Zürcher Nachrichten - 'We'll survive': Ukrainians on front brace for hard winter

EUR -
AED 3.985527
AFN 72.702436
ALL 98.306928
AMD 419.156249
ANG 1.951957
AOA 989.60532
ARS 1072.900936
AUD 1.65046
AWG 1.955881
AZN 1.84833
BAM 1.95696
BBD 2.186817
BDT 129.429126
BGN 1.956147
BHD 0.409082
BIF 3146.307494
BMD 1.085093
BND 1.433624
BOB 7.484576
BRL 6.254586
BSD 1.083027
BTN 91.073477
BWP 14.479585
BYN 3.544467
BYR 21267.829963
BZD 2.183104
CAD 1.510157
CDF 3155.451537
CHF 0.939045
CLF 0.037824
CLP 1043.686119
CNY 7.726192
CNH 7.7251
COP 4789.905941
CRC 554.923907
CUC 1.085093
CUP 28.754974
CVE 110.332451
CZK 25.385734
DJF 192.86613
DKK 7.459149
DOP 65.218068
DZD 144.714114
EGP 52.90991
ERN 16.2764
ETB 132.784906
FJD 2.442325
FKP 0.83028
GBP 0.837589
GEL 2.978582
GGP 0.83028
GHS 17.654793
GIP 0.83028
GMD 75.423349
GNF 9340.451991
GTQ 8.371118
GYD 226.59853
HKD 8.432781
HNL 27.324949
HRK 7.475241
HTG 142.531882
HUF 408.181727
IDR 17029.672296
ILS 4.035625
IMP 0.83028
INR 91.238773
IQD 1418.867416
IRR 45674.292339
ISK 148.494776
JEP 0.83028
JMD 171.460081
JOD 0.769659
JPY 165.835928
KES 139.716693
KGS 93.087062
KHR 4397.526295
KMF 492.199085
KPW 976.583784
KRW 1496.564954
KWD 0.332559
KYD 0.90256
KZT 529.271128
LAK 23762.527081
LBP 96824.392781
LKR 317.334
LRD 207.953298
LSL 19.062754
LTL 3.203998
LVL 0.656362
LYD 5.227027
MAD 10.676927
MDL 19.435882
MGA 4976.950897
MKD 61.531429
MMK 3524.340924
MNT 3687.147286
MOP 8.67
MRU 43.063136
MUR 50.033374
MVR 16.6564
MWK 1878.013498
MXN 21.882749
MYR 4.751409
MZN 69.338506
NAD 19.062666
NGN 1781.44084
NIO 39.852711
NOK 11.905362
NPR 145.714053
NZD 1.815345
OMR 0.417756
PAB 1.083062
PEN 4.084597
PGK 4.339533
PHP 63.153554
PKR 300.871932
PLN 4.353854
PYG 8570.160336
QAR 3.949515
RON 4.974717
RSD 117.036039
RUB 105.280746
RWF 1473.860287
SAR 4.075302
SBD 9.023996
SCR 15.235119
SDG 652.683476
SEK 11.598357
SGD 1.434748
SHP 0.83028
SLE 24.577361
SLL 22753.861856
SOS 618.961286
SRD 37.291435
STD 22459.24187
SVC 9.476794
SYP 2726.329925
SZL 19.058036
THB 36.601825
TJS 11.524045
TMT 3.808678
TND 3.363556
TOP 2.541394
TRY 37.183763
TTD 7.349493
TWD 34.681208
TZS 2956.879513
UAH 44.690698
UGX 3969.426686
USD 1.085093
UYU 44.407558
UZS 13835.458226
VEF 3930807.721132
VES 46.126323
VND 27447.436679
VUV 128.824497
WST 3.039546
XAF 656.337077
XAG 0.032168
XAU 0.000399
XCD 2.932519
XDR 0.814083
XOF 656.337077
XPF 119.331742
YER 271.626002
ZAR 19.165248
ZMK 9767.140155
ZMW 28.837364
ZWL 349.399621
  • RBGPF

