\n<\/p>\n
Shivering in her flat after Russian strikes knocked out the heating, 91-year-old Lidia Teleschuk said she couldn’t remember a winter this harsh since World War II.<\/p>\n
Russia has this month stepped up its strikes against Ukraine’s power and heating infrastructure, plunging Kyiv residents into darkness and cold as temperatures dropped as low as -20C.<\/p>\n
“In 1942, it was even worse,” Teleschuk said.<\/p>\n
“There hasn’t been a winter like this since. It’s been awful. It will be hard for us to survive.”<\/p>\n
The heavy targeting of the Ukrainian capital — which Russia failed to seize at the start of its invasion — has forced residents to find makeshift solutions to stay warm.<\/p>\n
It has been particularly painful for elderly people like Teleschuk.<\/p>\n
In her flat deprived of electricity, heating and hot water, the 91-year-old showed AFP how she gets through the day.<\/p>\n
Running her hand through her brittle white hair, she mimed heating water on a gas stove to wash herself in the cold mornings.<\/p>\n
She had also poured some of the hot water into plastic bottles, turning them into small sources of heat.<\/p>\n
“But it’s not enough, dear children. It’s just enough for me to warm up a little,” she said.<\/p>\n
The temperature inside her apartment hovered between 8C and 11C.<\/p>\n
– ‘Go numb’ –<\/p>\n
Volunteers from the Starenki foundation, which delivers food and essentials to the elderly, were visiting Teleschuk to check in on her.<\/p>\n
She beamed as one of them, programme director Alina Diachenko, gave her a battery-powered fairy light.<\/p>\n
“Volunteers take a little time to chat. That’s very important — not just the food, but the attention,” Diachenko said.<\/p>\n
Yevgenia Yeromina, 89, couldn’t hear a thing, but she too was delighted to see visitors.<\/p>\n
She led them to her kitchen, explaining how she warmed her hands over the open flame of her gas stove.<\/p>\n
“My hands, my fingers, they go numb,” she said, slowly unclenching her fists.<\/p>\n
She touched the pipes, which remained hopelessly cold.<\/p>\n
Repair crews are racing to reconnect homes to power and heat, but sub-zero temperatures and repeated air strikes have slowed their efforts.<\/p>\n
Russian strikes this month have repeatedly cut power to tens of thousands of homes and heating to 6,000 apartment blocks — half of all those in the city.<\/p>\n
Some of the 3.6 million people in the city have left, heading to country houses and relatives for warmth and light.<\/p>\n
Over 900 buildings still had no heating on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, urging local authorities and government officials to act faster.<\/p>\n
“There was just a little bit of heat, then bam, they bombed again, and now nothing works,” Yeromina sighed.<\/p>\n
– ‘Already lived my life’ –<\/p>\n
Playfully lifting the corner of her long trench coat, Yeromina showed how she had layered up to stay warm.<\/p>\n
A few streets away, in her flat on the 6th floor, 88-year-old Esfir Rudminska had adopted a similar strategy.<\/p>\n
“I dress really warm, like a cabbage with two or three sweaters!” she said, head wrapped in a white silk scarf.<\/p>\n
She was sitting in bed, the room dark except for a portable reading lamp perched on her bed.<\/p>\n
Under the blankets, a few plastic bottles filled with hot water and power banks for her phone, on which she played crosswords.<\/p>\n
Repeated bombings were making her nervous.<\/p>\n
“You can get through anything, eat a piece of bread with tea and you’re fine. But morally, my nerves can’t take it.\u00a0I try to hold on,” she said, hugging a furry white hot water bottle.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes, there’s no one at home, I cry and it seems to get easier, even though I’m not a crier. I’m 88 years old, I’ve already lived my life.”<\/p>\n
brw\/jc\/phz<\/p>\n<\/div>\n