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The Ortinsky family has Polish roots and hope to settle in Poland (Photo: Nikolaj Nielsen)

Feature

Ukraine: humanitarian disaster as fighting continues

The Ortinsky family has Polish roots and hope to settle in Poland (Photo: Nikolaj Nielsen)

Thirty-five year old Alexandr Ortinsky moved into a 24 square-metre container on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, earlier this year.

“As soon as they started shelling we moved,” he says, after fleeing an area held by separatists in Luhansk last summer.

His wife and six children, including one disabled son, are with him.

Together, they share a space that includes a small kitchen, a bathroom, and toilet. The German built-unit is part of larger modular...

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Author Bio

Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.

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