Fuminori Tsuchiko uses donations from Japan to run a free cafe for residents of Ukraine's war-hit city of Kharkiv.
This was the scene inside FuMi Caffe as local residents flocked to the cafe in Kharkiv’s northeastern Saltivka district on April 27.
The suburb of the Ukrainian city was hit heavily by Russian shelling in the early days of the 2022 Russian invasion. Saltivka remains damaged and largely depopulated.
The cafe is run by Fuminori Tsuchiko (pictured) who, together with a team of volunteers, hands out free food to around 500 Kharkiv locals during a three-hour window that the cafe is open each day.
The 75-year-old says the aid operation is funded mostly from donations coming from Japan.
Tsuchiko first arrived in Ukraine in early February 2022.
At the urging of the Japanese Embassy, he left for Poland shortly before the full-scale Russian invasion was launched. Soon, however, he returned to Ukraine. The Tokyo native spent seven months living alongside Kharkiv residents inside the city’s subway system as Russian shells and rockets rained down through much of 2022.
Tsuchiko told a Ukrainian journalist, “I will live in Kharkiv after the victory. I do not have a house in Japan. I sold everything. So I am here forever and will help Kharkiv."
Anna Tovstopyatova, a visitor to the cafe on April 27, told a Reuters journalist she had come to make a donation.
"It's great that there are such sincere people with open hearts and souls, who sacrifice their life and time to help and give hope," Tovstopyatova said.
