Ukraine intensifies evacuations from combat zone
A new wave of refugees fleeing combat zones in eastern Ukraine is being linked to widening aggression by Kremlin-backed militants. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that about 9,000 people have been evacuated since late January, including 2,000 children.
“The flow of migrants has increased compared to last month, when there was relative silence,” Yulia Krasilnikova, a volunteer of the Vostok SOS organisation that works with refugees, told SETimes. “Now people are leaving those areas, where everything was calm until recently. For example, many refugees came to Popasna last year, but now militants shelled this town, and people are fleeing from the war again. Also many people left Kramatorsk after missiles began to fall on residential quarters. A real panic started.”
Ivan Volchok, director of the Donetsk Regional Contact Centre, a state agency that assists people in the conflict zone, said efforts are focused on helping people leave Debaltseve, Uglegorsk and Avdeevka — cities where the first attacks took place.
“We organised the transportation of people by bus from these cities,” Volchok told SETimes. “It is a very complicated process, because sometimes we cannot drive there because of persistent shelling. The evacuation depends very much on this.”
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine has evacuated 9,000 people from the combat zone since late January. [State Emergency Service of Ukraine]
When professional bus drivers refuse to go into dangerous areas, rescuers drive instead.
“Militants purposefully fire on buses with civilians, so OSCE cars should be involved in the process of people’s transportation,” MP Iryna Gerashchenko, commissioner of the President for the Peaceful Settlement of the Situation in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, wrote on her Facebook page after a visit to the combat zone.
According to Volchok, the state services helped about 6,000 people leave Debaltseve, Uglegorsk and Avdeevka on January 29th. Rescuers brought most of those people to the Slovyansk special headquarters for refugees near the railway station, where they received assistance.
“Sometimes we take 600 people a day,” Volchok said. “We work with them, ask if they have someone in other regions of Ukraine who would receive them. If yes, we offer a free train ticket and the person can leave the danger zone. But if a person doesn’t have anyone, he or she can just select any region of Ukraine where volunteers of the regional headquarters are taking care of refugees, providing accommodation and basic necessities.”
Olena Demchenko, 56, of Debaltseve was transported to Slovyansk, and then took the train to Kyiv. With horror in her voice, she recalled the bullets and shells of the separatist attacks.
“We were in shock due to the terrorist attacks, and did not know what to do and where to go. I want to thank the rescue service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. They accompanied us until the end of this horrifying trip under fire,” Demchenko told SETimes.
Volunteers said the work of government services has significantly improved in recent months due to reduced bureaucracy, allowing more people to receive assistance. Olena Yaroshenko, a volunteer at the Shtab Pereselentsiv Agency, which works with internally-displaced people from the occupied territories, said authorities were able to establish and co-ordinate the work of all social services.
“Now rescuers are working around the clock,” Yaroshenko told SETimes. “They hired psychologists from our crisis service. Now people who seek help can get psychological assistance immediately. Also, in the displaced persons headquarters, employees give people all the information about where they can receive pensions, get food, clothing, and where they can spend the night.”
“Everything comes with experience,” she added. “The first and second waves of refugees were massive, and at that time we had a lot of problems. Now it is easier to solve.” Officials said the biggest challenge for the emergency services is helping people leave territories controlled by pro-Kremlin militants.
“A lot of people want to leave Donetsk,” Volchok said. “When our call centre began to work, 80 percent of calls were from Donetsk. People don’t want to stay in this city. But unfortunately we [cannot] send a bus there because we don’t have any guarantee that militants will release it and let it return. We are trying to solve this problem.” Krasilnikova said a significant number of people have expressed a desire to leave separatist areas and move to territory controlled by the government, which indicates the mood of citizens in eastern Ukraine.
“Even those who have no one in other regions of Ukraine still want to go to the government-controlled territory,” Krasilnikova said. “There are no people here who dream of moving to the [self-proclaimed] Luhansk or Donetsk people’s republics.”
According to authorities in Kyiv, more than 1 million Donbas and Crimea residents have been forced to leave their homes and move to government-controlled territories since the beginning of the conflict.
What steps can the international community take to help Ukraine evacuate citizens from separatist-controlled territories? Share your thoughts in the comments section.