Fighting is currently taking place in several parts of Ukraine. Just last night, around ten people were injured when a rocket hit a multi-storey building in the city of Dnipro. Elly Reynolds, doctor and aid worker at Operation Aid, is in Kramatorsk and bears witness to a country in great need of help and to people who do not have the resources to survive the day.
– What I am very disappointed about, and afraid of, is that people are starting to forget the war, she says to TV4 Nyheterna.
According to Elly Reynolds, the situation in Ukraine at the moment is the same as it has been since Russia launched the full-scale invasion last year. The anxiety among the population is palpable and it is difficult to know what is actually happening around the country.
She is currently in Kramatorsk, but has previously been in Gammelsvenskby, where the approximately 200 residents who still remain – many of them children, women and the elderly – face major challenges.
– They don’t have a fire truck, for example, and artillery is fired at all days. They have to put out the fires themselves with buckets of tap water they get through a generator that has been supplied to the village. It looks even worse the further you get to the front lines – the conditions are terrible, she says.
“Many are hardened”
Elly Reynolds says that many of the people she met during her time in the country have gotten used to the war, which has become a new kind of everyday life.
– People who have stayed have decided to stay and not abandon. Many of them are hardened and have become less afraid of death. But there are of course tears and heartbreaking stories about abuse and about people who don’t have the resources to survive the day, she says.
Many of the children she met do not remember the time before the war, she says.
– The children have become so used to the war that they talk about it as if it were everyday life. They hear a difference if it’s an artillery attack going out or something coming in. You get very sad inside when you see that development is not moving forward in a positive way, but the opposite.
– I asked a girl when we were in southern Ukraine about what her future dreams were. Her father was at the front and she just wanted to be there with him and fight.
Great need for medical vehicles
Operation Aid works, among other things, with projects involving healthcare and healthcare vehicles. According to Elly Reynolds, the lack of care as well as vehicles is great.
At the same time, the country needs support when it comes to reconstruction so that residents can return to their homes.
– It is a critical situation when it comes to reconstruction. There are so many people in refugee facilities that are below all normal standards, she says.
In addition, there are many who need support to be able to handle the experiences they have been through during the course of the war.
– People feel incredibly bad in this country. You have to be able to find a way to help people, says Elly Reynolds.