VOLUNTEERS were seen distributing food and other basic items to locals in Odessa recently, amid the ongoing conflict with Russia. Footage shows residents queuing with their children at the ‘Hostyna Khata’ Centre, talking with humanitarian workers and receiving boxes containing dried food and sauces.
The hub, backed by the City Council, opened in March 2022.
A van from the ‘Food for Life’ charity is also seen arriving, with charity workers serving portions of hot soup from a makeshift tent.
The ‘food for life’ organization stated that it delivers over 500 hot meals from three distribution points every day, with over 50 volunteers involved in its operation.
Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognizing the independence of the Donetsk And Lugansk People’s Republics, claiming that Kyiv had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Ukraine denounced the Russian action as an invasion.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilization, while the European Union and the United States imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia.
Russian electoral authority raises the possibility of holding elections in annexed regions
Meanwhile, Russia’s Central Election Commission recently announced that holding a March 2024 presidential election in the annexed regions is possible.
The prospects of holding elections in the annexed Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donestk, and Luhansk were put forward by the representatives of the Commission.
These are the 4 Ukrainian regions that were later annexed by Russia last fall, but apart from Luhansk, Russia only partially controls the Donestk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
