Pushkaryov loads Red Cross aid packages into his van with the help of a local woman near Avdiivka on May 3.
Pushkaryov loads Red Cross aid package into his van with the help of a local woman on May 3. Humanitarian supplies are hauled across Ukraine, then stored at a nondescript building just outside Avdiivka-the kind of place that hopefully won’t attract the attention of a Russian artillery unit. They are the last link in a chain of international aid that stretches back to Western Europe. Once the van’s fixed, Pushkaryov and Savkevych jump in and drive off. “But if there are a thousand loaves, then it’s half a ton.” “You might not think a loaf of bread is that heavy,” Pushkaryov says. The van was hardly a new vehicle when donated to them last summer, but it’s now strained to breaking point by its added load of armor and a daily cargo of aid, stacked from floor to ceiling. It needs repairing practically every other day.
“Oleksiy dealt with it well, and now here we are.” “It happened in the old part of town, the most dangerous part,” Pushkaryov says. “And this really helps to believe that we will survive.”īefore the next aid run, they need to fix their van after its fan belt broke the previous evening. “Ihor is very positive, joking every time, even in difficult situations,” Savkevych says.
Savkevych does a round of pullups next to his friend Pushkaryov’s rifle in their cottage outside Avdiivka on May 4. Others are waiting for Russia’s “liberation” and falsely blame the Ukrainian army for the deadly hellfire that has battered this Ukrainian-held town since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last February. For more than a year, these holdouts have mostly lived a subterranean existence, without heat, water, or electricity. They have endured repeated airstrikes, shelling, and rocket attacks. The soldiers fight in the fields and industrial areas outside the town, but around 1,800 of the original 30,000 inhabitants remain inside.
In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited soldiers in this focal point of Russia’s eastern offensive and told them: “Our future depends on you.” For Kyiv, maintaining Western confidence and support by fending off further incursions is key. Its fall could allow Moscow to reinforce assaults elsewhere, or suck in further Ukrainian reserves if the Russians continued to push forward. Ukrainian troops are battling to cling on to Avdiivka until their counteroffensive begins in earnest. A Ukrainian flag flies from Avdiivka's only functioning hospitalĪ Ukrainian flag flies from Avdiivka’s only functioning hospital on May 4.
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