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Food Crisis in Eastern Ukraine: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 103)

Deliveries of food bound for separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine aren’t making it past Ukrainian checkpoints. VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky travels to the front lines in the Donbas to gauge the seriousness of the growing food crisis.

Though it's within Ukraine, the area separating government-held territory and the region controlled by pro-Russia separatists has started to resemble an international border. There, at checkpoints, Ukrainian soldiers stamp passports, and stop and inspect trucks carrying goods to the rebel-controlled east. According to drivers prevented from crossing into separatist territory, the soldiers are purposefully preventing food from getting through.

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In the east, food is becoming increasingly scarce. But instead of inspiring unrest and anger at pro-Russia forces, the shortages seem to inspire locals to blame the Ukrainian government.

VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky traveled to the front lines in the Donbas to cross the de facto border, then headed into separatist-controlled territory to gauge the seriousness of the growing food crisis.

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