As fighting intensified near Kyiv in early March, staff at Irpin’s Comfortable Life nursing home faced an impossible decision: shelter vulnerable seniors in freezing, darkened rooms or risk evacuation through active combat zones. With no formal safety corridors established, caregivers and families weighed survival odds minute by minute.
“Some residents couldn’t walk. We carried them wrapped in blankets, hoping no shells would hit our path,” shared caregiver Maria Kovalenko*. A patient’s daughter, Anna Petrova*, described loading her 82-year-old mother into a volunteer’s car: “Every explosion felt like it might be our last.”
The facility’s 47 residents were eventually relocated to temporary shelters west of Kyiv after a 12-hour ordeal. Their story underscores the disproportionate impact of conflict on elderly populations and the urgent need for humanitarian coordination.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
