Electricity restrictions have begun. The rush for sleeping bags, portable gas stoves and external chargers too. Everything suggests that the winter will be cold and dark in Ukraine – and that drinking water will no longer flow from all the taps. In recent days, the Russian army has relentlessly pounded the country’s energy infrastructure. Nevertheless, Ukrainian morale seems to be holding up, both on the front line and among the civilian population.
“They try to scare us, to intimidate us, to make us leave the country. But they will not succeed”, proclaims to the To have to Maryna Khromykh, a 35-year-old professional who lives in Kyiv. “Our society is much stronger today than it was on February 24 [lorsque la Russie a envahi l’Ukraine]. »
According to the young woman, the unity and morale of Ukrainians today are “indestructible”. “You have to be here to really understand and feel it,” she says.
Like her compatriots, Maryna Khromykh has been busy in the last few days gathering candles, sleeping bags, warm clothes, chargers and camping stoves to deal with the power cuts that have started in the country.
“I’m trying to prepare myself, but no one knows what’s going to happen,” says the one who works for the Dejure Foundation, an organization working to implement judicial reforms in Ukraine. We don’t know what’s on the minds of our crazy neighbors. »
Our morale is strong because we are defending our land. If we lose, we no longer exist.
On Thursday, the activist posted on Twitter a photo of a survival kit that one of her neighbors prepared and placed in the elevator of the apartment building where she lives. A bag containing water, a few foodstuffs and an empty bottle to defecate in case someone gets stuck in the elevator due to a power cut.
The photo has since been re-transmitted more than 1,700 times and has inspired several other such initiatives. “This is the true face of Ukrainians who are not afraid, who are not fleeing, but who want to stay and live in a civilized country which shares European values”, argues Maryna Khromykh. “It’s taking care of people you don’t even know. »
If the situation becomes too critical at home this winter, the young woman has already drawn up a plan to find refuge with friends or colleagues residing in other districts of kyiv or to go to the west of the country, where she has grown up. “But I hope I can stay in my apartment,” she said.
sow fear
According to Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko, more than 300 Russian strikes have hit the country’s energy infrastructure in the past week, as temperatures approaching the freezing point are already crossing Ukraine. Nearly a third of the country’s power plants are said to have been destroyed.
To reduce pressure on the electricity grid, Ukrainians are urged to restrict their energy consumption, especially during peak hours. Targeted power cuts have also started.
For Luliia Mendel, who also lives in kyiv and who was spokesperson for President Volodymyr Zelensky from 2019 to 2021, “it is nothing but terror and genocidal techniques” that are deployed by Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is targeting civilian energy infrastructure because his army is in an unfavorable position on the ground, the young woman believes. “We see how rage and hatred can spread,” she says. According to the young woman, Russia acts as a terrorist state, which should be recognized as such by the international community. “Diplomacy is strong when it names things as they are. »
Life in Ukraine is terrifying, agrees Luliia Mendel. “We no longer make plans and we understand that, every morning, we might not wake up. But despair is no longer visible on the faces of Ukrainians as in the early days of the war, underlines the one who grew up in Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine now under Russian occupation and who published the book The Fight of Our Lives. My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve gotten used to death and destruction, but we’re even more determined to win,” she said. We see our army fighting and the West uniting to support us, and we understand that Russia represents absolute evil. »
The young woman, who lives in modern, well-insulated accommodation, is thinking of buying a generator to get through the winter. But she says she is especially concerned for her compatriots who will need health care. “How are hospitals going to function with water and electricity cuts? How will women give birth? How will the injured – and there are many of them at the moment – be able to be operated on? she asks herself.
Insulate before winter
On the front line, preparations are also increasing in anticipation of winter. “We are digging even deeper trenches. We isolate the shelters and the basements of the houses in which we sleep,” explains Serhii Fishchuk, a sociologist by profession, who enlisted in the army at the start of the war.
The 28-year-old, now part of Ukraine’s National Guard, is fighting Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, not far from Mariupol. “But my commander does not want me to give the precise name of the village where we are,” he told the To have to while on leave at his home in central Ukraine.
In the village, some men sleep directly in the trenches, but many spend the night in the basements of abandoned or partially destroyed houses, he explains. “We use our money to buy building materials to insulate our shelters. »
When he is on the front line, Serhii Fishchuk is 800 meters from the Russian positions. In July, two men from his unit, aged 21 and 22, lost their lives. “Of course I’m scared every day,” he says. But we fight for our families. He assures that the morale of the troops is still good. “Our morale is strong because we are defending our land. If we lose, we no longer exist. »
In the village where he is based, as in many places on the front line, there is no more drinking water or electricity. The military have generators that provide them with electricity for a few hours a day.
But there are no more infrastructures for civilians. Of the few thousand inhabitants who populated the village before the war, there would only be a hundred people left on the spot, especially the elders. “We try to help them. But it’s already cold, and the Russians are doing everything they can to scare the civilians. If the situation does not change, people may die of cold this winter, ”he drops.