Surviving below zero in Ukraine

Nikol Goldman does not want to be photographed because she has not showered for two days: "My hair is dirty, it would not look good."

In kyiv the temperature is already below zero degrees and in her apartment she has had neither water nor electricity in three days, since the Russian attack that on November 23 hit the electricity grid of Ukraine (44 million inhabitants) again. .

50% of the country's electrical system has been destroyed and on Friday there were six million people without electricity, according to its president, Volodímir Zelenski.

Without electricity, the water pumping stations cannot operate;

Neither can the systems that burn gas or heat water for city stoves work without electricity.

This 18-year-old woman is concerned about her image because she doesn't want to lose her dignity,

Goldman doesn't want to think about the coming months because she fears it will be dramatic, and because she has no intention of leaving her country either.

“I love my country too much to leave it right now, at the moment of truth,” he says.

The moment of truth for her are the cold months that are coming after the Russian offensive that has been attacking the energy network since last October.

“Last January we were around -20°C.

Imagine it without electricity or heat,” laments Goldman.

The young woman gave up this year to start a university degree because if she needs anything now, her family is income.

She went to Yitómir for work on Friday, two hours from kyiv, a provincial capital of industrial importance.

The municipality's electrical substations have suffered three attacks since October 10.

"Our companies are facing many difficulties, and without jobs, there is no future," said Sergi Sukhomlin, the mayor of Yitomir.

Painted in favor of love, peace and victory in war, on a wall full of impacts in the town of Kupiansk (Kharkov). Luis de Vega

Last week, recalls Sukhomlin, activity in the Yitómir polygons came to an almost complete halt due to the lack of electricity and water supply.

"The factories have found an alternative, which is to double the night shifts, because that is when there is less pressure on the network."

Yuri, an employee of a metallurgical plant in Yitómir and a resident of Kalinivka, a town adjoining the city, confirms this: “We are working more at night, but we are losing many production days because either there is no electricity or the air alarms they are active for hours and the plant ends up closing that day”.

Yuri is satisfied, despite the circumstances, because he does not have the limitations that he suffers in the city.

"Living in a village is definitely better, first for security," lists this 58-year-old man, "the Russians will not spend their missiles in a place where there is nothing strategic."

"It's better because I have wood stoves, and I have the forest in front of my house, I also have a well, so we don't lack water, and I have animals and an orchard to make preserves."

The residents of Kalinivka have the possibility to install generators in their houses, also solar panels, something more difficult to have in an urban block of flats.

Sukhomlin confirms that the priority now for Yitómir —and for the rest of the Ukrainian cities— is to get generators and diesel.

Its objective is to receive devices with a power of 5 megawatts, the best that can be manufactured with some speed.

“These generators can provide light for one hour to 2,500 apartments.

But it is not possible to have them running for a long time, every hour they consume 1,500 liters of diesel, but it is better than nothing”.

winter shelters

Under a building in an almost dilapidated state, a resident of Kharkov, in eastern Ukraine, walks without haste with an empty five-liter jug ​​of water in his hand.

The bottle, dented, beaten and illuminated by the backlight, dangles in his left hand to the rhythm of his steps.

The man, in his 60s, does not address any source.

A few meters further on, he goes inside a military green tent.

He sits on a bench and, between little noises, begins to sip the tea that is served to him in a plastic cup.

The next thing he does is enter the Wi-Fi password that appears written on a piece of paper that rests on the table to connect to the internet through his mobile.

On a television screen the monotheme, war, parades in a loop.

During their sandwich break, two workers look for seats in front.

Two new generators glow above the ground.

There are chairs, tables, armchairs and even a lounger.

Behind the man, there is a simple sideboard with plugs, extension cords and a microwave, among other items.

Two wood stoves heat the room and make it almost a tropical paradise compared to the handful of degrees below zero that cool the street.

Tatiana, 72, passes in the Saltivka neighborhood (Kharkov) in front of one of the more than 4,300 points with internet, electricity, heating and other amenities installed by the authorities so that the population can fight the winter.Luis de Vega

Ukraine has decided to erect a stockade along the entire front line of the cold.

Zelenski announced this week the creation of a network of more than 4,300 points that, as shelters, will serve to defend the population from the rigors of winter.

They will be open 24 hours a day whenever there are prolonged power cuts and, in addition to heat and light, they will serve to provide support, company or information necessary for citizens to survive in their day to day.

The initiative has not been, however, without some controversy.

Zelenski acknowledges that there are "many complaints" in relation to this care network in kyiv.

He was a clear slap on the wrist to the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klischko.

The cold and energy problems in this city are not only a problem for citizens, but also an image problem that can undermine the morale of the population throughout the country.

The president accused the capital's first mayor of not having the machinery lubricated so that these basic points of attention are already working.

Zelenski, yes, saved those who are the responsibility of the Emergency Services and the central train station from burning.

“The people of kyiv deserve better care,” he snapped.

The man with the jug is the first user who, on Friday morning, goes to the winter shelter of that network located in the Saltivka neighborhood, one of the places hardest hit by the Russian Army in the city of Kharkov, the second in number of inhabitants of the country.

An Emergency Services employee helps you connect.

They do it through the satellite network of the tycoon Elon Musk's Starlink system, which is making it possible for the communication blackout not to be total.

In the Kharkiv region alone there are almost 300 shelters available, of which a dozen, like this military tent, are mobile, according to data provided by the governor, Oleg Sinegubov.

