoints. He works as a rescuer in Lutsk now.

• casualties
• occupation
• Lutsk

Children who survived the occupation in Bucha are shooting a short film together with Ukrainian filmmakers. Together with teachers, children are writing scripts, selecting locations and props, looking for costumes and acting as directors. Filming takes place in two cities — Kyiv and Bucha. The theme of the short film is childhood and the bright future for children in Ukraine.

The project called “Film Holidays” is organized by Ukrainian Film School. The premiere of the film will take place on July 28 in Bucha.

• children
• culture
• occupation
• Kyiv

At the start of russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, Uliana and Vitalii stayed in their Bucha apartment for two weeks (without electricity, gas, water, and communication). Later, they risked their lives to get out of the russian occupation. Now the spouses who use wheelchairs live in Lviv and help people with disability. For instance, they evacuate people with spinal cord injuries to other countries and provide humanitarian aid.

• casualties
• occupation
• volunteers
• Lviv
• evacuation

18-year-old Ilona fled to Kyiv from the occupation in Kherson and has been working in the capital for 2 months. She is forced to earn money not only for herself, because her 85-year-old grandmother, who was deprived of her pension by the occupiers, remained in Kherson. So, the girl has to find ways to transfer money and medicine to her elderly family member.

• casualties
• occupation
• Kyiv