Czech volunteers from Team 4 Ukraine decided to comply with the request for help that came from places that are now written and talked about every day in connection with Russian aggression towards Ukraine. About a thousand civilians remain in the originally 30,000-strong Avdijivka in the Donetsk region. The city is largely destroyed.
"We decided to go to Avdijivka based on the request of baker Oleg from Pokrovsk and his humanitarian group, with which Team 4 Ukraine has been cooperating for a long time. Oleg regularly supplies the war zones," said Jan Sully Heřmánek about the reason for the trip. "The access to the city is closed, we entered Avdijivka with Oleg, who has a permit to enter the city. If that wasn't enough, we have the privilege that General Zálužný issued us a permit to move in the front areas, where it is necessary for us as part of aid trips," explained the vice-chairman of the Team 4 Ukraine association.
The situation in the city is serious not only from a military point of view. Desperate conditions fall on residents who have decided not to leave the city. "We locally imported three diesel power plants, several boxes of non-perishable food, power banks, headlamps, and we bought several bags of medicines that people will need during the winter directly in Ukraine. These are mainly antibiotics, paracetamol, drugs for hydration, anti-diarrhea, anti-pain," Jan Sully Heřmánek lists the items that the team delivered to the site. Part of the aid was also given to the military chaplains working in the city.
According to the Czech volunteers, the situation in Avdijivka is very bad: "The town is completely cut off from everything. At the unbreakable point, which is located in the basements of one of the damaged panel houses, it was possible to make a well from which water is taken with a pump. One of the delivered power plants will be used to drive it. There are social facilities, a laundry, and a temporary pharmacy, which we have restocked. We also brought medicines directly to people who are further away from the point of invincibility and cannot walk for medicines due to shelling. These people survive in the basements of the original buildings, where they hide from the fire.”
Signs of war can be found everywhere in the city. Artillery, drones and rockets have destroyed it all, and it is very reminiscent of images of destruction from Bachmut. "On the access road, we passed fresh traces of artillery shell impacts. In the city, we saw debris from the rockets of the Grad salvo rocket launcher. If I put it colloquially, the city is torn to shreds," Jan Sully Heřmánek describes the authentic impressions from the trip. Civilians, mainly older people, stay in the destroyed Avdijivka mainly because they have nowhere else to go. Some don't want to leave, their children don't have the heart to let them die alone, so they stay. Although the government offers people the possibility of evacuation and provides them with basic social security, the life of internal refugees in Ukraine, of which there are a huge number, is not easy. They have problems finding work, employment, lose social contact. This is also why some people prefer to stay where they know it, and are afraid of moving elsewhere.
"The risk of the journey was more significant than usual," says Jan Sully Heřmánek. "In some parts of the road, we only moved higher hundreds of meters from the Russian positions, from which they are trying to fight their way forward. However, it was a calculated risk that we took into account when planning the trip. We also took various security measures, for example against drones, but we don't want to mention them publicly. We discussed the risks among ourselves before the trip, then consulted everything with both Oleg and Czech Radio reporter Martin Dorazín, who went to the location with us, and they agreed that the level of danger corresponds to the importance of perhaps one of the very last deliveries of humanitarian aid that the local it will help people survive the winter," described Jan Sully Heřmánek.
The expedition covered over 4,200 kilometers in three people from Thursday to Sunday. The help was obtained from material and financial donations of Czech citizens who have been supporting Team 4 Ukraine for a long time.
Powered by Froala Editor
