Life Goes On In Lviv, Ukraine

More than 200,000 internally displaced Ukrainians have temporarily settled in the western city of Lviv, which is home to 725,000 in normal times.   Ryan Kellman/NPR

"I have to see that there is a minimum of electricity for the whole population; in homes, in our 127 schools, for our essential services. Each transformer takes a year to repair [after Russian shelllng]. So we won't count on that this winter. We subsidize half the cost of generators for businesses and families. Then I have to make sure there is public transport. Hospitals must also be running, surgeries must be carried out, there must be enough temporary and permanent prostheses for soldiers, children and the elderly. There aren't enough,. There are a lot of amputations. But I'm not a doctor, I'm a mayor. First you have to prepare for winter, survive, hold on. It's my duty."

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy

Wounded Ukrainian war veteran Mykhailo Yurchuk was the first in Lviv to get a bionic prosthetic arm as a part of the Unbroken project.  Roma Cayman Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center

 

This is a type of war with echoes of a long-past era in ancient history when foreign hordes of wildly manic violence slashed and razed, looted and murdered in a frenzy of conquest when marauding armies invaded large swaths of territory to claim as their own in mass, disorganized and demonic campaigns to rid the territories of the indigenous populations so the massive groups of migrating humanity representing an entirely different ethnic culture could settle into their destiny as new indigenous populations to the present.

Giant countries like China still subscribe to the old methods of occupation, wrenching the land from its inhabitants of ancient origin transforming them under duress to unwilling slave labour status in their own ancestral lands, subservient to an unforgiving taskmaster for whom treachery of those conspiring to rebel ranks the death penalty. The Turkic peoples and the Tibetans -- much as Genghis Khan did in the 13th century sweeping his Mongol armies through territory to enlarge his own dominion. The civilized rules of modern-day warfare, theoretically preclude targeting civilian populations during conflict between armies.

So now too are Ukrainians, despite the aggressor Russia denying that it targets civilian enclaves within the country it has invaded and mercilessly attempts to bomb back to the stone age. Moscow, having embarked on a mission to once again subjugate Ukraine denies that it flouts the rules of modern warfare even while it obviously considers bombing hospitals, schools, apartment blocks, theatres and shopping malls in cities far from the front lines a fine strategy for success. Russia's goal, readily observed, is to smash Ukraine's vital civil infrastructure.

And as the artillery attacks and aerial bombing continue day after day with a determined view to making life as miserable as possible for the entire population of Ukraine by depriving cities and their inhabitants of winter heat,  potable water, and access to food, eight million refugees have been created, with Ukrainians seeking safety and haven in neighbouring countries, all of which are fully in support of Ukraine while imagining themselves to be next on Russia's agenda of returning them to satellite status.

Of the internally displaced, there are six and a half million Ukrainians who fearfully and regretfully make their way elsewhere to find places of safety within their country. Heading west from the eastern and south regions of the vast geography, an estimated five million of the displaced are held to have passed through Ukraine's seventh largest city which has extended its resources to give aid and comfort to the displaced, finding temporary homes for as many as possible, advising others to keep moving westward, even to leave Ukraine's borders for haven elsewhere until it is safe to return. 

The train station in Lviv. Many displaced people are on the move as the country deals with electrical outages from Russian shelling. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

 Even as air raid sirens send their messages throughout the city, people in Lviv continue to go about their daily business, unfazed, familiar now with the tactics of the Russian military which had gone seamlessly from supporting Syrian's president Bashar al-Assad in persecuting and violently attacking his own citizens, creating similar numbers of refugees and internally displaced, they carry their experience there into their 'special military operation' in Ukraine, Never did they imagine that Ukrainians would stand up and fight back to the extent that has happened. In the process delaying the great victory that Vladimir Putin envisaged.

Since the war began, the municipality of Lviv has been busy. Far from the front lines it resolved to be a welcoming beacon to the millions of their compatriots with little choice but to flee the violence; women and children leaving their husbands and brothers, sons and fathers behind to help counter the Russian attacks. In the process, Lviv built 6,000 anti-missile shelters, a thousand of them designed to be heated with wood. Services were organized for Ukrainians whom the war had uprooted, many of whom made the decision to remain in the city.

 

Which meant the availability of social housing had also to be significantly addressed. Far from the front lines, Lviv has committed to receiving most of the wounded in the conflict from the front which runs 850-kilometres along a line stretching from Donbas to Kherson. Health workers in the city have treated an estimated 11,000 soldiers and civilians since 24 February. The haven that is Lviv has not escaped Russia's notice which continues to target its infrastructure, impacting Lviv's electricity, water and sewage. Five transformers have been destroyed by Russian missiles, representing half of the city's power grid.

Reuters

"We will be the first national rehabilitation ecosystem. If elsewhere in this country it will be necessary to rebuild entire cities, in Lviv, we will rebuild humans. We will be the model for the whole country. Already, this city of 800,000 inhabitants has a general hospital with 1,300 beds, another for military personnel and one for children, 4,000 health workers, a rehabilitation centre and a small prosthesis factory." 

"Here we are already building a new rehabilitation centre. There, it will be a school right next to the children's hospital to help the little handicapped [thousands]. Further on, this park will offer activities for war amputees. Over there a factory will increase the production of prostheses. We will offer jobs to veterans there. And there will also be a centre to meet the enormous mental health needs."

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy

Amputee Serhiy Pasechnik, with his wife Liza Pasechnik, their two-year-old son Yegor, in the Halychyna Complex Rehabilitation Centre, Lviv Credit: OLEKSANDR KHOMENKO