On the edge of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, volunteers ladle hot soup into plastic containers as residents wrapped in heavy coats queue for a meal they cannot cook at home. Yuliia Dolotova, a mother of two, is among them, waiting with her 18-month-old son, Bohdanchyk, bundled in layers against the biting cold.
Life, she says, has been reduced to the most basic essentials: warmth, light and food. “All day long, there’s no electricity, no way to cook food for the kids. Pretty much everyone is in this situation,” Dolotova, 37, said. She lives in Troieshchyna, one of Kyiv’s hardest-hit districts, battered by repeated Russian attacks since the full-scale invasion four years ago.
Russian strikes using drones and missiles have left hundreds of thousands of people without heat or electricity as temperatures plunge as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. The harsh winter is expected to continue in the coming weeks. Without heat, water pipes in the district have also frozen and burst, adding to the strain on daily life.
Damage to the grid and power stations is at its worst since the war began. As soon as utility crews restore heating to some buildings and engineers set outage schedules, Russia launches another strike, forcing the work to start over. At night, Dolotova's Soviet-era tower block goes completely dark. Her infant son has learned to grip her cellphone with its flashlight on as she manhandles his stroller up six flights of stairs to their apartment.
Inside, she flicks on battery-powered lamps one by one. Before bedtime, the two brothers huddle together for warmth, playing in silence near frost-lined windows by flashlight. Dolotova insulates the bed with foam rubber to try to keep them warm. Her husband is serving in the Zaporizhzhia area, one of the war’s most volatile sectors. “He should be coming soon. I live from leave to leave,” she said. “I wait for him — that’s what keeps me going. You tell yourself, just a little longer, and he’ll come. You count the days.”
