“Now we’ve got projects to distribute medical supplies, food, clothing, heaters and other things, all run by the local Caritas office,” he adds, while volunteers prepare to hand out aid to dozens of locals who seek help here each day.
Kharkiv and its 1.5 million residents faced the threat of swift occupation last February when troops and armour poured in from the Russian border, which is only 35km from the city. A bishop of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine stayed with cathedral clergy for three months because his residence was in a particularly dangerous area, Fr Hryhoriy says.
Kharkiv suffered daily and often deadly shelling during the first months of the war, but became safer from late spring onwards as Ukrainian forces drove Russian units away from the city, and then liberated almost the entire region in September.