    -0.0800

    60.92

    -0.13%

  • JRI

    0.0700

    13.05

    +0.54%

  • NGG

    -0.0500

    65.07

    -0.08%

  • BCE

    -0.2200

    32.24

    -0.68%

  • CMSD

    -0.0100

    24.83

    -0.04%

  • BCC

    2.7300

    134.37

    +2.03%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    12.23

    +0.16%

  • CMSC

    0.0200

    24.59

    +0.08%

  • RELX

    -1.0000

    46.91

    -2.13%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0300

    7.22

    -0.42%

  • BTI

    -0.1000

    34.36

    -0.29%

  • AZN

    -2.3900

    72.83

    -3.28%

  • VOD

    0.1100

    9.39

    +1.17%

  • RIO

    -0.6800

    65.9

    -1.03%

  • GSK

    -1.1600

    37.01

    -3.13%

  • BP

    -0.3400

    29.02

    -1.17%

'We'll survive': Ukrainians on front brace for hard winter
'We'll survive': Ukrainians on front brace for hard winter / Photo: Genya SAVILOV - AFP

'We'll survive': Ukrainians on front brace for hard winter

Before the strike on his neighbourhood in eastern Ukraine, Volodymyr had planned to brave what promises to be the worst winter of the war yet with just a heavy blanket and two electric heaters.

Text size:

Then a Russian bomb struck, ripping open the windows of the sitting room in his Soviet-era apartment, tearing a hole in the wall and damaging one of just two heaters.

Still, the 57-year-old, who was born and raised and has lived his whole life so far in the town of Lyman, said he had no plans to sit out the freezing winter somewhere better prepared or less dangerous.

"It's nothing. We'll survive. We'll fix it. We'll do it little by little. The main thing for me now is to board up the windows, turn on the heaters and it will be warm again," he told AFP.

Ukraine is bracing for the most difficult winter year of the Russian invasion, launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.

This year, waves of drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian power grid by Russian forces have knocked out around half of the country's generation capacity, compared to one year earlier.

Officials in Kyiv and analysts have predicted the damage will take millions of dollars and potentially years to repair.

- 'Preparing for winter' -

In towns and villages near the front line, where Russian forces are advancing, the daily grind of fighting has destroyed the mainly ageing Soviet-era infrastructure that kept residents warm in icy winter months.

Surrounded by forests of pine, Lyman had around 20,000 residents before the invasion and was briefly occupied by Russian forces. Authorities say the current population is now less than half that.

Yuri, another of those remaining, said residents had grown used to winters at war.

"We are all preparing for winter. We have survived two years and will survive the third, don't worry," the 71-year-old told AFP, declining to give his last name.

Another resident of Lyman has prepared for winter and Russian attacks by helping to fit out his building's basement.

"There are curtains. Everything is curtained. There's a stove, a heater -- everything is there," said Viktor Krupko, 71.

If the electricity that powers the basement heaters shuts off, Krupko said he would climb to his fifth-floor apartment -- vulnerable to repeat Russian attacks -- and fire up the stove he has there.

"You can't bring it down here and you can't heat it here. There's nowhere to put it, nowhere to bring the chimney out," he said.

He decided to move to the basement after an earlier strike damaged his home. His wife has been living in the basement already for months.

"People came out, of course, and that's it. Nobody lives here, only two grandmothers lived here," he said.

- 'Born here, I'll die here' -

The governor of the Donetsk region Vadym Filashkin has said that due to hostilities, more than 130 towns or villages in the industrial territory will have no electricity this winter.

Filashkin said only three large towns in the region, which the Kremlin already claimed to have annexed in 2022, will have heating: Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Dobropillia.

Despite the threat of more Russian attacks, and the fact his wife earlier suffered a stroke, Krupko has no intention of leaving Lyman, no matter how cold or miserable it gets this winter.

His daughter moved to neighbouring Poland, which is among the European Union countries that export electricity to Ukraine, but he is concerned about how far his meagre pension would get him there.

"What will I buy with it?" he said.

Volodymyr, the 57-year-old who earlier had a narrow brush with death, was more fatalistic, describing his determination to stay in the war-battered town.

"I'm not going anywhere," he told AFP. "I was born here and I'm going to die here."

A.Ferraro--NZN