Viviana Calmasini, 32, project manager of Caritas Italiana in Ukraine.
The conflict in Ukraine is becoming increasingly bitter, with Moscow’s attacks becoming more intense and massive across the country.not only in the eastern regions, closer to the front. After yesterday’s double missile attack, September 3, on the city of Poltava, in central Ukraine, which partially destroyed a military institute and caused the death of more than 50 people, last night Russian fury unleashed on Lviv, Ukraine’s westernmost city – 70 km from the border with Poland – and the most European of the whole country. The missile attacks hit buildings in a residential neighborhood, central. Seven people died, including three children, more than twenty were injured.
The area that was hit was the one in which Italian Caritas workers in Ukraine live: “The building hit by the missile is fifty meters from our house, in front of our building,” she says, still deeply shaken, Viviana Calmasini, 32 year old from Treviso in Ukraine for Caritas Italy for six months, who last night when the alarm went off found shelter in the condominium shelter. «The shelter was full of people and that’s not normal, this already made it clear that something particularly serious was about to happen. Yet, we did not expect such a strong and close explosion and when it happened it was a shock. Fortunately, the fear passed quickly”. He continues: “During this period there were other attacks, always in the Lviv region. But they were generally directed at villages with important infrastructure, not at the city.”
Calmasini is the project manager of one of the two projects funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) that Caritas Italiana is currently promoting in Ukraine. «One is developed in the Kyiv region and in the eastern regions, Poltava, Kharkiv and Dnipro. The other, which I am in charge of, is implemented in Western Ukraine, in the region around Lviv, and in the Kyiv area, Chernivtsi and Moldova in collaboration with local Caritas and with Cuamm-Medici con l’Africa. The project focuses on basic medicine, both as health care and psychological support, then there is a part that concerns the distribution of food, hygiene kits and medicines. It is a cross-border programme, which covers both Ukraine and refugees in Moldova, of the displaced but also of the local population, currently also strongly affected by inflation which prevents many people from purchasing basic necessities and medicines, whose prices have undergone a crazy increase. There is always a special attention for disabilities, the chronic ones, those preceding the war, and those caused by the conflict”.
Ettore Fusaro, 49 years old, head of projects for Caritas Italiana in Ukraine.
The attack on Lviv certainly marks an escalation of the conflict, he comments Hector Fusaro49 years old, responsible for the Italian Caritas projects in Ukraine, «also due to the increase in mutual knowledge – between the Russian and Ukrainian armies – of the respective war powers. The enemies confront each other, they learn more and more about each other and consequently the attacks are increasingly more powerful, targeted, and therefore increasingly more damaging. For two months now the attacks have been repeated every night: this greatly weakens not only the military defenses but also the spirits and morale, which is one of the objectives of the Russian strategy. Attacks on infrastructure, services, even NGOs have increased. The dimension of the conflict is expanding and, consequently, civilian targets are increasing, in addition to the military ones. Every month the war scenario changes and it is difficult to interpret”.
Caritas Italy continues to be on the front line alongside the Ukrainian population, supporting Caritas Ukraine and Caritas Spes. There is a lot of work on the emergency, a phase that is not only not over but has strengthened. «The emergency phase is acute and is also different from the initial phases of two and a half years ago», continues Fusaro, «It is an emergency that brings with it all the consequences of a long conflict. A crisis of this size requires a major, structured emergency intervention. We are here, supporting the local Caritas networks, who are doing a huge job alongside the Greek-Catholic and Latin Churches, with all the resulting hardships, the risks of those who operate near the front lines, and also of those who take care of the rehabilitation of the victims of the war and the displaced in other areas of the country”. And he adds: “The tightening of martial law limits in some way the capacity to respond, both in terms of economic resources, and in terms of human resources: we have colleagues who are afraid to carry out their duties because they risk being called to arms. The situation is very complex: it is very tiring now to plan for the long term, as well as to stop and think about what the right answers are to give”.
Meanwhile, theThe Ukrainian government has announced a turnover of more than 50 percent of its ministers, following the resignation of Foreign Minister Kuleba – in office since 2020 and a central figure in diplomatic relations with European and Western countries since the beginning of the war – which follows the resignations of five other ministers (two vice-ministers and the ministers of Justice, the Environment and Strategic Industries, the latter responsible for armaments production).
(Ansa photo above: the missile attack on Lviv)
