The Enerhodar earthquake: a snapshot of domestic pressure over Russia’s flailing war effort and shattered a sense of calm

A senior official said Sunday that power and cellular connections in the city of Enerhodar have been restored by crews.

According to a telegram post on the website of the Zaporizhzhia government, the water supply will be restored in the near future.

Rogov also said that Ukrainians “have concentrated significant number of militants in Zaporizhzhia direction” and that the risk of storming the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “remains high”.

Orlov said “the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly tried to deliver humanitarian supplies with food, hygiene products and so on to the city,” adding that Ukraine is “ready to organize prompt delivery and distribution of drinking water in Enerhodar” but that Russian forces have not let humanitarian aid through.

The latest strikes by Russia killed at least 14 people and wounded 89 others, destroyed vital infrastructure and caused power failures. They also shattered a relative sense of calm that had allowed Ukrainians in parts of the country to go back to work, school and entertainment venues in recent weeks. (Here’s a snapshot of the destruction in different parts of the country.)

On Monday, state television reported on the suffering and also flaunted it. There were empty store shelves, smoke and carnage in central Kyiv, and a long-range forecast promising months of freezing temperatures there.

The sharp shift was a sign that domestic pressure over Russia’s flailing war effort had escalated to the point where President Vladimir V. Putin believed that a brutal show of force was necessary — as much for his audience at home as for Ukraine and the West.

The streets outside Vyacheslav Tarasov’s home on Ukraine’s eastern frontline are pocked by shell blasts. The buildings around are mostly empty, windowless and cold.

At the beginning of a recent weekend, one of the four chairs in the Chop-Chop barbershop in central Moscow was completely occupied.

Working off the streets: Helping people in Ukraine clean up after a rocket strike. A conversation between Roman Tarasiuk and Viktoria Sitovska

Many men have been staying off the streets out of fear of being handed a draft notice. Olya witnessed the authorities at each exit of the metro station as she arrived at work last Friday.

Olya, who like other women did not want her last name used, acknowledged that every day is hard. It is difficult to know what to do. We always planned as a couple.

A basketful of apples is being carried by Hanna Yurycka next to the house. On one of the first cool days of fall, it’s a dreary afternoon.

She handed out apples to workers cleaning up the debris from the rocket strikes that reduced her home to a pile of rubble.

She says the kids are a dozen 20- and 30-somethings. There’s a gloomy setting, but the mood is light and people dance and laugh together while they work.

They volunteer for Repair Together, a large network of friends who raise money to bring busloads of young people from around Ukraine to destroyed villages, to help people clean up their homes.

Roman Tarasiuk, 27, dances atop a trailer parked out front as he empties buckets of debris to be hauled away. He lost his job at an educational company in the middle of the war.

Viktoria Sitovska was swaying to the music and shovels nearby. She is a student at a school in Germany. She’s traveled back to Ukraine to help since the war began.

Ukrainian Volunteers Clean up Destroyed Villas. Marina Hrebinna, the organizer of the Cleanup events, laughs Kochubei

That idea led to the creation of the Cleanup events. A group of friends went to help out in a different village. They wanted to help as many places as they could, so they invited more friends. The volunteers have helped at the events.

The scale of destruction is so huge that Marina Hrebinna is one of the organizers. She says it can be difficult to become overwhelmed by all of it. The group tries to focus on what’s possible, on the difference they can make to individual people in individual villages.

Usually they camp nearby to make it memorable. After days of hard, emotional work, they hold dancing parties at night to blow off steam.

The foundation of a destroyed home has a boom box on top of it. There are two people throwing bricks and stacking them.

She asked if she could use a trailer to haul away the debris. She learned that the whole team was coming to help.

Liza Kochubei jokes as she helps Vereshchahina shovel. Kochubei isn’t paying attention to the news just because she’s out here laughing.

“There are seven days a week — five of those days we read the news, and get really sad. She says that two days a week we gather together and get distracted.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/23/1129011752/ukrainian-volunteers-clean-up-destroyed-villages

A young woman’s day in the life of a village surrounded by cows grazing by the road. Her voice is loud, but not too loud

A short walk away, past cows grazing by the road, 60-year-old Kateryna Yurchenko (no relation to Hanna Yurchenko) keeps watch over her destroyed property, where more young volunteers are packing up at the end of the day.

