in Poltava, residents awaiting a potential conflict with Russia

In Poltava, a medium-sized city in Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens are mobilized. In an Orthodox church, they collected their latest purchases, such as a stretcher, to help the soldiers at the front. Russian invasion or not, they are preparing for the worst. “The military doctors on the front line have asked us for this type of equipment, to evacuate the wounded“, indicates one of them.

In the streets of Poltava, some residents are anxious, that which does not prevent keeping a certain recoil. “Of course there is always a possibility of war, but I don’t believe in it anymore“, explains a woman. More at East, the village of Novoluhanske is almost deserted. It is located less than a kilometer from the line of contact between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian soldiers. It is a very dangerous area, because it is mined. “Ukrainians have been hostages of Vladimir Putin for weeks“, says journalist Maryse Burgot, special correspondent in Ukraine.