Kyiv
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Katerina Skridina goes to bed wearing thermal underwear, two jumpers and a scarf. She covers herself with a duvet and two blankets. But her secret weapon is her cat Pushok.
“He has a high temperature, so he’s like a hot water bottle,” she told CNN.
The heating in Skridina’s Kiev apartment has largely stopped since Russia launched a major attack on the city’s energy infrastructure on January 8, leaving hundreds of thousands of households, businesses and schools in the capital without power.
Officials say the timing of Russia’s attack is no coincidence, with temperatures dropping to minus 19 degrees Celsius (minus 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) this week and the prime minister in the midst of the harshest winter in 20 years.
Like most Ukrainians, Skridina is now accustomed to a life without constant power outages. She has multiple power banks and power outage gadgets. Her apartment is filled with USB-powered artificial candles, Christmas lights, and camping lanterns.
But the cold is new.
In recent days, the temperature inside her building has dropped to 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), eight degrees below the indoor temperature recommended by the World Health Organization as healthy.
“Mentally it’s very hard. Now that the heat is gone, I realize I don’t need electricity as much. When I have heat but no electricity, everything is fine,” she said, pointing to her habit of turning to exercise to boost her mood during power outages.
“Sports keeps me going. I go to a gym that is run on eco-fuels. (But) yesterday the gym was closed because there was no heating and it was very cold. I can’t go anywhere.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the country’s energy sector, acknowledging that the effects of the Russian attack and the extremely low temperatures were very serious.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 300 high-rise buildings in the capital remained without heating as of Thursday, down from 6,000 without heating after a major attack a week ago.
Kiev has been the hardest hit, but emergency power outages have been reported across the country.
Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that a major Russian attack on Mr. Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rykh in central Ukraine has left tens of thousands of people out of power. Large-scale power outages were also reported in Dnipropetrovsk in southeastern Ukraine. The attack caused power outages in Zhytomyr in the west and Kharkiv in the northeast on Thursday, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said.
Many schools have closed, unable to heat classrooms to safe temperatures. Shops, cafes and restaurants that would normally provide respite for residents seeking warmth and power have also been forced to close.
It’s been so cold this week that some of the diesel generators that are essential to keeping the lights on when the grid loses power stopped working.
Authorities in Kiev and other parts of the country are operating hundreds of “invincibility points” where locals can stay warm, charge their devices and work. Zelenskiy said Wednesday that more facilities would be opened.
Irina Palandina, who arrived at one of the aid centers in Kiev on Thursday, told CNN that she had no electricity, running water and no way to prepare food at home.
“I didn’t even have anything to boil water, so I came here for tea,” she said. “After the last attack, it became very difficult. Until then, we were more or less[in control]. We always thought our family was prepared, we have an inverter, an uninterruptible power supply, batteries… But when there is only electricity for two hours a day, they just run out of power and don’t have time to recharge,” she added.
On social media, residents of Kiev who have more daylight hours are actively offering support to those who don’t. Additionally, in some apartment complexes, neighbors gather in courtyards during power outages to cook and socialize over bonfires. Videos have been circulating on social media showing people grilling meat, drinking hot drinks and dancing to keep warm.
Russia has consistently denied attacks on civilian infrastructure, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released data on Thursday showing that there have been at least 256 Russian airstrikes against energy facilities and heating systems across Ukraine since the start of the heating season in October.
The newspaper said the figures showed the attack was “aimed at the destruction of the Ukrainian people and constitutes a crime against humanity.”
Ukraine’s energy minister said Friday that there is not a single power plant left in the country that was not attacked by Russian forces during the war.
International organizations and Ukraine’s allies accused Russia of targeting energy facilities in Ukraine.
Serhiy Salata is the owner of Ї’м Salata, a company that grows lettuce and other agricultural products in an indoor vertical farm in Kyiv. For the plants to survive, Salata needs to keep the temperature, light, and amount of CO2 in the air as constant as possible, a difficult task when unexpected power outages are a constant threat.
The company is equipped with solar panels and generators to power the most important parts of the system, but is still partially dependent on electricity from the grid.
“In situations like this, we always have to experiment,” he said. “For example, you need to calculate the temperature of a room so that if you turn off the lights for four hours, the temperature does not drop below a critical level.”
Sitting in her frigid apartment, Skridina turned to online shopping to beat the cold and ordered an electric blanket and two hot water bottles.
“In a moment of desperation when it was very cold, I ordered everything I could see. I ordered everything I liked,” she said, pointing to a device made from a clay pot and some tea lights. “It acts like a fireplace. It doesn’t actually heat the room, but if you’re sitting next to it and you’re using your computer, it gets a little bit warmer,” she said.
Meanwhile, the pet cat Pushok has started eating soup. “Maybe it’s because it’s warm? He doesn’t like it (usually), but he’s starting to eat it little by little,” she said. The cat’s name translates to “fluffy,” which is ironic considering it’s a Sphynx and has no hair.
“When the coronavirus happened, it looked like the worst thing in history. Then the worst thing was shelling, and then there was no electricity. I think we will be a very resilient country,” Skridina said, patting Pushok, who was wearing a sweater.
“I already know how to live without electricity or heat and under shelling. Everyday problems will be solved much more easily. I will be the grandmother who always has a charged power bank, a pack of candles, freeze-dried food and everything powered by batteries or USB just in case.”
