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UKRAINE / DISPLACED
STORY: UKRAINE / DISPLACED
TRT: 2:02
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR
LANGUAGE: RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 23 NOVEMBER 2016, ZHOVANKA, UKRAINE
1 Wide shot, local resident Natasha crying as inspecting her house damages
2. Med shot, damaged burned out room
3. Various shots, Natasha inspecting damages inside the house
4. Med shot, Natasha coming out of her destroyed house
5. Med shot, Svetlana hitting the gas pipes with hammer to call neighbours
6. Close up, hammer hitting gas pipe
7. Wide shot, street leading up to frontline, checkpoint in the distance
8. Med shot, women walking by a wall with bullet holes from fighting
9. Wide shot, neighbours gathering to see legal team
10. Close up, neighbours sitting down talking
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Svetlana, local resident:
“It was incredibly helpful because we were cut off here. No one could get to us and we couldn’t go anywhere.”
12. Pan right, local women standing for legal team
13. Close up, Svetlana talking to a woman
14. Wide shot, destroyed house
15. Various shots, UNHCR legal representative talking to neighbours
16. Wide shot, Tamara walking with her daughter and grandaughters with sound of shots in the background
17. Various shots, Tamara (grandmother)
18. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tamara Timofeevna, local resident:
“We have no light (no electricity). They shoot at us. And we have no light, no coal, no wood.”
19. Close up, Tamara (the granddaughter)
20. Close up, Tamara hands holding her grandmother’s hands
21. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tamara, local resident:
“I run to the corner and I hide. I hide where there are no windows.”
22. Close up, bullet holes through a window in one of the houses
23. Wide shot, damaged house
24. Med shot, Natasha walking through her backyard of her burned down house.
The two-and-a-half-year-old conflict in Ukraine has claimed almost 10,000 lives and left hundreds of thousands displaced.
Right on the line dividing the government-controlled territory from the non-governmental area, the village of Zhovanka has been cut in two by the fighting.
Its people live with sound of bullets and shelling every day and have to survive on limited resources and with shrinking services.
A house in ruins, a life in pieces. Natasha lived here most of her life.
This is life in Zhovanka, a village on the line, divided by the conflict, and the conflict goes on, every day. Natasha’s house was hit just two weeks ago.
A call not to arms but to counsel. Svetlana has rallied these people, about a third of Zhovanka, since the conflict pushed the division line right through their town. For months in 2015 they were trapped, with nothing. In December last year, in desperation, Svetlana appealed for help, for coal, from UNHCR. It delivered 150 tons in January.
SOUNDBITE (Russian) Svetlana, local resident:
“It was incredibly helpful because we were cut off here. No one could get to us and we couldn’t go anywhere.”
Now UNHCR legal experts have come to advise the residents. Most are old and need help with forms for pensions and residence permits. UNHCR has also helped organize a bus into the city twice a week. Residents use it to get their pension money and buy food.
Tamara Timofeevna and her family of nine have come down from their house. It’s right on the line. They live with daily shooting and shelling. For a year and a half she was in legal limbo. Now, finally, she’s getting her pension. But life is still hard
SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tamara Timofeevna, local resident:
“We have no light (no electricity). They shoot at us. And we have no light, no coal, no wood.”
Her granddaughter Tamara proudly shows she is 5. She doesn’t like the shooting.
SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tamara, local resident:
“I run to the corner and I hide. I hide where there are no windows.”
The scars of war are both visible on the ground and hidden in people’s minds here. But, like Natasha, they say they won’t go, they can’t go. They have nothing else, they say.
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