She was born in this house and lived here all her life. It was too difficult to do it alone. She said that even if their music doesn’t work for her, the group of workers finished in one day.

As she talks, a sunset fills the horizon — bright pink, orange, purple. The gold-domed church next door has a reflected stream.

She thanks them. The speaker is still loud, as they go down the dirt road. They turn a corner and the music stops. The village is quiet again.

“The Russians are mad!” Vladimir Vladimir Tkachuk tells reporters of his recent visit to the Zaporizhia airport

Ukraine has been facing a wide assault on critical infrastructure and power sources since early October. The onslaught has left millions across the country facing power cuts amid freezing temperatures.

The city’s mayor encouraged some residents to think about staying with family and friends outside of Kyiv if the city is left without electricity or water.

“His goal is for us to die, to freeze, or to make us flee our land so that he can have it. That’s what Putin wants to achieve, according to boxer Wenko.

Tkachuk said each district within the city will have about 100 heating centers to operate in case of emergencies in the winter. These heating centers will be equipped with heat, lighting, toilets, canteens, places to rest, warm clothes, blankets and an ambulance crew will be on duty near such centers, the statement said.

“I still can’t believe that I left there,” says Viktor, while pulling a red suitcase from the black car he rode to Zaporizhia, about 25 miles from occupied territory. “The madness.”

His house is close to Kherson. He and his wife had three daughters there. The Russians broke into their house within hours of them leaving, Viktor says a neighbor told him.

Everyone we have spoken to is aware that there are tough days to come, and the Russians could shell them here. It is also unclear whether all Russian troops have left Kherson and the wider region. There is still uncertainty behind this euphoria.

Kherson’s wife is worried about marrying a Russian citizen who is afraid of marrying his wife – a story by Artyom

A volunteer at a shelter named Artyom helps care for Kherson evacuees as if he were his own family. Artyom asked that we not use his full name to protect his relatives in Kherson.

His wife stays home as much as she can. But to earn money, she sells potatoes and vegetables she grows in her own garden at a local street market.

Artyom says it’s not good. He worries that the Russians will prevent his wife from marrying him. He’s worried that she’ll get sick. She’s four months’ pregnant. He has concerns about the baby.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134465380/kherson-ukraine-russia-battle-looms

Artyom and his wife: “It’s hard to be alone in a city like Kherson,” says Holovnya

Holovnya, who is living in Kyiv, calls some of them collaborators. He says there are a few people that can’t leave. Many are older. Others have few resources. He says their lives are intense right now.

Since the war started, the city’s street markets have become a point of public interaction. Local bakers and farmers have been selling their produce at the street markets since most of the stores in Kherson are closed.

“You can buy most things, from starting with medicine and finishing with meat,” says Natalyia Schevchenko, 30, who fled Kherson this summer. It’s terrible to watch. They sell medicine on the hood of the car and cut meat on the side.

Schevchenko is still in contact with those in the city, even though he is volunteering at an Odesa nonprofit. She says she gets periodic updates from her grandmother.

Artyom and his wife talk if they have a good connection. They generally try to keep their conversations light; they worry that Russians are listening in.

It’s scary — but they agree it’s a good thing. They believe that it means that Artyom may be able to return to his hometown soon.

The Battle of Kherson, a Lost State of Ukraine, Revealed by the CNN Corresponding Report on the First Day of Retaliation

Bridges over canals and roads littered with anti-tank mines were just some of the sights our CNN journalists were forced to see when travelling through smaller towns and settlements.

Trenches and checkpoints were empty, quickly abandoned by Russians who on Friday announced they had withdrawn from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the strategic southern region of Kherson, leaving the regional capital of the same name and surrounding areas to the Ukrainians.

Billboards around the city that once read “Ukraine is Russian forever” have reportedly been spray-painted over with the message: “Ukraine was Russia’s until November 11.”

There are no water, internet and power in the city. But as a CNN crew entered the city center on Saturday, the mood was euphoric.

