Makeshift WiFi spot reconnects shattered Ukraine city
Starved of news and contact with the outside world during six months of occupation by Russian forces, residents of recently liberated Izyum are grateful for a makeshift wifi spot in the shattered Ukrainian city.
Outside an apartment block dozens of people queue before a sign that reads "15 minutes of wifi", where an aid worker takes each phone and enters the password.
Izyum, a predominantly Russian-speaking city of about 50,000 people before the war, had been fully occupied since April until it was recaptured earlier this month during Kyiv's lightning counter-offensive.
Soon after the liberation, investigation teams found what they said were 447 bodies buried during the occupation.
Residents told AFP Thursday that with electricity and mobile infrastructure networks badly damaged during the fighting, and still not restored, lack of information has kept them in the dark about what was happening.
But thanks to a power generator provided by the army, they can now reconnect to the internet -- at least for a brief window each day.
"From 8:00 am to 7:00 pm, some three to four thousand per day can connect," Seraphim, a soldier, told AFP.
"If too many people get connected at the same time the internet goes down, hence the 15-minute limit," explained resident Olga German.
"After zero minutes a day, 15 is quite a lot. Now we can check the news online, and compare sources, and keep in touch with our families," the 34-year-old English teacher said.
The eight-storey block is one of the few buildings in the devastated town to have escaped relatively unscathed, although many windows are broken, with the sound of sawing and hammers emanating from many floors.
A TV screen on a stand beside the queue showed a Ukrainian channel broadcasting news
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