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[[Over the past few months, a small group of dedicated volunteers have managed to evacuate more than 600 bedridden people from areas of heavy fighting in eastern regions of Ukraine. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story.]]
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptUKRAINE EVACUATIONS – OSHCHUDLYAK
HEADLINE: Volunteers Help Bedridden People Evacuate From Eastern Ukraine
TEASER: A small team has played a key role in helping 600 escape heavy fighting in the region
PUBLISHED AT: 08/9/2022 at 11:39a
BYLINE: Omelyan Oshchudlyak
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Chernivtsi, Ukraine
VIDEOGRAPHER: Yuriy Dankevych
VIDEO EDITOR: Yuriy Dankevych
SCRIPT EDITORS: Kenochs; Reifenrath
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA (Story Hunter)
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB _ TV X RADIO __
TRT: 2:49
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES:
((INTRO:))
[[Over the past few months, a small group of dedicated volunteers have managed to evacuate more than 600 bedridden people from areas of heavy fighting in eastern regions of Ukraine. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story.]]
((NATS)) ((Man on bus holds a laptop and speaks French))
((NARRATION))
((Mandatory cg: Ihor Lohvinov))
This French lecturer is being given a ride on the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway in eastern Ukraine. That's how Ihor Lohvinov taught his online students last spring.
((Ihor Lohvinov, University Professor and Volunteer)) ((IN UKRAINIAN))
“While we’re evacuating, we have four hours, so we’re getting in touch with students online and chatting.”
((Mandatory cg: Ihor Lohvinov))
((NARRATION))
But this French language professor is doing more than teaching online — he is also in the middle of coordinating several buses traveling across Eastern Ukraine.
Over the next five to seven days, the buses will help evacuate over 160 bedridden people from the most dangerous parts of eastern Ukraine.
The success of the evacuation is a miracle of logistics. The team has a hotline so evacuees can call, ((end courtesy)) leave their address and get added to the evacuee list. But for some, it’s too late.
((Ihor Lohvinov, University Professor and Volunteer)) ((IN UKRAINIAN))
“When we arrived at the evacuation, we were a little late. Some of the houses were just not there anymore. What happened to the people who lived there? We don't know. We arrived at the address we had and saw a shell crater.”
((NARRATION))
With the help of dozens of volunteers, the bedridden people are evacuated from small towns and then brought to a central embarkation point.
They are then sent by bus and train to Lviv, an area relatively safe from Russian shelling.
Often, some of the evacuation routes are no longer accessible, and Lohvinov must find new ones.
Dmytro Maksymovych met Lohvinov after he relocated to Chernivtsi at the beginning of the war. Maksymovych was looking for help evacuating his mother from the Kyiv region. The two men soon became a team.
((Dmytro Maksymovych, Volunteer)) ((IN UKRAINIAN))
“A woman called and asked, 'Can you take a bedridden person?' There were so many such calls, and we always refused. But when the woman said this was the 10th refusal she had heard, Ihor suggested we try and take these people out of there. // Imagine what it is like to bathe a bedridden person in the basement of a house. It's almost impossible.”
((NATS)) ((Train arrives))
((NARRATION))
Maksymovych is also looking for shelter for each evacuee. For some, he rents accommodations; others get sent abroad.
Now that the war has entered its sixth month, Maksymovych plans to open his own shelter.
((Dmytro Maksymovych, Volunteer)) ((IN UKRAINIAN))
“We will start with one shelter in the Kyiv region. // We are looking for a hospital wing that is no longer in use. And if they have water, heat and electricity there, we will find funds to purchase beds, mattresses and bed linens.”
((NARRATION))
The work never stops. Already, Lohvinov is preparing for a new round of evacuations.
He has twenty-five confirmed addresses spread across 3,000 kilometers.
((Omelyan Oshchudlyak for VOA News, Chernivtsi, Ukraine))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Embargo DateAugust 9, 2022 17:17 EDT
Byline((Omelyan Oshchudlyak for VOA News,
Chernivtsi, Ukraine))
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
