{"id":20451,"date":"2022-04-19T05:14:21","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T05:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=20451"},"modified":"2022-04-19T05:14:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T05:14:21","slug":"russia-ukraine-war-nursing-home-residents-await-evacuation-in-donbas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/04\/19\/russia-ukraine-war-nursing-home-residents-await-evacuation-in-donbas\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia-Ukraine War: Nursing home residents await evacuation in Donbas"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sleepy village of Chasiv Yar in Ukrainian controlled-Donbas, about 30 elderly people are waiting to be evacuated to western Ukraine. Almost all of them have been ejected from their homes because of the war in the region, which has worsened since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion began in February.<\/p>\n

The three houses, run as a charity nursing home, are in an area of Ukraine surrounded on three sides by more than 100,000 Russian troops. For now, life for the residents is relatively quiet. But a major battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces across the area is expected to begin at any moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw what happened in Debaltseve. I saw the bodies on the road and the shot-up cars.\u201d said Ievhen Tkachov, the head of the nursing home, about a major battle between Ukrainian and Russian-backed forces that took place in early 2015.<\/p>\n

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\"Elderly<\/a><\/div>
Elderly women in a nursing home in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk Region.<\/span> Photograph: Ed Ram\/The Guardian<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI know there will be no water, no electricity, no heating, no medicine. This lot will become a mass grave in a matter of days,\u201d said Tkachov, referring to his vulnerable residents. \u201cWe have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, Tkachov and his family, who are Pentecostalists, have been running charity projects for vulnerable people in the Donetsk region. They started by organising summer camps for children living in state-run homes, then moved on to working with people with drug and alcohol addictions. The nursing home they run is part of a Proliska, a network of non-partisan charitable projects funded in part by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in six different towns in the Ukrainian-controlled east of the country.<\/p>\n

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When the war in the Donbas started in 2014, elderly people forced to leave their destroyed or cut-off homes were taken care of by a combination of locals, including businesses, and international humanitarian organisations. But as the war in Ukraine dropped out of the headlines and money in the region dried up these elderly people found themselves with nowhere to go, said Tkachov.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is that the Ukrainian state will only look after elderly people who have no relatives,\u201d said Tkachov. He said that most of the residents\u2019 children did not want to look after them. \u201cThe children must go through a court process to sever their ties for the state to take them. The children are either estranged or find it too difficult emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Men<\/a><\/div>
Men lie in bed in a nursing home in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region.<\/span> Photograph: Ed Ram\/The Guardian<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Chasiv Yar there are separate houses for men and women and a third house that acts as a hospice. Several of the residents have already been evacuated.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s house, the Guardian met an 84-year-old widower, Yevhen Kryvoshey, who was evacuated a month ago from Izyum. Izyum is a town near Kharkiv that has been at the centre of fierce fighting between both sides, and has been described by the city\u2019s authorities as genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have a visitors\u2019 book, so I\u2019ve written a review myself,\u201d said Kryvoshey, holding a piece of card while balancing on a stick with his other hand. \u201cYour work and labour will stay with me for eternity. I haven\u2019t met so much goodwill in all my life,\u201d read Kryvoshey.<\/p>\n

Kryvoshey had been put on a truck by the Ukrainian army in mid-March and taken, together with 40 other residents from Izyum, to a church in north Donetsk region. He spent the night sleeping on a mattress on the church floor. Despite his age and fragility, he had no complaints. \u201cIt was comfortable, clean and warm.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Elderly<\/a><\/div>
Elderly women in the nursing home. Several residents have already been evacuated before.<\/span> Photograph: Ed Ram\/The Guardian<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe only thing was the [army] truck jolted to a halt suddenly on our journey. I hurt my foot and lost my dentures. There\u2019s nowhere open to get new ones,\u201d said Kryvoshey. He also lamented the possessions he had left behind: \u201cDid you know I had to leave my first edition books? I had one from 1872.\u201d<\/p>\n