Evacuation coordinator of the charity foundation «East SOS»: During the great war, we and our partners have evacuated more than 80 thousand people

People are urged to evacuate from the frontline and certain border regions to ensure the safety of the population and enable the Armed Forces to operate freely. Numerous opportunities for evacuation and resettlement are provided by NGOs and the state.

Yaroslav Kornienko, coordinator of the evacuation program at the East SOS charity foundation, shared the details with Hromadske Radio.

«Individuals wishing to evacuate can contact the East SOS hotline at 0800332614. Depending on the region, various options are available. State resettlement involves taking people out, providing temporary accommodation, such as in Dnipro, and then assisting with resettlement. Evacuation is possible from any region, and there’s no need to fear it. We have established a vast network during the war, a sort of community of evacuees, and we share applications among ourselves.

For families with children, one organization specializes in that, and for people with limited mobility, it’s our area of expertise. We engage with everyone, assess the situation, facilitate their departure, and guide them through the resettlement process, including securing free accommodations. Free resettlement options are available in Zhytomyr region, residents from Donetsk region are being relocated to Khmelnytskyi region, and there are still available spaces for resettlement in Kharkiv region.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, we, in collaboration with our partners, have relocated over 80,000 people, including approximately 10,000 individuals with reduced mobility», — Kornienko reports.

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Read: Heavy shelling continues in Kostyantynivka, Chasiv Yar, New York, and Kurakhove, people are being evacuated — Korniyenko

However, there are still significant challenges in informing the population about state-led evacuations, according to the coordinator. Many people decline to leave due to a lack of understanding about the process and uncertainty about what will happen next.

«When the military calls for evacuation, I have not observed a comprehensive information campaign about it—explaining how it works and addressing people’s fears. Therefore, we still have a considerable distance to cover in terms of how the state communicates with the population about evacuation. Often, individuals choose to remain in frontline areas due to their fears and perceptions, rather than venturing into the unknown», — Kornienko emphasizes.