Evacuation from Svatove not organized properly – human rights activists

The town residents were not warned about danger and the bomb shelters were not identified.

This is stated in the report “Monitoring of violations of human rights of the civilians in the town of Svatove (destruction of town infrastructure, injuries) following improper storage of munitions.” The report was prepared by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union after the monitoring visit to the town on November 3-7 and survey conducted among the injured as a result of explosions at the munitions depot.

The human rights defenders intended to collect information about the real destructions and injured civilians. As a result of the visit, the Union representatives drew the following conclusions:

• evacuation plan was not elaborated;
• residents were not warned about danger;
• evacuation of the residents was not organized properly;
• bomb shelters were not identified;
• humanitarian assistance was not organized centrally;
• activity of voluntary organizations was not coordinated with the local administration
• lists of the victims may be closed for those, who did not seek help until November 6

The report was submitted to the Foundation for Strategic Affairs of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.