FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

From hard-hit Mariupol to backyard farming in eastern Ukraine

21/06/2022

The war caught Larysa Zueva while she was working a shift at a psychiatric hospital in Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. She spent more than a month with her grandson in the hospital's shelter with about 200 other people. Despite the attacks, her work at the hospital continued. When the gas lines were cut, they resorted to cooking on an open fire, still managing to feed and care for their patients.