Living in ‘worst winter of our lives’
Ukrainians bracing for brutal cold with sporadic power, heat
KYIV, Ukraine — When the power is out, as it so often is, the high-rise apartment overlooking Ukraine’s war-torn capital feels like a deathtrap.
No lights, no water, no way to cook food. And the risk of not being able to escape from the 21st floor in time should a Russian missile strike. Even when electricity comes back, it’s never on for long.
“Russian strikes are plunging Ukraine into the Stone Age,” says Anastasia Pyrozhenko.
In a recent 24-hour spell, her 26-story high-rise only had power for 30 minutes. She says the “military living conditions” have driven her and her husband from their apartment.
“Our building is the highest in the area and is a great target for Russian missiles, so we left our apartment for our parents’ place and are preparing for the worst winter of our lives,” Pyrozhenko, 25, said.
The situation in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other major cities has deteriorated drastically following the largest missile attack on the country’s power grid last week.
Ukrainian state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo reported that 40% of Ukrainians were experiencing difficulties, due to damage to at least 15 energy hubs. The network said that “resilience and courage are what we need this winter.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, too, stressed the need to be ready and resilient in the face of a potential blackout: “Worst-case scenario. Actually, I don’t like to talk about that, but I have to be prepared if we (do not)
have electricity, blackout, no water, no heating, no services and no communication.”
Ukrenergo said that “thousands of kilometers of key high-voltage lines are not working,” affecting the entire country. It published a photo of a transformer station that was destroyed by a Russian missile, leaving around 400,000 people without power.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after last week’s strikes that more than 10 million Ukrainians were left without electricity. This week, he said some areas had seen improvements.
But officials Monday urged civilians from recently liberated sections of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions to evacuate to safer areas in the in the central
and western parts of the country, fearing that a lack of heat, power and water will make living conditions too difficult this winter.
A sharp cold snap and the first snow have complicated the situation in Kyiv, where temperatures are often below freezing in winter months. The cold forces people to turn on their heaters, which drastically increases the load on the grid and makes power outages longer.
In light of the dropping temperatures, Kyiv authorities announced they were setting up communal heating points.
In the city of 3 million people, 528 emergency points have been identified. Here, residents will be able to keep warm, drink tea, recharge their phones and get any necessary help.
The heating points will be equipped with autonomous power sources, as well as special boiler rooms.
Mayor Klitschko also spoke of measures taken to prepare for energy outages with the onset of colder temperatures: “We prepared and we (asked for) electric generators (from) our partners, which they send to us. For this case, we have a reserve of diesel, (of ) oil. We have a lot of warm stuff. We have medication.”
Many residents in Kyiv have begun to leave boxes of food, flashlights and power banks in elevators, in case anyone gets stuck in one for a long time. Due to the lack of electricity, public transport is disrupted, many small shops cannot operate, and some medical institutions can only work to a limited capacity.
Dentist Viktor Turakevich said that he was forced to postpone his patients’ appointments “for an indefinite time” because without electricity his Kyiv clinic cannot function. A generator will arrive in a few weeks.
“We cannot accept patients even with acute toothache, people have to suffer and wait a long time, but the light comes on only for a few hours a day,” Turakevich said.
Most hospitals in Kyiv have received generators.
The Oleksandrivska hospital, the largest and oldest one in the center of Kyiv, reported that it had not canceled elective surgeries because the hospital had received electric generators from France. Generators have also been supplied to educational institutions and social services.
“Such facilities are a priority for us, and most of them are equipped with autonomous energy sources,” Ukrenergo head Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said recently. However, many schools in Kyiv have endured significant disruption to the learning process, with a lack of electricity meaning internet outages that make remote learning near impossible.
Yaroslav, 8, stopped attending his school in the Vynohradar district of Kyiv after a rocket blew out all the windows of the school and damaged a shelter there.
“Most of the children studied remotely, but now it is no longer possible to do this,” said Yaroslav’s mother, Olena. “We are trying to protect children from the horrors of war, but the cold and the lack of power greatly hinder this.”