July 27

Killed in yesterday’s Russian air strike on the city of Chuhuyiv, Kharkiv region: Victoria Misharina and Sardor Khakimov, kitchen volunteers.

Victoria used to be a bank employee prior to the war. After the full-scale invasion started, she evacuated her daughters (both of school age) to a village and stayed in Chuhuyiv to work and volunteer. She was cooking meals for Chuhuyiv residents, and refused to leave even though her family asked.

Sardor was a citizen of Uzbekistan and a father of four. The embassy of Uzbekistan offered him evacuation, but he helped his wife and kids leave, and then stayed in Ukraine to help people. “For me, this war has been going on since 2014”, he said in one interview. He used to live in the Luhansk region but, following the Russian invasion there, he moved on to stay in Chuhuyiv. There he was managing a volunteer kitchen staffed with 15 people, cooking and delivering free hot meals to the people of Chuhuyiv and nearby villages.

Russian invaders hit the House of Culture building where Sardor’s field kitchen was located.

More about Sardor and Victoria on Suspilne Media:
https://lnkd.in/eq4zjgHB

Except from a May report about Sardor’s kitchen, by Oleksiy Baranovsky:
https://lnkd.in/ennUe33J