I heard similar stories about troubled relations with the regional and national governments from other members of the Roma community. She watched over the house and children, and her partner had a chronic disease which rendered him unable to work, so they survived thanks to the charity of several religious organizations and the government payments they received. She explained that she was having difficulty securing government benefits for her children, who were already living in poverty. Since we arrived early, a Romani woman invited us into the small house where she lived with her partner and nine children. The brisk weather and overcast sky mirrored the gloominess and poverty of the town compared to Kyiv. I also visited a small town about two hours from Kyiv with a sizeable Romani population to hear from the people themselves what it is like to live as a minority group in rural Ukraine. We were as impressed by the resiliency of these displaced people and the NGOs that have sprung up to help them with their legal and humanitarian needs as we were struck by the bleak outlook so many of them have for a peaceful, prosperous future. Those who live on the Russian-controlled side of the contact line must endure the arduous task of monthly travel to the other side to collect their benefits, including pensions.Ĭrossing the line has become so dangerous and stressful that some of the IDPs we met earlier said that, although they had friends and family on the other side of the contact line, they have stopped trying to cross it. The other half are registered for benefits but continue to live in their homes along the line of contact or in the occupied zones. Of the 70,000 IDPs registered in Kramatorsk (a city of originally 120,000), only 50 percent live in the city. The group expressed their concerns about the high rent and limited housing opportunities in Kramatorsk that make it hard for IDPs to live there permanently. We learned more about the conditions of IDPs in Kramatorsk from city representatives. Our meeting with IDPs in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, along with U.S. All of them talked about the difficulties they faced-from long lines in harsh weather conditions to landmines and shelling-when trying to visit their families and homes on the other side of the contact line.ĭespite these traumatic and life-altering circumstances, the support of the United States and international and local religious programs have enabled these IDPs to start a new life in another part of Ukraine. Another woman described the terrible nights spent in her basement seeking shelter from shelling. A tearful single mother recounted her struggle to subsist after her house was destroyed. Two sisters expressed their gratitude for the small business grant they received, which allowed them to start anew when they realized they could not return to their home in Horlivka. One man told us that the cash-based assistance he received helped him make vital repairs to his car and house and buy clothing and food for his six children.
Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, we heard stories of struggle, tragedy, and resilience from some recipients of this aid. Together with representatives of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which receives generous support from the U.S. Our first meeting that day vividly illustrated the destruction this senseless war has unleashed on the lives of average Ukrainians.
Kramatorsk and its surrounding regions are home to many internally displaced persons (IDPs) forced out of their homes by frequent shelling along the contact line separating Ukrainian government-controlled areas and Russian-occupied territories. We were up before dawn for our first working day in Ukraine to make our way from the Kiev train station to Kramatorsk, a small industrial city in Donetsk Oblast that was briefly occupied by Russian-led forces in the early days of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Cory Welt of the Congressional Research Service, traveled to Ukraine to gain a more nuanced understanding of war, politics, and everyday life in Ukraine.
To meet some of these Ukrainians and hear their stories firsthand, I, along with my colleagues Mark Toner and Alex Tiersky and Dr. Minorities like Roma also often have special challenges that must be comprehensively addressed in Ukraine as well as Europe more broadly. In the ongoing war in Donbas, now entering its fifth year, most of the people on the front lines-in some cases, literally-of Ukraine’s struggle for democracy and sovereignty go unnoticed.