The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people in Ukraine to rethink their routines and lifestyles. Being unable to stroll outside, meet friends, go to the gym or the movies, people accept restrictions with varying degrees of discomfort. However, there are people whose lives have never been particularly easy. The risk of getting sick and quarantine restrictions have made vulnerable groups of Ukrainian society even more vulnerable. Donbas News/DONETSK INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION publishes coverage of Ukraine’s elderly trapped in the conflict zone – we have gathered full information on both sides of the line of contact. The report discusses the following:

• how a volunteer family arranged a hospice in Chasiv Yar, having sheltered one hundred fifty senior citizens from around the contact line within three years;
• how the elderly live in Zaitsevo (5 kilometers away from the Russian-occupied Horlivka), having lost the public transport connection with other areas of Ukraine since quarantine began and being in urgent need of medicines and food;
• how older people are adjusting to life under quarantine in the Russian-occupied Donetsk and what illegal mechanisms for obtaining Ukrainian pensions exist in the ORDLO today;
• how to help retirees in Mariupol.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8GXPnTwtl0&feature=emb_title (English subtitles).

According to the UN, about one-third of all people in need of humanitarian assistance in the Donbas are elderly people who struggle with isolation not only through quarantine.  

Donbas News will continue to tell their stories to give these people more opportunities to express their thoughts and not be left alone in times when everyone needs social support and government protection.

For Further Reference:  
Editor-in-chief: Oleksiy Matsuka
Journalists: Darya Lytovchenko, Dmytro Torets 
Executive Editor: Yuliya Didenko

https://novosti.dn.ua