A 75-year-old Japanese national, Fuminori Tsuchiko, opened a free café in Ukraine’s Kharkiv after arriving in the city last year as he wanted to do anything he could to help people following Russia’s invasion.
Moved by the plight of residents forced by Russian shelling to shelter in subway stations, Tsuchiko decided to stay, reported Reuters.
For months he lived in a metro station and worked as a volunteer distributing food in the subway.
Tsuchiko said he along with a Ukrainian friend he met in the metro station opened a free café in Kharkiv’s Saltivka with the help of donations made by Japanese people via social media.
“June, July, August, September, October, November, December – (for) seven months I stayed in the metro, underground, sleeping or eating, and together (with) many, many Ukrainian people,” Tsuchiko said.
‘FuMi Caffe’ serves about 500 people a day, he said. Tsuchiko said he had been visiting Ukraine as a tourist in February 2022, but left the country after the Japanese embassy warned of Russian invasion. He went to the Polish capital Warsaw only to return two months later.
One visitor to the cafe, Anna Tovstopyatova, said she had come to donate.
“It’s great that there are so sincere people with an open heart and soul, who sacrifice their life and time to help and give hope,” said Tovstopyatova.