Life On The Checkpoints

The Moscow based online news-sheet VZGLYAD may not be well known outside its local area (actually I don’t know if that is entirely true – I don’t have its readership statistics – but I assume that to be the case), but it does produce some wonderful pieces of on-the-spot reporting. This is old-style journalism, and it is invigorating to read.

The centre of the world at the moment – not for the best reasons – is Ukraine. More particularly the eastern side of Ukraine. And it is here that, for more than six months now, there seems to have been a steady stream of people moving eastward across the border with Russia. This movement of distressed folk has certainly increased from the Kharkov region in the last week.

Here is a first hand account of some of that unfortunate upheaval direct from the mouths of people involved, both helpers (volunteers) and refugees themselves. I can’t ask you to enjoy reading this. It is at times quite heart-rending and occasionally bitter stuff. But read it you must if you really want to know what is going on. There is no propaganda value here. Just raw human experience and grief.

‘”People started ticking.” How Russia rescues refugees from Kharkiv region’ – VZGLYAD

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