Once the scene of large protests against Russian plans to transform the region into a breakaway pro-Russian republic, the streets of Kherson are now filled with jubilant residents wrapped in Ukrainian flags, or with painted faces, singing and shouting.

The military presence is still limited, but huge cheers erupt from crowds on the street every time a truck full of soldiers drives past, with Ukrainian soldiers being offered soup, bread, flowers, hugs and kisses by elated passersby.

An old man and woman hugging a young soldier with hands on his shoulder, exchanging excited “Thank yous” as CNN stopped to regroup.

Everyone wants to understand what the occupiers went through, how happy they are, and how much they appreciate the countries that have helped them.

The battle for Kherson took place across the broad expanse of the Dnipro River after Russia retreated from it, making it a victory for Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Dnipro has become the new front line in southern Ukraine, and officials there warned of continued danger from fighting in regions that have already endured months of Russian occupation.

In the southern district of the city, there was evidence that the Russian army was poised to retaliate for the lost city by bombarding the eastern bank.

Mortar shells struck near the bridge, sending up puffs of smoke. Near the riverfront, incoming rounds rang out with thunderous, metallic booms. It was difficult to assess what had been hit.

The death of the Russian soldier in Kherson city by a mine attack: The state of the urban environment and the mayor’s surprise visit to Kherson

The head of the Kherson regional military administration urged the city’s remaining residents to flee so that Ukrainian forces could clean up land mines and search for Russian soldiers who had been left behind.

The mines are a significant danger. Four people, including an 11-year-old, were killed when a family driving in a village outside the city ran over a mine. The railway workers were working to restore service after lines were damaged. According to Ukrainian officials there were at least four more children who were injured by mines.

Even as Mr. Zelensky made a surprising visit to Kherson, the deaths underscored the threats that remain on the ground.

Mr. Zelensky said that they were going to come to everyone of our country step by step in the city’s main square.

The Ukrainian military attempted to target the Russian forces as they attempted to return to Kherson. The Ukrainian air force launched strikes on the east side of the river and said it had fired on 33 Russian positions.

“Occupants rob local people and exchange stuff for samogon,” or homemade vodka, said one resident, Tatiana, who communicated via a secure messaging app from Oleshky, a town across the river from Kherson City. They get even more aggressive after that. We are so scared that we can’t move. She wanted her name not to be said for security.

“Russians roam around, identify the empty houses and settle there,” Ivan, 45, wrote in a text message. He asked that his name be not used because of his safety concerns, and lives in Skadovsk which is south of Kherson city. “We try to connect with the owners and to arrange for someone local to stay in their place. So that it is not abandoned and Russians don’t take it.”

Many people in the country are without heat and power due to Russian shelling that has taken place in recent weeks.

The energy company Ukrenergo says that Ukraine disconnected nuclear power plants from the national electricity grid as a precautionary measure because of the Russian strikes.

The Mayor said on the Telegram messaging app one of the capital’s infrastructure facilities has been hit. He said running water has been cut off due to shelling throughout the city, and a 17-year-old girl was among those killed.

In his nightly address on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine had shot down 10 of the 15 drones that Russian forces used. It was not immediately possible to verify his tally.

Russian missiles hit the country as they try to punishUkraine for daring to be free, according to the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Russia’s attempts to dominateUkraine by plunging it into the cold and dark will fail.

The shutdown of the nuclear reactors of the Mykolaiv region and the consequences for the national electricity grid in the dark and cold of Ukraine

After a brief emergency shutdown, the nuclear reactors have been turned back on, but were still not reconnected to the national grid, the company added.

In the west of the country, one regional administrator, Serhii Hamalii, said on Telegram that most of the surrounding area was without power and water due to the Russian attacks. The Khmelnytskyi nuclear power station was taken offline.

Vitaliy Kim, the military administrator of the south of Mykolaiv, said the nuclear plant there had been cut off from the grid and it was leading to a risky shutdown of the reactor.

There are limits on consumption in the power system because of a significant deficit caused by months of strikes. Ukrainian authorities are engaged in the delicate work of trying to balance the national power grid, leaving many households without electricity.

