• A year ago, the Russian invasion began in Ukraine and since then the mobilization continues to help the Ukrainian population.
  • This Friday, the departmental council announced the release of the sum of 60,000 euros to finance the installation of a space, halfway between heated refuge and coworking place, in Kherson.
  • The southern Ukrainian city, under Russian occupation for more than eight months, faces regular shelling and numerous power cuts that require equipment.

After eight months of occupation, last November, the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was liberated from Russian occupation. Since then, it has been subjected to daily bombing and its population is constantly confronted with power cuts. And it is sorely lacking shelters equipped with heating but also Internet to take refuge and continue to communicate.

3,500 km away, Nataliia Lynnyk, a Ukrainian exiled in Toulouse (where one of her sons is studying) has imagined for the martyred city of Kherson a modular place. She dreams of a space that could accommodate both children who need to continue attending classes during alerts, as well as employees who must work remotely for the economy to run. Deputy Director of the Union of Voters of Ukraine, an independent observatory of electoral elections, she used her network on the spot.

For its part, the association Ukraine Libre Toulouse has been in contact with local authorities, in particular the departmental council of Haute-Garonne which has decided to finance up to 60,000 euros part of the equipment necessary for its realization, whether generators, EcoFlow charging batteries, but also folding tables or a connection and subscription to the Starlink satellite Internet offer.

Internet connection and resting place

"This center, a coworking and heating space, could see the light of day in an underground place the parking lot of a large shopping center, the head of the military administration of the city of Kherson is studying the issue and has drawn up the list of needs. It will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 people who will be able to connect to the Internet, rest there, work there, "says Nataliia Lynnyk.

Our dossier on the war in Ukraine

A project set up from scratch, with a protocol on the specifications of this type of turnkey shelters that could be duplicated in other cities of Ukraine where necessary. "For a country to survive, the economy must work, children must be able to continue to acquire knowledge. But also, when there are 24-hour or 48-hour cuts, as is often the case in Kherson, people under oxygen masks can have a solution," says Myla Popenko, vice-president of the Free Ukraine association, which has already found a mode of transport to transport the equipment that will be purchased with the Department's grant.

"Providing this aid is a way to act in a concrete way, to already work on the reconstruction of Ukraine, it is also a way to consider future cooperation actions," explains Didier Cujives, the vice-president of the community that had created a month after the invasion of Ukraine a reception center for children and single mothers from Ukraine where 22 people still live there.

  • Toulouse
  • Occitania
  • War in Ukraine
  • Kherson
  • Solidarity
  • Financing
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