The panic buying of water has been widespread in the rebel-held city of Donetsk. The United Nations says the humanitarian crisis is getting worse.
Innocent people have been caught up in the conflict. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said that over 117,000 people have become displaced within Ukraine.
There are daily power cuts, food shortages and no running water. Many small shops have been affected.
“There are no reserves in storage, so we need to buy water in the bigger shops because the other stores are empty,” said one shop manager.
“Elderly people have asked me to bring them some water, so that’s what I’m doing,” explained one man while loading dozens of bottles of water into his car.
According to the UNHCR, 1,000 people leave Ukraine’s battle zone every day. Over 730,000 people have fled to Russia during the last four months of the conflict, including an estimated 168,000 during August.
More than 53,000 of those people have found refuge in Russia’s Rostov region. At least 16,000 are children.
Many of the people living in temporary shelters in Rostov are furious they had to abandon their lives. Their homeland.
“This is not my war. I did not order the fighting,” explained Roman Dubchak, a Ukrainian miner. “Neither did my mother, nor my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, or any of my children. We’ve left behind everything we had. Maybe there is nothing left there.”
Alyona, a 26-year-old Ukrainian woman said: “My sister lives in Sochi. I want to move there. To find a job and live a quiet life until it’s over. If it ever ends.”
