Ukraine, governor Poltava: “From the rear we work for victory”

“The Poltava region, even though it is not very far from the front line, has become a safe rear for the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.” Governor Dmytro Lunin tells about it at Adnrkonos. In the heart of central Ukraine, Poltava, east of the Dnieper River, has been the target of “44 rockets fired by Russia on six of the region’s towns and villages since the beginning of the war. The most affected was the city of Kremenchuk. , which has suffered half of all missile attacks in the region. The sirens sounded over 350 times, for a total of more than 15 days of real threat to civilians. ” The bombings caused “unfortunately two civilian deaths: the first in an attack against a farm near the city of Poltava; the second in the one against the thermoelectric plant, which also caused seven injuries”, as well as leaving “180 thousand people without hot water and heating, which is also at risk for the next season “, says the governor, speaking of damage” preliminary estimated at 500-800 million hryvnia “. Another strategic target for the Russians was the Kremenchuk oil refinery, which due to repeated attacks “has completely stopped. And this is the main cause of the fuel problems that exist throughout the country”, explains Lunin, anticipating that “the refinery will hardly be restarted this year”. Yet “the damage could have been much greater if a large number of rockets had not been shot down by our air defense systems”, observes the head of the administration, saying he is “firmly convinced of the victory”. A confidence supported by the attitude he finds in the wounded Ukrainian military: “What strikes me most – he says – is that most of those who can return to the front, really want to get well in order to start fighting the Russian occupiers”. very close to the front, the Poltava region since the beginning of the war in Ukraine has been the first destination for those fleeing the border regions to the east, especially Kharkiv and Sumy. From the latter, “while the region was under constant attacks and there was street fighting in the city, a green corridor was opened up to Poltava, which fortunately worked,” says Lunin, confessing however that “every movement of the column it increased the tension and the sense of responsibility “, since” to make you understand how cynical the Russian enemy is, the guns of the tanks were aimed at the buses on which children, the elderly and the disabled were traveling. “Many of them stopped. “To date, 186 thousand internal migrants are officially registered in the region, most of whom are concentrated in the city of Poltava”, the governor said, warning that “there are still places, but not many”. Those who are not hosted by relatives and friends were welcomed in schools, kindergartens and university dormitories, while “at the state level the construction of 2 thousand apartments and the purchase of five hundred already built to accommodate internal migrants have already been planned. later they will be donated to the military, doctors and all those to whom the state has to provide accommodation. “The Poltava region also hosts a sorting center for humanitarian aid, created by order of President Volodymyr Zelensky. There – says Lunin – “food parcels are prepared, with meat and vegetable preserves, biscuits, flour and more. We have already distributed 150 thousand to internal migrants and almost another 100 thousand we have sent to the inhabitants of the Sumy region affected by the attack. Russian “. With” 95% of the catering, service and light industry realities reopened “, Poltava is ready to welcome the production realities from the parts of the country most exposed to attacks:” We have companies that have moved here, partially or completely, their factories and their staff and we are ready to welcome others “, says the governor, underlining how” work is a way to be useful to the country: creating jobs and paying taxes, we continue to help the army “. Just like productive activity,” not even love should be postponed. On the contrary, in hard times you have to do what is important and vital “, says the governor of Poltava, where since 24 February there have been 3,200 marriages, including that of Lunin himself, who urges us to follow his example: “Marry and have children, just live, because only in this way will we be able to overcome the horror brought about by the war”.