“We cannot trust a regime that leaves us in the dark and cold, that purposely kills people to keep other peoples poor and humble,” President Maia Sandu wrote on Facebook.

Ukraine is scrambling to prepare for the winter. In a Tuesday night video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there are now 4,000 centers to take care of civilians if there are extended power cuts.

Vladimir Putin meets the military in Kiev: energy infrastructure strikes are a crime against the world, and he is going to do nothing for the whole universe

He called them “point of invincibility,” saying that they will provide water, phone charging and internet access. They will be in schools and government buildings.

President Vladimir Putin made rare public comments specifically addressing the Russian military’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure Thursday, while clutching a glass of champagne at a Kremlin reception.

He spoke to the group of soldiers receiving the awards. He said of the attacks, “yes, we are doing it. Who started it?

On October 8, a truck blew up on the strategic crossing, causing large damage. The Ukrainians have never been accused of wrongdoing but the Kremlin was quick to accuse them.

Last week Putin appeared on the Kerch Bridge, where he was shown repairs and drove a car across the structure that he himself officially opened in 2018.

He continued, “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk?” in his Kremlin appearance Thursday. Not supplying water to a city of million is an act of genocide.”

The Russian president made a comparison between the responses to attacks on Russia and Ukrainians, saying: noise, clamor, crackle for the whole universe.

He concluded the speech by adding that “it won’t interfere with our combat missions,” before raising a toast to the listening soldiers and sipping from his champagne glass.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/09/europe/putin-ukrainian-infrastructure-strikes-intl/index.html

Comment on “The Ukrenergo Government’s Damned Power Crisis” by the Ukrainian Attorney-General Martin Zelensky

In a statement in November, Ukrenergo acknowledged that the race to restore power to homes is being hampered by “strong winds, rain and sub-zero temperatures.”

A top Ukrainian official said the attacks on the country’s energy grid amount to genocide. The prosecutor-general made the comments while talking to the tv station.

Nonetheless, he said, the strikes, using Iranian drones, had left many in the dark. The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult, Mr. Zelensky noted, as only the most critical infrastructure there remained operational. He warned that although repair crews were working “nonstop,” restoring power to civilians would take “days,” not “hours.”

The constant attacks on the plants and equipment that Ukrainians rely on for heat and light has drawn condemnation from world leaders and put Ukraine into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power only to have it knocked out again.

In his remarks on Saturday night Mr. Zelensky said that there were continued power shortages in various parts of the country. Some are what he classified as “emergency” outages resulting from attacks. He called them’stabilization’ outs, which meant that they could be scheduled on a schedule.

The power system is not normal, and there is a shortage in the system, which he urged people to use less of.

Bakhmut’s wounded citizens are not as big as they think: How Tarasov spent his childhood in Kostiantynivka

It would have been different if air defense had not been used. Much bigger,” he stressed. This is another proof that support must be increased for the Ukrainian people.

As the Russian army intensifies its campaign to take Bakhmut, the shelling comes ever nearer to Kostiantynivka, 25 kilometres (about 15 miles) to the west. Since the beginning of the month, the town has been hit almost every day, the hospital director says.

Tarasov hid in his basement during the shelling. But last week he dared to venture out – to buy vegetables to make the national dish, borscht.

His face pales as he relays the graphic images still fresh in his mind. I would have blown apart had I not been wearing a leather jacket. I mean, my guts would have been all over the place… I lost a lot of blood. I remember seeing it — a huge puddle.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/europe/ukraine-bakhmut-injured-civilians-intl-cmd/index.html

Living in Ukraine during Covid-19: When an “invisible power” saved a Ukrainian soldier’s life, he flees to the hospital

Tarasov is a devout Christian and believes an “invisible power” saved his life. He was thrown in a pickup truck by the Ukrainian soldiers and driven to a hospital, which is one of the few places that can treat war-wounded civilians.

When Tarasov arrived, he begged the doctors to save his limb. “The first thing I asked was if I could have my arm sewn back on. It was just hanging in the sleeve when I saw it being torn off. My stomach was burning. I think it’s the intestines that are coming out. There was blood everywhere.”