They are located in rural and urban areas.

In fire stations, in schools, in official buildings… “If the situation worsens with the attacks and we have more blackouts, more places like this will have to be opened.

I am sure that more will be needed,” said Evgeni Ivanov, the Kharkiv regional deputy governor, during a visit to the Saltivka point on Thursday.

Houses destroyed by the war in the Saltivka neighborhood (Kharkov). Luis de Vega

This neighborhood is still a wasteland in which most of the buildings remain unhealed from the combat wounds.

Its streets, parks and garden areas are a human desert where loneliness reigns supreme surrounded by the rubble of war and the occasional dog.

In front of the tent, a gang of workers is busy cleaning up one of the buildings.

For Tatiana, 72, it is nothing more than posturing, a way by the authorities to try to wash the face of the neighborhood without carrying out the necessary repairs to the damage that allows the residents to return.

“Where is someone in charge of this?

How can they treat people like this?” the woman asks indignantly when she sees that there is a movement of authorities in the tent.

Tatiana escaped from Saltivka on February 24, the day the Russian invasion began, and has not returned “to this nightmare” until recently, when her savings have evaporated.

"I'm going to show you what conditions I'm living in", she continues in her angry protest without showing interest in accessing the interior of the tent.

She is satisfied with showing how her granddaughter's apartment has been left, totally uninhabitable, a stewardess who had carried out an important reform shortly before the neighborhood was blown up.

exodus to rural areas

The mayor of Yitómir is explicit in his interview with EL PAÍS: "The situation will probably lead to a new wave of refugees towards rural areas, where resources are more guaranteed, and towards the European Union".

"I have a responsibility here," admits Sukhomlin, "but if I had the opportunity to go live in a town, where at least I have firewood and a well, I would."

240,000 people live in Yitómir and of these, some 20,000 have fled from the areas where the fighting is taking place.

They are the most vulnerable group because they fled their homes with what they were wearing.

Throughout Ukraine there are seven million displaced people because of the war.

In recent weeks, the distribution points for warm clothing, as well as food, have multiplied, such as the one that Cáritas has set up in Yitómir.

With no resources to cook, the hot meals prepared at this nonprofit organization for more than 500 people are a blessing.

A child, during a distribution of humanitarian aid in the town of Kupiansk (Kharkov). Luis de Vega

Anatoli Samusha is a regular at the Cáritas dining room.

On Friday they had already been without electricity for more than 24 hours in the house that he and other relatives have rented on the outskirts of Yitómir.

One of the reasons why they decided on this house is because it has its own well.

Samusha is hardened in this type of inclement weather: he fled this year from Marinka, his hometown, in Donetsk, a municipality where no one lives anymore, according to the Ukrainian authorities, when he found himself in ground zero of the front.

“Since 2014 [when the war between Ukraine and pro-Russian Donbas broke out] I am used to living without these essential supplies,” says Samusha.

"For those here it is something new, they are less prepared, for example, there is a shortage of generators that we did not have."

His house-refuge has a gas tank,

The difficulties affect every home and also fundamental institutions such as hospitals.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are hundreds of health centers in Ukraine that cannot work in good conditions.

One of them is the Yitomir Regional Hospital.

At its main entrance there are new crystals stored that are still to be installed on one of its facades.

A Russian bombardment last March destroyed part of its facilities and 300 windows were damaged.

The deputy director of the institution, Vladislav Dubchak, affirms that they are waiting for two more generators to be installed, because the only one they have only serves the surgical and intensive care area.

The worst day, Dubchak claims, was October 10, when the Russian offensive against the energy system began:

The WHO has warned that Russian aggression poses "a mortal threat to millions of Ukrainians."

Anatoli Torianik, deputy head of the Kharkov Emergency Services, a body comparable to that of Civil Protection in Spain, knows this well.

"This tent represents the Saltivka fortress in Kharkiv, a hero city," he adds in the center of the room, which seats 50 people.

A man drinks a hot drink and connects to the internet in the Saltivka neighborhood (Kharkov), at one of the more than 4,300 points installed so that the population can face the winter and the energy crisis.Luis de Vega

Outside the center, the cold and the snow remember like a slap in the face that the fight for survival imposes its rhythm.

Tatiana, 65, Ludmila, 79, and Liuvob, 63, rummage through a mountain of clothing and footwear left by a humanitarian organization, although they regret that they have arrived a little late and there is not much that they consider useful.

Next to them is Serhi, 44, a neighbor who works as a volunteer.

He is waiting for a vehicle to arrive to organize the distribution of food rations.

He explains that they have reached an agreement to set up a basement, which they have already equipped with sleeping bags donated to them from Slovakia, to distribute food and help during the winter.

“I have no way of warming up.

It is even colder in my apartment than outside,” Serhi says.

Volodimir, 58, wanders around the area.

a hustler who sells the metal he finds to get some money.

He acknowledges that he shares a house with no windows and broken doors along with three brothers.

They try to keep warm as they can with a wood stove.

Late in the morning, calm and peace reign in the solitude of Saltivka, far from the permanent noise with which the Russian artillery punished the neighborhood at the beginning of the invasion.

War now is to face a winter that is approaching like a runaway horse.

Tatiana, now calmer, recognizes that the Soviet-style blocks in which they live could be in much worse condition if the firefighters had not risked their lives among the bombs.

And she corrects the shot from previous critics: "I think Ukraine is full of heroes."

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