Payphones, landlines and films on a flash drive — a journalist describes the occupied Luhansk Region

In the occupied cities of the Luhansk region, Russians are installing old Ukrtelecom payphones that the occupiers stole from warehouses.

This was reported by Oleksiy Artyukh, editor-in-chief of the Tribune newspaper, on Hromadske Radio.

«They didn’t even remove stickers on some of them. These payphones are not installed everywhere in the occupied Luhansk region, but in the cities of the Lysychansk-Sievierodonetsk-Rubizhne triangle, in Kreminna, and so on. There is no mobile phone service in these cities because the occupiers deliberately jam the connection and the Internet because they are afraid that the locals will pass on information. Payphones are installed so that locals can call an ambulance, emergency services, etc. For example, two such payphones were recently installed in the occupied Rubizhne in different parts of the city. It’s a big question whether a person who feels bad will be able to reach that payphone.»

The journalist also said that locals are offered the option to install landlines:

«The occupied Luhansk region has been rolling back not for years, but for decades. I recently saw an advert somewhere in Pervomaisk that people can come to a service and download cartoons and films on flash drives. Everything the Russians touch turns into… you know what I mean.»