Olga and Tetiana were born in Kiev when the city transitioned from Nazi to Soviet occupation. In their long lives, they had never slept in a house without a stove or fireplace for warmth until this week. "We had never experienced anything like this. It's the first time in our lives that we have to heat water with a gas stove and sleep in coats, surrounded by water bottles, to avoid freezing to death," says Olga.
- Can they forgive the Russians for this?
- We neither forgive nor surrender.
These two women spend the morning under the temporary protection of one of the hundreds of tents distributed throughout the city of Kiev to prevent people from literally freezing to death at home without access to hot food or water, as the pipes have frozen. Additionally, they have internet thanks to the Starlink service, allowing them to connect with their families. The generator's noise is a minor inconvenience that is bearable thanks to the warmth inside. Inside, especially children and the elderly enjoy a moment of peace in a city that has not known calm, especially in recent weeks.
The city is literally frozen. Snow mountains pile up in the streets, and the extreme cold has turned them into walls of ice. Inside the houses, the situation does not improve: there is no electricity or heating for at least 20 hours a day, and when repair services manage to alleviate the situation with imported energy from Europe for a short time, people take the opportunity to charge batteries, phones, and heat water. There are neighborhoods still without electricity weeks after their distribution center was destroyed. Thousands of energy company workers, considered here as "energy heroes," work day and night, sometimes enduring painful cold and the possibility of dying in a drone attack, to provide the population with a few hours of light each day until the long-awaited spring arrives. They count the days.
The culprit of this humanitarian catastrophe is none other than the regime of Vladimir Putin, who, after four years, has been unable to achieve victory on the battlefield but has managed to punish the Ukrainian population with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones every night, targeting not military objectives but the complete destruction of the country's electrical and heating grid, constituting a war crime.
The Russian autocrat claims to be protecting the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, allegedly persecuted by the authorities in Kiev. The reality is that Putin is punishing both sides equally with missiles that do not discriminate based on language.
These bombings add to the long list of crimes committed by the Kremlin on Ukrainian soil since February 2022. Last Saturday, Russian forces left not a single town in the country with electricity, akin to sending a European territory back to the Middle Ages in the 21st century.
Mikita, Ivan, Igor, and Danye in one of the tents set up in Kiev.A. ROJAS
Four friends, Mikita, Ivan, Igor, and Danye, aged between 10 and 13, charge their phones while watching football videos on the screens. "We have to sleep in thermal clothing and with hot water bottles, and it's still difficult."
- Do you have heating at school?
- No, we have to take classes online.
- Do you think Ukraine should surrender to Russia to solve all this?
This strategy is indeed further galvanizing the civilian population and fueling more hatred against Putin's regime.
The Russian missiles are combined with a harsh atmospheric blow: the oldest residents have to go back to 1996 to recall such severe cold and snow. Here, they call it "The Great Cold", which has come in two waves: last week, with temperatures below 23 degrees below zero, and this week, with several days below 20. Another 82-year-old woman approaches us curiously. Her name is Vira, she wears a Soviet scarf on her head, and she lives alone since her son and husband passed away: "My pension is 5,000 hryvnias per month (80 euros), and most of it goes to medicine. The temperature in my house doesn't go above 10 degrees."
Why has Russia tried to leave Ukraine without electricity for three years but only now succeeded? There are two reasons. The first is that they have refined their target: Russia attacked high-voltage substations and 750 kV/330 kV transmission lines, destabilizing the grid and forcing operators to reduce production in all operational nuclear plants, the true energy heart of Ukraine at the moment, for safety reasons. The second reason is that European laziness has delayed the delivery of Patriot missiles for air defense. Ukraine's allies are paralyzed by Russia's false attempt to negotiate peace. This process, sponsored by the Trump Administration, has given Moscow distraction and political cover while the United States has halted its contributions to Ukraine's defense.
Zlata, six years old, plays while talking to a psychologist in a tent.A. ROJAS
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that antidepressant sellers are making a fortune: demand for these drugs has increased by 25% so far this year, according to the Ukrainian edition of Forbes, and by 72% since 2023. The Ukrainian population is resilient, but that does not mean that the nights of bombing and endless winter days are easy for them.
80% of European reserves of generators and spare parts to repair electrical grids have already been delivered to Ukraine, and yet they are not enough, such is the impunity with which Russia repeatedly destroys Ukraine's power plants. President Volodymyr Zelensky states, "Every day Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it opts for new attacks. Moscow must be deprived of the ability to use the cold as leverage against Ukraine."
In a neighborhood without electricity, a woman named Svetlana anxiously looks at her phone screen: "I'm waiting for a call from my husband, Leonid, who is on the front lines. He should have called hours ago... I'm very proud of him, but I can't sleep thinking about what might happen to him."
The Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid, with the collaboration of EL MUNDO, launches the campaign Urgent Energy Solidarity with Ukraine: "Ukrainian families now more than ever need the warmth of Spain. Attacks on the energy infrastructure have left millions of people without electricity, heating, or water in the middle of winter, when temperatures in many regions drop to -25°C. Therefore, we invite Spanish citizens, companies, and entities to turn their support into light and warmth for Ukrainian homes. Every contribution helps keep homes, hospitals, and schools lit in the midst of war."