Superheroes of Every Day: How Donbas Public Utilities Workers Clean Up the Front City Under Russian Fire

Currently, half of the 300 employees of the Avdiivka utility company «Single Customer Service» have gone to safe places due to the devastating shelling of the Russian occupiers. But, despite all the danger, the other half of the Avdiivka public utilities workers do their job every day — cleaning up territories and helping those civilians who remained in the front city, «Vchasno» reports.

Communal workers are provided with bulletproof vestsGradually, public utilities workers are provided with bulletproof vests. This became possible thanks to the joint efforts of the city administration and caring volunteers. There was already a case when a bulletproof vest saved the life of a worker.

«Employees carried benches with solar batteries, from which you can recharge your phones, closer to the shelters. People are hiding in basements without light, and we are trying to make their lives easier. And our worker was carrying this bench, we heard an explosion, fell to the ground, he felt a boost in the back. Then we saw that a shell fragment was sticking out from behind in the bulletproof vest,» the head of the utility company Rostyslav Sakhno says.

About 30% of employees are already in armor. Work in this direction continues, the head emphasizes.

The workers of the utility company have a lot of work to do: garbage collection, cleaning, landscaping, road works, as well as arrangement of shelters for civilians.

«Of course, the staff is scared. But this is their job, and it is more important now than it was before. We must work to make our people more protected. We deliver drinking and technical water to bomb shelters, provide them with fuel, generators, sunbeds,» Rostyslav Sakhno says.

He emphasizes that the locals especially began to appreciate the work of public utilities and constantly express their gratitude to these superheroes in orange vests.