Friday, March 29

Ukrainian authorities deny foreign victims in Yavoriv attack


“There are no foreigners among the fatalities of yesterday’s attack.” A day after the bombing of the Yavoriv military base, about 50 kilometers from Lviv and 25 from the border with Poland, Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the state administration of the region, repeated it more times this Monday at a press conference. “The balance is the same as yesterday, although there are 10 seriously injured.” Kozytskyi denies the information from the Russian Defense Ministry that this Sunday, through his spokeswoman, spoke of “180 dead foreign mercenaries.” Ukrainian authorities spoke yesterday of the presence of foreigners at the base, used in the past for military training of national troops, often with instructors from the US and other NATO countries.

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“What happened yesterday at the Yavoriv Center for International Peacekeeping and Security was a shock, but the explosions were also heard in Poland. They have called me mayors from there because they realized that the war is getting closer”, declared the mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, in the same appearance in which, together with the governor, he once again asked the international community for decisions more forceful to stop the Russian military offensive. A few minutes earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had once again demanded the establishment of a no-fly zone.

Cultural capital and refuge for displaced people

“We don’t know what can happen, if they can hit Lviv tomorrow as well. Our historic center is a UNESCO heritage site, but we already know what the Taliban did in Afghanistan. The Russians do the same as the Taliban. But I am here and my family is here”, declared the mayor, answering questions about the security of the city after yesterday’s escalation on the western front.

“There is fear since the offensive began in other cities in the country, but if you are busy all day doing things you don’t have time to be afraid,” he added. The city, considered the cultural capital of the country, has become the center for the preparation of the resistance and for the reception of displaced people from other areas of the country. “We have 200,000 people here, another city. If it had happened in any European city, it would have been chaos, but as you can see here the city continues to function because we were prepared”.

The mayor, who has requested financial and humanitarian support from the international community, has put the cost of hosting the displaced at one million dollars a day. But he has also underlined how the city wants to continue functioning, he has announced that classes in schools are being resumed remotely and that displaced children are also joining them. Many of them are housed precisely in the hundreds of schools and cultural centers that have become part of the network that the City Council has launched to offer refuge to those who have had to leave their cities and their homes.



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