Vulnerable communities in Ukraine such as disabled and transgender people are encountering even more difficulties fleeing to safety.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video on Monday to admonish Russia for breaking promises to let Ukrainian citizens evacuate safely through “humanitarian corridors,” as Russian forces have continued to lay siege to civilian centers. We go to western Ukraine to speak with Olena Shevchenko, Ukrainian human rights andactivist who recently fled the Russian military assault on Kyiv with her parents and has been helping to evacuate others.
And we had just two options to leave the city. It’s the train and the bus. And the train station, this is obviously not even possible to get on the train, because the queues are like for two or three days. And the most — those of vulnerable communities, I mean, people with disabilities, for instance, women with children, they don’t have any chances to get on the trains, because this is the huge fight between those who want to leave Ukraine. And it took almost 24 hours to go to the safer place.
So, yeah, now I am in Lviv, because it’s not possible anymore to stay there without electricity, without water, without heat. It’s not even possible to do something like to help, because we are working now via internet connection. We are trying to help people to escape from those cities. So, it’s not — I don’t have any sense to be there without such things. So now I am in Lviv, and we establish the shelters here for those who are able to escape, at least.
And that’s why we are in need to more solidarity around the world, not only women, everybody, against the war, against the violence. So it was our main message for today’s manifestation, which we prepared during the year. But it’s not possible now to go to the streets. So that’s why we’re asking others, other women in different cities, in different countries, go to the streets and say no to war, say no to violence.