When the attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure intensified in October, the non-profit SVOI Foundation anticipated the likely disruption in lifesaving at-home care. As at- home care requirements skyrocketed during the Covid-19 epidemic, the foundation advised patients to be prepared. In order to be safe, it advised people to buy generators, as well as patients to have doctors ready for hospital visits if at home devices stopped working.

She is a resident of Bakhmut. She came under artillery fire and suffered a shrapnel wound to her abdomen with damage to several organs. People with wounds are seen every day. Every day.

“It’s been quite loud lately,” Khassan El-Kafarna, a surgeon from Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF), stationed at the hospital, says. His colleague, nurse Lucia Marron, agrees. She believes there’s more movement around in general. We’re used to it. You get to a point where you understand what is dangerous and what is not.”

The local authorities want people to leave the region for a while. But for Tarasov, as for so many in Ukraine’s old industrial heartland, fleeing his home for a safer area had seemed impossible.

“If I had a lot of money, I would rather live abroad,” Tarasov says. Everything that I had saved up was invested there as I have no money. I did not have any money or a place to go.

The associate lecturer in Ukrainian at the School of Slavonic and East-European Studies is a special projects curator at the Ukrainian Institute London. She has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Birkbeck, University of London. Her time is between the UK and Ukraine. Her work is supported by a project. This commentary is her own and her views are never expressed in this one. View more opinion on CNN.

Dark Ukrainian fairy tales end with a happy ending: Ievheniia, grieving for her newborn baby in Warsaw, Ukraine

December is a month of fairy tales when we can peer into the darkness only to be reassured of the happily ever after.

We used to say that our life was like a dark fairy tale with a happy ending. Ievheniia, a Ukrainian woman in Poland who is nursing her two-month-old son and grieving for the father of his child, says that it is over.

Ievheniia had a newborn baby, so she was unable to return to Ukraine for her husband’s funeral. She wanted relatives to watch it for her. Russia’s attacks on critical infrastructure made the Internet connection in Ukranian unreliable and she got a few short recordings. Denys was buried in a closed coffin.

In this dark Ukrainian fairy tale, pivotal moments – from marriage ceremony to funeral – take place via video link. This is what love looks like in a time of war, shifted to the digital space and disrupted mid-plot.

Ievheniia, a 36-year-old PhD candidate working as an IT consultant, told me her story via a video call. She trusted a stranger with her pain to raise awareness about the fight which, since the start of Russia’s invasion in February, has claimed the lives of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers.

The festive season is under way in Warsaw. Christmas is on its way. People don’t want to be reminded that someone somewhere is suffering,” Ievheniia said. “And yet, they must be aware that this fight is unfolding right next to them.”

After driving westwards across the country under Russian bombardment, Ievheniia finally arrived at an enlistment office. She was told to come back the following Monday to sign a contract after she was interviewed on a Friday.

On the weekend, she decided to take a pregnancy test, just in case. She chuckled at the thought that the ground was slipping under one’s feet. I was pregnant on top of that.

The woman who planned to defend her homeland became pregnant and joined the flow of refugees looking for safety in Poland.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/opinions/ukraine-christmas-fairy-tales-death-dovzhyk/index.html

Ievheniia and Denys, two Ukrainian servicemen married via video chatting: The day of the birth of a little girl

Ievheniia and Denys wanted to show their partnership in the eyes of the state. The everyday ingenuity of the country at war was at work; now, Ukrainian servicemen are allowed to marry via a video call. We got married by a handsome man dressed in a uniform, instead of boring civil servants. Ievheniia had nothing to complain about.

Over the following months, Denys kept the magic alive via the Internet, with flower deliveries and professional photoshoots ordered for Ievheniia from the trenches.

When one morning she did not pick up the phone, Denys raised the alarm all over Warsaw and a rescue squad found Ievheniia unconscious in her rented flat. A delay could have resulted in death. A Caesarean section followed. Because the baby was born two months early, the father was able to meet his new son.

Under martial law, Ukrainian men of fighting age, let alone servicemen, are not currently allowed to leave the country. Yet as is appropriate for a fairy tale, Denys got permission, crossed the border, and spent five days with his family.

