With the continuation of the Russian offensive in eastern and southern Ukraine, in Odessa, the flow of displaced people does not stop. Report in a school in the city center transformed into a help center.
With our special correspondents in Odessa, Anastasia Becchio and Boris Vichith
Corridors and classrooms are cluttered with food, medicine, hygiene and cleaning products, strollers, nappies, dishes.
Behind their computers, volunteers assess the needs of families who have remained homeless. Turquoise cap on her head, Marina Semeniuk is one of the centre’s coordinators.
Help continues to come to us. We hoped that the flow of displaced people would dry up, but there are more and more people arriving, from Mykolaiv, people continue to come from the occupied city of Kherson. There are also those who fled Mariupol. There are a lot of people.
Outside, dozens of people are waiting their turn to receive help. Under a tent, mothers choose clothes and school books for their children.
The center welcomes up to 500 people a day. About thirty volunteers take turns there, like Dmitro Rudakov, 33, who himself arrived from Kramatorsk, in the Donbass where he hopes to be able to return.
The city is on the brink of being occupied. But I still hope that our armed forces will succeed in repelling them. We believe in our defence; our men have very strong morale, they are unshakeable.
The Russian army continues to concentrate its forces on this part of Donbass. Kramatorsk is more than ever in his sights.
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