People in Slavutych Running Out of Bread Amid Panic, Says Ukrainian-Armenian

In the city of Slavutych, located in northern Ukraine, residents have found themselves under siege since the early days of the war. For days now, there has been no supply of food or fuel, and the available stock is nearly exhausted, reports Hetq. This city, located about 13 km from the Belarusian border, is home to around 25,000 people, including Armenians. The city was built in 1986 to accommodate those displaced by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and is approximately 40 km away from Chernigov, which has been regularly shelled by Russian forces during these days.

Hetq spoke with 50-year-old Karen Shahbazyan, a citizen of Armenia residing in Slavutych, about the situation there.

“There has been no bread in the city for several days, and people are in complete panic. Sometimes we hear chatter that flour has been gathered from somewhere, and tomorrow at a specific place at a certain time, they will bring 50 loaves of bread. From early morning, about 600 people stand in line. The dog doesn’t recognize its owner,” recounts Shahbazyan.

Residents of Slavutych are attempting to procure bread on their own, mainly by going to nearby villages and asking farmers for supplies. “Today we somehow managed to gather fuel and brought flour from a village 5 km away, distributing it among Armenian families so that each could bake at least one or two loaves of bread to survive,” says Shahbazyan. “We go to the villages, reach out, and people understand us; they give us half a bag of flour or a bag of potatoes, but their supplies aren’t endless either. They also understand that there is a war; tomorrow they might not have anything left either.”

At present, in order to leave the city, one must first reach the shelling city of Chernigov. The route is unsafe due to ongoing combat operations and the presence of diversionary groups. “In the early days, we contacted our embassy; they asked for all our information and then went silent. Later, they told us to come to Lviv, and they would help us. If we can reach Lviv, then what's the point of their aid? This should be organized at a high level; a corridor should be requested, or else how can I take a family on a journey and if something happens, how do I escape from that responsibility?” Shahbazyan remarks.

According to him, no one has contacted them yet or offered assistance; they are left alone without knowing what to expect. “I contacted one of the representatives of the Armenian community in Ukraine; he said to find someone to send money to extract you from there. I told him there’s no issue with money here; we all have money, but there's no food or fuel. Money here is just paper; if you go into a store, there’s nothing—what can you do with your money?” says Karen. “We all know each other here in the Armenian community; we sit every day and talk about what we can do, where we can obtain food. We try to find something and send it to where there are children first, then to ourselves.”

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