This was a time of ordinary things, filled with joy. He left after that. Ievheniia said that it was his birthday on November 17 and that they sent him greetings. He was killed the next day.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/opinions/ukraine-christmas-fairy-tales-death-dovzhyk/index.html

What is the time to be consoled? A tale of fables about ordinary people and Ukrainians, as written by italo Calvino

Italo Calvino, the celebrated Italian journalist and editor of folktales, among other works, called them “consolatory fables” because it is that a rare fairy tale ends badly. If it does, it means the time to be consoled has not yet come. Instead, it is time to act.

The narrative logic of a fairy tale should not make us believe in it. The wily kid is not going to use magic to defeat the monster. Ukrainian people need military aid more than any other thing to win the fight against Russia. Ukrainian victories are dependent on our collective effort.

“As a teenager, I was reading a lot of fantasy books and wondering how I would act in a fight against absolute evil. Would I be able to turn away and proceed with my daily life?” Ieva told me. “Today, all of us have a chance to find out.”

The last days of the family in Avdiivka, Ukraine: I stayed with Elena and Aleksander during the February 24 invasion

Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the country has been in a state of flux. The idea of what normal is has been revised by Ukrainians.

Currently, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Avdiivka doesn’t exist anymore. The town became an active battlefield soon after the start of the invasion, and it took a long time for the Russian military to destroy it. About 25,000 people have had to flee for their lives.

That’s all in the past now: With the beginning of this year’s Russian invasion, Nikolay enlisted in the armed forces while Olga and their children are staying with relatives in a village in central Ukraine. In this excerpt, Olga describes the last days of the family in Avdiivka.

Nevertheless, it was cozy here, and our team was always greeted with the smells of delicious food Elena had cooked to welcome us and the beautiful flowers she cultivated in whatever was left of her patio. Elena and Aleksander, like many others who live in ruralUkraine, rely on subsistence farming and worked in their vegetable garden to support their families, so they stayed in Avdiivka. They cleaned up debris and pieces of shrapnel and buried shell holes, all while continuing to cultivate the land.

Several shells landed in our garden in the middle of March, but did not explode. We were in the house. I went to the grocery store the next day after we needed bread. As I was on my way, a Russian fighter jet flew very low, and then it was shot down a little further away. A Ukrainian soldier stopped me and asked if I had seen a parachutist. A parachutist? I was afraid and couldn’t see the meter. ‘Well,’ the soldier said, ‘if you see him, hit him with a spade.’ As soon as I got home, I packed up the kids and we took an evacuation bus.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/12/16/1136962015/ukraine-war-photos-ukrainians-donbas

A close friend of Rodion and Elena Dyachkova leaves Opytne in the shadows of a Russian spherical shell

Elena and Rodion were heartbroken to leave Opytne and its elderly inhabitants, whom they’d been taking care of all this time, behind, but returning was not viable, either. Forced from their homeland of Donbas, they relocated to central Ukraine where they are still trying to find work and housing as they are often discriminated against by society and the authorities. About 30 of their elderly neighbors still remain in Opytne, which is now an active front line and has recently been captured by the Russian forces. Elena and Rodion have not been able to get in touch with other people.

Rodion and Elena were in Opytne until Elena was hit by a bullet in the backyard. The shrapnel landed a fraction of an inch from her spinal cord, and only by a miracle, the couple managed to get out of danger and to a hospital in time to save her life.

Elena Dyachkova and the Dokalenko’s German shepherd used to live in one of Avdiivka’s neighborhoods close to the front line. Their house had taken several direct artillery hits since 2014, and yet they were reluctant to abandon it. They kept it as best they could, with plastic covering, pieces of chipboard and closed doors that didn’t exist anymore.

The dog had saved the man’s life once. They were close to their home one night as Aleksander slept. At some point, Lord began to pull Aleksander out of bed by the arm until he woke up and followed the dog. The next moment, a shell struck and collapsed the wall.

When we met Aleksander this summer in a shelter for displaced people, he was evidently depressed. He was on the phone with Elena every day but, like so many displaced Ukrainians, they couldn’t decide what to do next and how to rebuild their lives.

