In March 2022, following the intensification of the conflict in Ukraine, FSD stopped its mine action activities to support Ukrainian civilians fleeing the conflict.
7-13 March
FSD supported volunteers, who transported women and children to the Polish border with a fleet of vans/minibuses, by covering the fuel costs of these vehicles. The Ukrainians who used this service usually couldn’t afford bus or train tickets. A total of 74 women and 95 children were safely transported between March 12 and 13, 2022.
The lower red sign means “children” in the hope invaders spare the convoy.
Support was also provided to the maternity hospital in Kramatorsk (Крамато́рськ) through the supply of nappies, soap, detergent, toilet paper and medicines for newborn babies and their mothers. The hospital operates in extreme conditions. Its windows have to be protected by sandbags and its basement has been transformed to be able to provide emergency interventions, as newborns do not wait for the sirens to end.
In order to provide effective and immediate assistance, FSD employees identify the various needs on the ground and coordinate the actions taken.
Our team helped to organise a bomb shelter for the citizens not far from a local kindergarten in Kramatorsk. Water, kitchen towels, plastic cups and plates and buckets were provided.
14-20 March
While in many European countries it’s the beginning of Spring, the weather in Ukraine remains severe with strong winds and temperatures below zero. Yulia Katelik, member of FSD, helps people equip basements in highly populated areas. She found a place to buy 20 blankets, which she and her team brought to the shelter.
“I will probably stay at home today”, Yulia told us on a team call. “One of the buildings in the area where I live was targeted. 6 people were killed and 30 were injured. So, I will probably stay at home today. But tomorrow, if the fighting is not so close, I will go to the local market and buy some electric cables. In this shelter, which is close to a kindergarten, an FSD team members (a former electrician) will arrange working light. It’s so scary for children to sit in a cold shelter without any light”.
Local schools in the East were transformed into centres to welcome displaced people. The beds/mattresses are on the floor of the gym. The school canteen is used to prepare food for IDPs (internally displaced people). Civilians come here trying to find a shelter for one night or even longer before they head further west.
FSD bought and delivered 114 kg of onions and 330 kg of potatoes, along with oil, tea, pasta, canned fish and other food so the canteens are able to provide hot meals.
Prior to the war, the key source of medical supplies and medicine to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk areas was Kharkiv. As Kharkiv is under attacks since the first day of the war, the supply of pills was significantly reduced.
From Dnipro, the medical supplies for disabled persons, elderly ones with heart problems, blood pressure issues, thyroid disease and some others are delivered to Sloviansk, where our staff members distribute them. At the moment, the road from Dnipro remains the only way to deliver important supplies to the citizens by car.
For certain categories of people, especially elderly ones, taking pills is a daily need.
As the hostilities are ongoing, more and more people are internally displaced around the country. FSD staff is providing assistance in Svyatogorsk. Prior to the war, Svyatogorsk area was used as a place for holidays and recreation. Many resorts with cottage houses are located there surrounded by forests. One of the resorts was given to IDPs from Izium.
“My house was completely destroyed”, said Tetiana, who comes from Izium. “All I had was the clothes on my back. I didn’t even have underwear to change into“.
The resort which is currently used by displaced people was not designed for living. It was designed for summer holidays. So, people cook food on the fire and collect wood in the local forest. The availability of food is very limited at local shops.
In a refurbished basement which was used as a sound recording studio, the children of Sloviansk have found a shelter. As FSD often deploys demining teams in remote locations, the organisation was able to provide camp beds from its own logistics. Eight camp beds, pillows, blankets and two heaters were donated to arrange the shelter in this sound recording studio.
21-27 March
Natalia tells her story to FSD staff. “We are from Sievierodonetsk (Сєвєродоне́цьк). We were forced to leave our hometown as the war started on the 24th of February. The whole town was under fire. For two weeks we were hiding in a bomb shelter, because our apartment block was targeted. All windows were broken, even the school was targeted. No gas, no electricity, no way to get out. Thank God, we were evacuated. The war is so cruel and now I’m here, in Sloviansk with my boys. I had a good job, we had a home. But we had to leave it because it became impossible to live there”.
The IDP centre where we met Natalia among many other people is located in the premises of a church. Some of the IDPs are from Popasna (Попасна), where FSD conducted until December 2021 its mine action project. Three months later, our deminers Alexei and Igor are helping the same people by providing huge bags of cereals, rice, and other staple food to these centres. The displaced people are thankful to have a meal and shelter, even children don’t complain about the food.
Today for lunch they have traditional Ukrainian dishes: borscht and buckwheat. The basis of traditional borscht is a beef bouillon with carrots, onions, potatoes, and tomato sauce. The borscht provided here is a vegetarian one as the meat became quite rare.
Sloviansk and Kramatorsk remain the only places in the oblast (region) where people can take an evacuation train. Other train stations are either partially destroyed or under constant attacks. In announcements at the train stations the same message is repeated: “If the situation is stable, the train will arrive to Kramatorsk”. There’s no guarantee that a train will come to pick up the waiting people. If the situation is unstable, the trains stop at another station which is 200 kilometres away.
FSD volunteers evacuate people from the remote locations and bring them directly to the train station. If they arrive in the evening, people have to stay throughout the night there. The conditions are pretty rough, children have to sleep on whatever serves as a bed, mothers change their babies’ diapers on their knees in the shelter room.
FSD staff delivered plastic cups, tea, cookies and food for babies to the transit point of the train station to satisfy at least the most urgent needs.
The region of Mukachevo (Мукачево), located close to the Hungarian and Slovak border and formerly popular for skiing, national celebrations and ancient traditions, has served as a place of refuge for IDPs from all over Ukraine since the conflict. Over the course of the last few weeks the population massively increased. There are three times more IDPs than locals. Some people head further West, but the majority remains in town. Most have to stay in IDP centres, others are hosted by local people.
The daily routine for hundreds of IDPs starts with queueing for humanitarian aid at the IDP coordination centres. The centre in Mukachevo is one of many which receives support from FSD in the form of food (in this case buckwheat and rice), tea and hygiene products.
