From Kyiv Independent:
“Ukrainians with disabilities
endure disproportionate impact of Russia’s war”
(Members of the Vostok SOS
nonprofit help a person with limited mobility to get off the evacuation train
from Pokrovsk as it arrived at the train station in Dnipro on June 29, 2022.)
On a cold day in March, Vitalii
Pcholkin, who uses a wheelchair, lay under three blankets, unable to warm up. He and his wife Uliana, also confined to a
wheelchair, had been sheltering in their apartment in then-occupied Bucha, a
satellite town just northwest of Kyiv. Bucha was cut off from electricity,
water, and gas soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine
and occupied several settlements surrounding the capital. Facing
thermoregulation issues due to his spinal cord injury, Pcholkin had immense
difficulty handling the cold with no heating at home. “I was freezing all the time, and I also felt
very sick,” he recalled. “I was petrified.” The couple had learned from a
neighbor that there would be a state-organized evacuation from the devastated
suburb on March 9. While Russia launched attacks on the day of the agreed-upon
evacuation corridor, they decided to try to flee regardless. The couple escaped Bucha safely and made their
way toward Lviv, hoping to restore some semblance of “normal life.” But
achieving this “normalcy” soon proved difficult, as Pcholkin and his family
struggled to find accessible housing after they relocated.
There are 2.7 million people with
disabilities in Ukraine, according to the European Disability Forum. Moscow’s
full-scale invasion has forced thousands of people with disabilities to flee
Russian aggression, and many others have struggled to evacuate without proper
assistance. According to the United
Nations, Russia’s war has a “disproportionate impact” on people with
disabilities, especially children.
A growing list of obstacles
(Vitalii Pcholkin, a chairman of
the Active Rehabilitation nonprofit, which focuses on integrating people with
spinal cord injuries into society.)
According to Pcholkin, it took
him and his family around five months to find “more or less suitable” housing
in Lviv. In the interim, they had to live in student dormitories – the
accommodation provided by the state. “Accessible
housing is a burning issue even if you’re ready to pay a lot of money – and
prices in Lviv are now very high,” Pcholkin told the Kyiv Independent. “I
probably went through over a thousand apartments before finding one where we
could actually live.” In Ukraine, many residential buildings were constructed
during the Soviet Union without adequate consideration for the needs of those
with limited mobility. Many buildings have narrow doors with high thresholds
and no wheelchair-accessible provisions. When Russia’s all-out war started, people with
disabilities faced yet another obstacle: a lack of access to shelters amid
Russian bombardment. “I usually don’t
react to air raid alerts because, by the time I reach the shelter, the alert
will be over,” Pcholkin said.
Dmytro Shchebetiuk, the
co-founder of the Dostupno.ua initiative, which monitors the accessibility of
Ukraine’s infrastructure, told the Kyiv Independent that the vast majority of
shelters in Ukraine do not have wheelchair ramps. As a result, many with disabilities are forced
to risk their lives at home during air raid alerts as Russia continues to
target civilian infrastructure. Sometimes, they can hide in their bathrooms or
corridors – behind two walls, as per Ukrainian authorities’ recommendations –
but this is unlikely to be safe should the residential building be directly
targeted. “People in wheelchairs can shelter in some modern parking lots and
shopping centers where there is an elevator leading to it, but it is still not
the best option, considering the possibility of blackouts and the risk of being
trapped there,” Shchebetiuk said. Experts
note that those with hearing impairment often face difficulties with
sheltering, as many can not hear the air raid siren. However, even people residing in specialized
care facilities are not safe during the war.
Human shields Since the start
of Russia’s full-scale war, hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare
facilities have been targeted by Russian attacks. A Russian attack on a
nursing home in Stara Krasnianka, Luhansk Oblast, on March 11 killed 56 people,
according to Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhii Haidai. Yuliia Sachuk, the
founder and director of the Ukrainian advocacy group for people with
disabilities Fight For Right, said people who live in such facilities are
entirely or partially incapacitated, meaning they are unable to make decisions
for themselves, and thus their evacuation is the responsibility of the state. Many activists believe that the Ukrainian
government should have organized the evacuation of people with disabilities
before Feb. 24, as the threat of Russia’s war loomed imminently. “Some such
institutions were either captured or became bases for Russian soldiers and
people were left unprotected,” Sachuk told the Kyiv Independent. After Feb. 24,
the evacuation of people with disabilities not residing in care facilities has
primarily been taken up by non-profit organizations. The Kyiv Independent could not reach Ukraine’s
Social Policy Ministry for comment.
The United Nations Committee for
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities expressed “grave concern” over the
safety of those with disabilities in care facilities in parts of Ukraine where
Russian hostilities are ongoing. During a press conference on Sept. 9, Jonas
Ruskus, the UN committee’s vice-chairman, said that at least 12 people are
known to have been killed at care facilities in Ukrainian territories occupied
by Russia. Ruskus also said people with
disabilities have been “kept in inhuman conditions, subjected to ill-treatment,
and used as human shields by the Russian Federation’s Armed Forces.” He added
that their evacuation from conflict areas is “not being prioritized.” Ruskus
said reports have also been received about people with disabilities who have
been forcibly relocated from Russian-occupied territories to Russia or other
occupied parts of Ukraine. Russia has deported civilians from occupied parts of
Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion – a war crime. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky,
about 1.6 million Ukrainians have been forcibly deported as of early October.
He noted that many were forced to go through Russian forces’ filtration camps,
where they were “abused and intimidated.” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk
added that hundreds of thousands of illegally deported Ukrainians are children.
Seeking rehabilitation According
to Pcholkin, the number of people with such injuries is growing exponentially
due to Russia’s attacks, although access to necessary rehabilitation is “worse
than ever.” Pcholkin is also the chairman of the Active Rehabilitation
nonprofit, which focuses on helping integrate people with spinal cord injuries
within society. “After getting
injured, people are often being stabilized at hospitals and then discharged,”
he said. “Many of the state institutions that were involved in rehabilitation
before the war stopped providing these services,” he said, noting that they
were often overwhelmed with the number of patients requiring critical care. Experts
observe that, following Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s few
rehabilitation centers are unable to deal with demand due to overcrowding.
While some Ukrainians turn to
private hospitals for support, many are unable to afford such care. According
to the State Statistics Service, roughly 20 days of care costs around Hr
100,000 ($2,730), and the average monthly salary in Ukraine is Hr 14,500 ($400).
Many Ukrainians have also sought rehabilitation services abroad. After Feb. 24,
Pcholkin and Active Rehabilitation have supported dozens of Ukrainians in
acquiring help in facilities across Europe, especially in neighboring Poland,
where many institutions provide care to Ukrainians for free. However, such
programs are often limited concerning the number of patients they can admit
from Ukraine, and many people with disabilities struggle to leave Ukraine
without assistance to seek help in the first place. Without proper
rehabilitation, those injured risk developing many complications, some of which
can not be treated and may be fatal. “The situation is critical, downright
critical,” Pcholkin said.
^ Before Russia's War in Ukraine
started in February 2022 there were 2.7 Million Disabled People in Ukraine (out
of 47 Million People.) That number has only climbed with all the bombs,
missiles, bullets, drones, etc. Russia has used to target innocent Ukrainian
Men, Women and Children. More needs to be done to help all of them. ^
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