Ukraine: Checkpoints and power cuts hit the elderly

Conflict has made life hard for everyone in eastern Ukraine, but older people suffer more than most. The ICRC is distributing food wherever possible, but living on a front line remains a grim experience for an elderly person.

Kominternove is a small village in the war-torn Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. It lies in the no-man's land between the military positions of the two parties to the conflict. To move in or out of the village, civilians have to go through the checkpoints of one side or the other, which is complicated and dangerous.

The residents of Kominternove live with the constant sound of shelling. Many houses have been destroyed or damaged, the electricity has been cut off for months, and the health centre is closed. Bringing in food or medical supplies has become a major challenge.

People survive through solidarity. They help each other and they take care of the most vulnerable – in particular the elderly, as a lot of older people have stayed behind while their families moved to safer places.

Today, the ICRC is distributing candles, food and hygiene items to everyone. The queue builds up quickly behind the ICRC truck. There are no children and not many young adults: most residents are over 50 and many are in their seventies.

An old lady shows her passport to get her parcels. Valentina Viktorovna was born in 1935. She started her life in the turmoil of the Second World War, and now she is going through another brutal conflict. She may not live to see peace return.

A distant explosion makes everyone freeze.

Valentina asks what happened: she is partly deaf, but she felt the collective reaction around her and she is scared. "You know," she tells the ICRC field officer, "I don't always hear the shelling and sometimes I don't take cover in time. And my eyesight is not so good either, so sometimes I don't know where to run." Valentina has an advanced cataract, so she is half blind, as well as half deaf. The old lady is terribly vulnerable in time of war.

"Last time, I fell while I was trying to take cover," she continues. "I couldn't get up, so I just lay on the floor crying until the shelling stopped. Look, you can still see it on my leg!" She lifts her skirt, revealing a dark bruise under her knee.

"The young people can repair their houses, they can use petrol lamps and carry buckets of water. I can't do any of that any more; I can't walk without my stick, my hands have no strength, and my eyes have become very bad. I need help all the time."

"My fridge doesn't work because the electricity has been cut off in the village," she adds. "I spend my time looking for food and then just cooking a little at a time, because nothing will keep. I'm tired; I'm too old for that."

"I've missed my consultation at the eye clinic because they didn't let me cross the checkpoint. I'm getting blind and I urgently need treatment. For us, the elderly, this kind of life is very hard. I'm not getting the medication for my high blood pressure any more either, and the stress only makes it worse."

We also distribute incontinence pads to those looking after elderly bedridden people. "We have no running water," someone tells the field officer. "Keeping our old people clean with a few buckets of water from the wells is so hard!"

The distribution is over and the ICRC team gets ready to leave. All of them are silent, thinking of the many elderly people caught up in this war in their twilight years. They think of how scared they must be every time they are in danger, and how dependent they are on the loving care of their neighbours and relatives.

The ICRC will be back with more food parcels, hygiene items, candles and supplies to help people get through the winter, but living on the front line remains an almost impossible challenge, in particular for elderly people on their own.

The ICRC team waves goodbye to Valentina Viktorovna. She stays behind, smiling bravely.