Reflecting on the reality of disabled people living in Donbas, Disability Rights UK has written the following article:
“Though most Ukrainian citizens living in the Donbas left their homes a fortnight ago, heeding government calls to evacuate amid fears that Russian troops would indulge in the widespread murder of civilians as they had done elsewhere, thousands remain.
Among them are the most vulnerable and those with nowhere else to go: Disabled people, those with long term health conditions and those too poor to leave.
“I am already familiar with the sounds of war,” said wheelchair user Lyudmila Brostovskaya Brostovskaya, who has been stranded in her flat for 54 days since the lift stopped working on the first day of the Russian invasion
“I have had plenty of time here alone in all this to tell a Grad rocket from a mortar or a howitzer.”
You can read the first-hand accounts of those left stranded in the Ukrainian city on the
Times website. “
Disability Sheffield is a co signatory to a letter of support from Disabled Peoples’ Organisations which will be submitted to the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine, the UK Minister for Disabled People, the press and media.
We hope that disabled people in Ukraine will hear our support for them in this terrible conflict. As we watch the news unfold in front of us many of you will be asking what you can do to help.
Sheffield City Council has a page of information about support for Ukraine here
including information from Sheffield City of Sanctuary.
