Starobilsk (Luhansk region) now has 20% of the former population that was before the full-scale invasion of Russia, Head of Starobilsk City Military Administration Yana Litvinova said.

"Only 20% of the, so to speak, 'indigenous' population of Starobilsk remained. And before the full-scale invasion, there were 18,000 in the city itself," Litvinova said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

However, visually, according to her, this is not noticeable, since "a major number of people have moved from Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and other communities, and there are also many Russian soldiers who are constantly digging in there, trying to create the illusion of a certain resistance."

However, when asked whether the remaining local residents are provided with medicines, food, food, Litvinova said "in principle, everything is there," but she focused on the dubious quality of goods in pharmacies and shops.

"People say that the medicines that came to replace ours do not help them. For example, from cancer, diabetes, heart. The same is true with food. They are of poor quality and tasteless. There is what the locals sell at the market. People come to Starobilsky market to buy up even from Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubizhne, because there is really a problem with food," the administration's head said.

In addition, she said in the hospitals of the occupied part of Luhansk region, the Russians set up military hospitals, due to which many civilians are "generally cut off from affordable medicine": they are redirected to Luhansk, where the Russian occupiers removed equipment from health facilities located in regional centers.

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The interview of Yana Litvinova, the head of the Starobilsk MBA, was prepared as part of a joint special project of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency and East Europe Foundation “Community Experience” (https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/919611.html), launched in support by the Stiykist’ Programme which is implemented by East Europe Foundation within a consortium of non-governmental organisations led by ERIM (Equal Rights and Independent Media, France) and funded by the European Union. Its purpose is to show the experience of Ukrainian communities in the adaptation and integration of forcibly displaced persons in order to increase the efficiency of the work of local self-government bodies. You can learn more about effective interaction with IDPs in the free online course "Adaptation and integration of IDPs: experience and opportunities" on the educational "Zrozumilo!" platform