Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine has triggered the largest wave of displacement since World War II. Many Ukrainians fleeing the war have found refuge in the Lviv region, which is one of the safest regions of the country. According to theEuropean Dialoguethink tank and the Lviv Regional Military Administration, as of the beginning of this year, more than 230,000 internally displaced persons were officially registered in the region.
At the same time, as Halyna Bordun, head of the advisory and coordination centres for IDPs in Lviv region, noted in a commentary to the online publicationTvoje Misto, the total number of displaced persons in the region, including those who do not register their status for various reasons and circumstances, reaches 700,000. This is more than 28% of the pre-war population of the Lviv region, which as of January 2022 was 2478.1 million people.
Almost 2.5 years have passed since the start of the full-scale war, and, unfortunately, the current dynamics of the largest war of the 21st century do not give grounds to talk about the return of these people to their homes and communities. How are these people living, have they been able to adapt to the new conditions, and what do they need to integrate in new places? This question is especially relevant for communities in the region that are far from Lviv, as the distance from the regional centre is often directly proportional to the opportunities for assistance, programmes of the state and international organisations, and other forms of support for IDPs.
The pearl of the Carpathians – a new home or a temporary stopover?
On a fine summer day, we set off to the resort town of Skhidnytsia, together with social workers from the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS Lviv), one of the international organisations that provide assistance to displaced people and war victims. The purpose of their trip is to distribute humanitarian aid in the form of large personal hygiene kits to the most vulnerable categories of internally displaced persons – the elderly, single mothers with children, mothers with many children, people with disabilities, and others.
“Given the available resources, the vast majority of our resources and services, such as psychological assistance, art therapy workshops, English language courses, career counselling and much more, are concentrated in Lviv. In the Lviv community, we also have two shelters that can accommodate up to 50 people in comfortable conditions. However, we try to regularly, at least once a week, organise visits to remote communities, because there is a particular lack of not only humanitarian aid, but also social services and attention to people who have lost their homes and their entire previous lives because of the war,” says Sofia Marushchak, a social worker at the Jesuit Refugee Service, at .
In Skhidnytsia itself, which takes just over 2 hours to reach from Lviv, the JRS team is met by staff from the local social services centre, who provide a room for the distribution of humanitarian aid and help with registration and accounting of its recipients. People are already queuing up to receive the aid, most of them women, mostly elderly.
In addition to employees of the social services of the Skhidnytsia community, displaced people from the local initiative group are helping to organise the process in the room where the recipients of humanitarian aid are registered. All of them, without exception, are elderly women, among whom there is one lady who carefully supervises the entire process and to whom everyone turns with questions. After the distribution of personal hygiene kits was over, she agreed to talk to us.
Anna Voronenko is 71 years old. The woman was born and lived almost all her life in Mariupol, where she worked as a leading engineer at a metallurgical plant for over 30 years. It was her experience and managerial skills that led to the fact that other displaced people in need of help and support turn to her for advice. And it all started with the siege of Mariupol, which became one of the bloodiest events of the Russian war against Ukraine in terms of the estimated number of victims.
“My house was destroyed by a Russian bomb on 2 March. And from 2 March to 12 May, my family and I lived in the basement with our friends. Starting from 10 April, we had to turn to Russian officials, whom we begged to give us water and bread. After all, there were people in basements all over the city, lonely elderly women, families with children, who were dying of hunger and exhaustion. And as volunteers, we started distributing this bread. We shared one loaf among three people, and older women were ready to kiss our hands for these pieces,” says Anna.
After the end of active hostilities in the city, Hanna and her family were able to leave the territory of the aggressor country and the EU for Ukraine. Now, together with her husband and his mother, she lives in Skhidnytsia. Given her mother-in-law’s chronic illnesses, it is crucial for the family to stay in Skhidnytsia, as its healing mineral springs are part of her treatment.
According to Hanna, the biggest and most acute problem for all internally displaced people is housing. The woman and her family had their own property in Mariupol, and, according to her, she was quite happy with her life there. However, now, the lack of own housing is the key factor that is “pulling the ground out from under” many displaced people.
“I am an adult with a proper education and critical thinking. And I am well aware that it is impossible to provide housing in a relatively short period of time for so many people who have lost their homes due to the Russian invasion. But we cannot pretend that this problem simply does not exist. We need to look for solutions. In my opinion, the best option would be rent vouchers, which would at least partially cover the cost of housing.
We pay a very large amount of rent every month. We have no other choice, because due to our health condition, I, my husband and his mother need to stay in Skhidnytsia. I am grateful to God that, no matter how difficult it is, we can still afford it. However, not everyone has such an opportunity!” emphasises Hanna Konstantinovna.
According to the woman, as well as other members of the Skhidnytsia IDP initiative group, what displaced people in remote communities lack most is not only and not so much humanitarian aid in one form or another, but, in fact, attention and support as such. We are talking about various educational activities for children who have experienced trauma that has broken even many adults. It is also about the services of a psychologist, various activities and initiatives that allow you to take time for productive work and at least temporarily distract from anxious thoughts and expectations of an uncertain future.
“People feel left to fend for themselves, like they are no longer needed. We were lucky to meet a lot of kind and hospitable people in Skhidnytsia who are happy to help and support us with at least a kind word. Unfortunately, there are also opposite situations when we face, if not aggression, then at least complete indifference to the circumstances that brought us here. In fact, the state has withdrawn itself from supporting displaced people, limiting itself to symbolic payments that are not enough to cover even basic needs. And, in fact, this feeling of abandonment is not what motivates people to rebuild their lives and move on” – concludes Anna Konstantinovna.
In the end, the woman thanked the JRS representatives for their help and for simply listening to her, and ran off to do her business. After all, she has a mother-in-law at home who needs constant care and expensive medicines.