To get an ambulance or the fire brigade in Dvorichna, a village in northeast Ukraine, you have to run to them on foot: phones haven’t worked since March when the Russian occupation swept in. The border village is still in the line of fire so it’s impossible to repair the infrastructure. Worse, in the neighbouring towns of Figolivtsi and Petroivanivtsi, there are no emergency services at all – they just have to rely on army medics.
The military is counted on in other ways: for lifts to Chuhuiv or Kharkiv (the nearest big cities where infrastructure is still just about intact), or for making calls through Starlink, or sharing a bit of fuel or firewood.
Locals are afraid to go for firewood: the forests are full of tripwires and unexploded shells. Dmytro Stoyanov, head of municipal services, says: “We will be able to sign a contract with the logging company only when we receive a demining certificate. That is, never.” One sapper can demine just 10m2 per day.
