“I myself had to leave my hometown, which is still being shelled by the Russians. Rockets have already exploded three times near my house. When we arrived in Odesa, I had problems with settling. On the first night of our move, we sought shelter in the villages. There were many holiday homes, but it was simply impossible to spend the night there. Many of them were closed. That’s why I had to go to Odessa,” Oleksandr says.
He and his family stayed in the village of Karolino-Bugaz.
There they found a location that used to consist of three separate apartments, but they have been combined into one large space. They decided to set up a shelter there.
“There are currently 300 displaced people living in our settlement. The United Territorial Community forbade visiting the beach and the ocean. As a result, it is no longer a resort destination but rather a location to stay temporarily. Up to 6 persons can simultaneously occupy a room at our shelter. All amenities, as required by sanitary standards: bathrooms, a large and spacious kitchen,” says the veteran.
Oleksandr claims that when the government advised Ukrainians to take care of their home’s energy efficiency, he got the idea to equip the building with electricity-generating equipment. “In the shelter, we will install Ukrainian-made blinds on the windows, which can generate electricity from sunlight. This is how we will illuminate the spaces.
Additionally, if a battery is connected, you can build up energy that is sufficient to power an electric fireplace and heat the room” the businessman claims. Before the start of the war, Oleksandr Ruban was a private entrepreneur for ten years.
Before that, he was a huntsman at nature reserve parks. In April 2014 he signed up to join the “Dnipro 1” special purpose battalion as a volunteer. Later on, he enlisted in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, where he spent an additional two years of service.
Oleksandr participated in combat operations close to Popasna and Bakhmut in the anti-terrorist operation zone.
