In the industrial city of Lyssytchansk, besieged by Russian forces, residents are organizing to cope with the lack of water and food. Food aid is organized by the authorities in a theater in the city.
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To outside the building, the wait is long to pick up your package. Until a few weeks ago, the House of Culture in Lysychansk was still a place of entertainment. Three months of war have passed and plays or concerts have given way to mutual aid for the inhabitants of this industrial city of Luhansk, in western Ukraine.
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The space has become a distribution center with windows covered with wooden panels. In the hall are stacked bottles of water, bags of rice and hygiene products. The city, very close to the eastern front of the country, is besieged by the Russians. The water distribution network was cut.
It is to find something to drink and eat that the inhabitants of the city – whose number has been estimated at 20,000 for the past few days – have been waiting to collect their parcels. The shops in the city have almost all been closed for a few weeks.
“We take risks, but what else can we do?”
Lilia, who came to pick up two boxesfranceinfo
“This is the urgent distribution for children“explains a volunteer, Irina, pointing to a part of the theater hall.”We have baby diapers, food products, hygiene…“The distribution also allows convoys to come and get supplies to redistribute in more isolated areas.
This is exactly what Lilia does, who has come to get two big boxes: “I put everything in the car and then I share with people. We help as we can. Yes, we take risks but what else? I think it’s my duty.”
However, stocks are running out quickly and the center lacks almost all the products: “It’s catastrophic. Medicines are missing, we would like more products and better quality products“, laments a volunteer.
Food aid in a city deprived of water, the report by Farida Nouar and Fabien Gosset
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