Everything is frozen': bitter winter drags on for Kyiv residents as Russia wipes out power

"Natalya Pavlovna watched her two-year-old son, Danylo, play with Lego. We are taking a break from the cold, she said as children made drawings inside a warm tent. Adults sipped tea and chatted while their phones charged. The emergency facility is located in Kyiv's Troieshchina district, on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Outside it was -18C. There was bright sunshine and snow."

"Russia is trying to break us. It's deliberate genocide against the Ukrainian people. Putin wants us to capitulate so we give up the Donbas region, Natalya said. Kyiv didn't use to feel like a frontline city. Now it does. People are dying of cold in their homes in the 21st century. The idea is to make us leave and to create a new refugee crisis for Europe."

"Her apartment is in one of 2,600 buildings in the Ukrainian capital currently without power or heating. The Kremlin has been bombing the country's energy infrastructure since the start of its full-scale invasion nearly four years ago, targeting substations, thermal power plants and rescue workers battling to save the electricity network from multiple attacks. In recent weeks Russia has overwhelmed Kyiv's air defences and inflicted further damage, coinciding with one of the coldest, bitterest winters for decades."

Kyiv residents face severe hardship as Russian strikes repeatedly target the city's energy infrastructure, causing widespread power and heating outages across thousands of buildings. Emergency resilience points offer warmth, food and phone charging while families shelter from temperatures near -18C. Ballistic missiles destroyed a major combined heat and power plant supplying the left bank, and capital-wide blackouts limit electricity to only a few hours each day. The campaign has coincided with an exceptionally cold winter, increasing risks of death from cold and driving fears of mass displacement and a new refugee crisis for Europe.

Read at www.theguardian.com