10 facts about Donbas. A new research

1. Over the last six months the needs in food and medications have grown. Every third resident of Donetsk region (29%) needs medications, every fourth (26%) needs food. People lack meat, dairy products and fresh fruit the most. People need cardiac medications, antivirals and blood pressure drugs.
2. Every fourth (26%) mentions that "it is impossible to handle this distress anymore". This is 9% more than in May (17%).
3. 67% of the polled residents of Donetsk region on both sides of the contact line mention that humanitarian aid is being provided in their settlement. Every third received it personally. 80% of all humanitarian aid are coming from Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center.
4. The number of people receiving humanitarian aid in non-government-controlled areas is higher than on the government-controlled territory. During the poll 44% of residents from non-government-controlled areas mentioned that they personally received humanitarian aid, 87% of them got it from the Humanitarian Center. 
5. More than 500,000 people crossed the contact line at least once over the last six months. 37% of people crossed the contact line just one time, others did it more often. 6% of respondents crossed it more than 10 times.
6. 62% of Donetsk region families are separated by the contact line. Every second resident of non-government-controlled areas has a valid permit, and every fifth resident of GCA has it as well.
7. Every fourth resident of Donetsk region (25%) had a necessity to cross the contact line. The vast majority (84%) find it difficult to go through the checkpoints. The main problems are long lines and poor handling capacity. The average duration of waiting in line is 8 hours 30 minutes.
8. Half of residents in the region, living on both sides of the contact line, do not trust any source of information. The most credible are television and websites, which are the main sources of information for the population in the region.
9. The number of those residents expecting improvement of their lives next year has reduced by 10% as compared to May 2016 (there are 24% of them now), and the number of those believing that in a year their family will live worse than now has increased as well (22% now). The most pessimistic forecasts are coming from retired people.
10. 45% of the region residents cannot imagine, when the conflict comes to an end. Every sixth (16%) believes that the conflict will stretch on for more than five years. As compared to the data obtained in May, the number of those hoping for the conflict to be over during the next year has reduced (October - 12%, May - 17%).

KIIS sociological research called "Donbas: life and barriers" took place through October 21-November 7, 2016, it was commissioned by Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center and Dopomozhemo TV. 2,102 respondents older than 18 from 100 settlements of Donetsk region, both government-controlled and non-government-controlled areas, were polled via telephone and computer interviewing (CATI).