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/12/16/1136962015/ukraine-war-photos-ukrainians-donbas

The sound of oxygen machines in Kyiv: a personal experience with a Ukrainian woman who grew up in a Russian city living on a lot of land

“I lived only 500 meters [0.3 miles] from work but it took me forever to get there every morning,” he recalls. “You begin walking, then hear a whistle in the air and run for cover into the nearest building. You stand there, and wait for an explosion, and it means it has landed somewhere else. Only until the next whistle is when you should continue walking.

During the summer months, it was less clear if there were signs of the war. “Normal” then meant bustling restaurants and bars and the mood throughout the city was joyful, as locals celebrated Russian withdrawals and Ukrainian victories.

The summer’s chorus of birds and street musicians gave way in the fall to more ominous sounds, like the steady purr of generators. Nowadays, the winter season in Kyiv consists of electricity, water and water connection disruptions that correlate with Russia’s near-weekly missile assaults on the city.

For Olena Isayenko, the beeping sound her oxygen machine makes when disconnected from power is far scarier than the screeching of the air raid sirens now commonly heard throughout Kyiv.

She suffers from respiratory failure, meaning she can’t breathe adequately on her own and must receive a constant flow of oxygen through an electrical ventilator just to stay alive.

Green tubes carrying oxygen run across Isayenko’s face as she speaks with CNN at the home she shares with her husband, on the 15th floor of a residential block in Kyiv. Her portable oxygen machine is her lifeline. When the air raid sirens sound, Isayenko is not allowed to get down to the bomb shelter because of the lack of power for her ventilator, but this doesn’t concern her more than the air raid sirens sound and the lack of power.

When I was in intensive care, I was surrounded by many machines and when there is no power, this machine makes a long beep. She told CNN that it sounds like a flatline.

Her family decided that it was too risky to stay at home after she had a few blackouts a few weeks ago. The electricity supply in the hospital is mostly unaffected. I felt underwater when I arrived at the hospital, and I thought I was going to faint. And the oxygen saturation in my blood was dropping quickly,” she said.

However, the price of generators has roughly doubled since the repeated blackouts began and people living in high-rise blocks are unable to use them in any case.

A journalist explains how Ukrainian citizens are chronically ill and need medical assistance at home: The problem of powering a car to operate a medical device

At SVOI Foundation’s warehouse in Kyiv, Koshkina showed CNN different machines required by patients who are chronically ill and need medical assistance at home. The situation is complicated because there are a lot of such people. There are chronic patients, (with) heart failure, chronic lung disease. Acute patients are next. There is less Covid, but it still exists,” she said.

She said that the foundation knows of patients who have spent hours hooking up their cars to charge their medical devices through cigarette lighters. Koshkina has not heard of anyone dying because of the lack of electricity. “Or at least we don’t know about them but there were cases of emergency hospitalization,” she added.

There is no official comment from the Ukrainian health authorities on the situation of people who need a continuous power supply to operate their medical equipment.

Kaminska needs to keep her grandson alive. He has cystic fibrosis, a chronic disorder that leads to mucus build-up in the lungs. Treatment using a nebulizer, a machine that turns liquid medications into a mist he can inhale, is essential up to eight times a day “otherwise his lungs are blocked and he won’t be able to breathe. It is like suffocating underwater,” she told CNN.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/europe/ukraine-blackout-medical-risks-intl-cmd/index.html

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Zelensky speaks to Russia and the Kremlin ahead of New Year’s Emitting-Eve Strikes in Ukraine

“They are doing all this to threaten us, to scare us… but we don’t want to become scared. We are free and we are strong. The disease did not break the children, she said.

Zelensky said “Russian leader is hiding behind the troops, behind missiles, behind the walls of his residences and palaces” and behind his people. He hides behind your country and your future. No one will ever forgive you for terror,” Zelensky emphasized.

In his address on Saturday Zelensky spoke Russian for the first time and sent a message to Russia and the Kremlin as they were hit with deadly strikes in several regions of Ukraine ahead of New Year.

Moscow intends to “intimidate, leave us in the dark for the new year, cause as much damage to civilian infrastructure as possible,” Shmyhal said on Telegram.

Three people died and three more were wounded in the Donetsk region, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram.

There is one wounded person in the Zaporizhzhia region. