Currents News Staff
In one of the best-known theaters in Ukraine’s cultural capital of Lviv, no audience was entertained. Instead, families filled the theater seeking shelter from war.
“We’ve never imagined we would end up living in a theater,” Evgeniy Litvinov said. “We never imagined leaving our home and fleeing our city.”
Larisa says she fled Kyiv two days ago to get her kids out of danger, leaving her mother and husband behind. Now she contemplates what’s to come.
“We lived happy,” Larisa said, “and we have plans for the future, for vacations, for our baby, for study. It was [supposed to be a] happy future.”
Throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lviv has been nervous, but otherwise an oasis of relative quiet. That’s what made the city a destination for those running from where the shells are falling.
Most of them are moving on the border, but more than 200, 000 have stayed. Lviv has been welcoming them, taking care of them. But now the city’s mayor says, “We’re full and we need help.”
“This has put a lot of pressure on us and the infrastructure of Lviv,” said Andriy Sadovyi, Mayor of Lviv. “I would like to address international organizations asking for support. We need you now and we need you here.”
Andriy Sadoviy is pleading for tents, food and medical supplies. He says more than 400 cultural and educational facilities are being used to house the displaced. What was a school – a place of learning in normal times, is now a place of refuge for families not knowing their next move other than it won’t be going home.
“It’s difficult to imagine how this craziness began,” said displaced grandmother Victoria Harbatiy. “For the sake of what? For what reason are [they] killing people? What have we done to deserve this?”
Lviv is a historic city in need of help. The impact of this war is being felt well away from the frontlines.