RUSSIA-CRISIS/REFUGEE CAMP Ukraine refugees given shelter in Russia's Rostov region

Record ID: 274633

  • Title: RUSSIA-CRISIS/REFUGEE CAMP Ukraine refugees given shelter in Russia's Rostov region
  • Date: 19th August 2014
  • Summary: ROSTOV REGION, RUSSIA (AUGUST 19, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF REFUGEES AT CAMP NEAR RUSSIA-UKRAINE BORDER DOG BAGS PILED ON GROUND PEOPLE AT CAMP FLAGS WAVING VARIOUS OF REFUGEES AT CAMP VARIOUS OF WOMEN SEATED ON BENCH PEOPLE GETTING WATER/ WASHING CLOTHES (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) REFUGEE AT CAMP, MINER, ROMAN DUBCHAK, 40-YEARS-OLD, SAYING: "We have nothing, no work, no money
  • Embargoed: 3rd September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7U663PG5ZDOISQAM9PZHBRLH0
  • Story Text: Refugees escaping ongoing military activity in eastern Ukraine found temporary homes at a camp in Russia's Rostov region.
    The temporary residence for Ukrainian refugees was established in Donetsk, a town in Russia located 15 kilometres from the border.
    People fled eastern Ukraine primarily for security reasons as Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists continue to fight against each other in the region, occasionally hitting residential areas and damaging buildings.
    Relief agencies also say people living in Luhansk and in Donetsk, where pro-Moscow separatists are fighting government forces, face shortages of water, food and electricity after four months of conflict, in which the United Nations says more than 2,000 have been killed.
    Miner Roman Dubchak said that he had to abandon everything back home in Luhansk because of the fighting.
    "We have nothing, no work, no money, no place to live. We are going nowhere. We've been earning and earning for 20 years and now there is nothing left. Isn't that sad?" Dubchak said.
    "This is not my war. I didn't order it. Neither did my mother, or my mother-in-law, or my father in law, or all of my children. We've left behind everything we had. Maybe there's nothing left there," he added.
    The estimated death toll in the Ukraine conflict nearly doubled to at least 2,086 as of Aug. 10 from 1,129 on July 26, the United Nations human rights report said.
    On average, more than 60 people a day have been killed or wounded since fighting began in mid-April in eastern Ukraine, rising to at least 70 people a day in the first week of August.
    Twenty-six year old Alyona, a refugee at the camp in Russia, said she hoped to stay in Russia until the crisis in eastern Ukraine is resolved.
    "I don't know, I just want to (move) closer to Krasnodar region. My sister lives in Sochi. I want to move there. At least to try. (I want to) find a job and live a quiet life until it's all over if it is ever over," Alyona said.
    Ukrainian government forces have been fighting separatists for four months in the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine. The rebels have set up 'people's republics' and said they want to join Russia.
    Ukraine says Russia, which seized the Crimean peninsula in March after a pro-Western government took power in Kiev, has orchestrated the uprisings and is arming the rebels with tanks, missiles and other heavy weaponry. Moscow denies this.
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