First modification:
The country suffers from gasoline shortages and several areas in eastern and southern Ukraine also lack electricity, water, food and medicine.
Driver Yuri loses his temper and raises his voice. Behind it, a line of automobiles waits that hasn’t moved for a long time; In front of him is a dozen policemen who have brought some thick containers to fill them with gasoline. Agents have priority to supply, such as the Army and rescue services. But Yuri has already been waiting for his turn for half an hour, and he begins to despair. Before this, he tried it at various gas stations. There was nothing to do.
The latest Russian attacks on deposits – the last one against the Kremenchuk refinery – and on the Ukrainian railway network, the blockade of the country’s ports, and the interruption of crude oil from Belarus, are some of the reasons behind the problem. The gasoline shortage has reached such a point that even the vehicles of large humanitarian organizations are having supply problems. “I have friends who are in Dnipro, and they don’t know how to get back here to Kharkiv. They can’t find gas anywhere,” says Vitaly, a young interpreter.
It is not the only lack in Ukraine. In some districts of Kharkiv -Osnova, northern Saltivska, Pyatikhatki, Derhachi, Area Pobeda, BirminVody and Jiliardi- the Ukrainian resistance also denounces that there is a lack of food but, above all, medicine. The old women attest to it. When they see a humanitarian aid car, sometimes escorted by police vehicles, there is often a whirlwind of people around them. The neighbors run to grab whatever there is. The scene is even more incredible if one remembers that the country was one of the largest food producers, sixth in the world, according to some classifications.
Nor is Kharkiv the only city that suffers from these phenomena. In Mikolaiv, near occupied Kherson, there has been no running water for more than a month. In various areas of the country, particularly the recently retaken towns, there is no electricity. In Zaporiya, in the south, farmers have already started working in the fields wearing bulletproof vests and ballistic helmets. And even so, wheat production is suspected to fall by 35% this year, compared to times of peace, with also the dire consequences that are feared for the world food supply.
The prices of many things have also risen. According to the Central Bank of Ukraine in April, inflation in the country may grow by 20%, the highest since 2015, a year after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the pro-Russian uprising in Donbass. Only between February and March of this year, the inflation rate grew by 4.5%, according to the same source. And, in these circumstances, the country’s GDP will fall by 45% this year, according to World Bank forecasts.
In addition to this, some international companies, including the famous IT companies, have started to lay off their Ukrainian workers, some of them posted in other regions of the country or in other countries of the region. “They told us that it is because of the war, because they believe that the situation here will get worse and the country is unstable,” explained a young woman, fired in recent days.
The Ukrainian Red Cross and the World Food Program (WFP), which are on the ground – although they have difficulties accessing the most dangerous areas – are trying to serve the most vulnerable population, distributing food and other essential goods, very often with the help of civilians from the Ukrainian resistance. But there is already talk of at least six million, 10 million according to some other estimates, who are going hungry.
Even so, the surreal thing is that, in the supermarkets of Kharkiv, one of the cities hardest hit by the conflict where bombs still resound daily, you continue to find anti-wrinkle creams from French brands, American shampoos, Mexican beers, and even the Italian Parmesan cheese. But no one knows for how much longer, since they are the traces of a country that no longer exists, and that will probably remain so for much longer.
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