Hundreds of people queue everyday to receive food in war-battered Kherson
KHERSON, Ukraine - Hundreds of impoverished individuals in Kherson queue every day at a corner of the war-battered city to receive food and drinks.
The destitute people, mostly elderly whose pensions are not enough to cover their expenses, visit a food distribution center in Kherson twice a week to receive food.
The school-turned-food-distribution-center is designed by the World Food Program and teachers who used to teach at the school in the past now work as volunteers to give out food to the poor.
"Before the war, I was teaching. Despite the war, we continued teaching until May [2022]. After Kherson was liberated, all the teachers returned and we met with our fellow teachers at school. We decided to start volunteering. This is very important. We are all together here because we feel lonely at home," Ludmila Kulichennko, a volunteer teacher in Kherson, told Rudaw on Friday.
According to official government data, an estimated 323,000 people used to live in Kherson before the war. Nearly a year since the conflict broke out, only 65,000 remain.
Ukraine regained control of Kherson after nine months of occupation. Since Russia retreated from Kherson, its military has bombarded the city several times, causing power blackouts, and further plunging people into misery as winter temperatures continue to drop.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, Russia struck Kherson 63 times, inflicting severe material damages and wounding scores of civilians.
Some of the missiles landed in residential areas and another hit a maternity hospital on Wednesday which took firefighters a long time to finally extinguish.
The nearly one-year-long Russian war on Ukraine has resulted in the death of tens of thousands and displaced millions of civilians with the country's economic infrastructure severely damaged in all sectors.
Ukraine has requested that the US provides it with the Patriot missile defense system to protect itself against Russian projectiles. Around 100 Ukrainian troops are set to head to the US next week to begin training on the Patriot batteries.
The destitute people, mostly elderly whose pensions are not enough to cover their expenses, visit a food distribution center in Kherson twice a week to receive food.
The school-turned-food-distribution-center is designed by the World Food Program and teachers who used to teach at the school in the past now work as volunteers to give out food to the poor.
"Before the war, I was teaching. Despite the war, we continued teaching until May [2022]. After Kherson was liberated, all the teachers returned and we met with our fellow teachers at school. We decided to start volunteering. This is very important. We are all together here because we feel lonely at home," Ludmila Kulichennko, a volunteer teacher in Kherson, told Rudaw on Friday.
According to official government data, an estimated 323,000 people used to live in Kherson before the war. Nearly a year since the conflict broke out, only 65,000 remain.
Ukraine regained control of Kherson after nine months of occupation. Since Russia retreated from Kherson, its military has bombarded the city several times, causing power blackouts, and further plunging people into misery as winter temperatures continue to drop.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, Russia struck Kherson 63 times, inflicting severe material damages and wounding scores of civilians.
Some of the missiles landed in residential areas and another hit a maternity hospital on Wednesday which took firefighters a long time to finally extinguish.
The nearly one-year-long Russian war on Ukraine has resulted in the death of tens of thousands and displaced millions of civilians with the country's economic infrastructure severely damaged in all sectors.
Ukraine has requested that the US provides it with the Patriot missile defense system to protect itself against Russian projectiles. Around 100 Ukrainian troops are set to head to the US next week to begin training on the Patriot batteries.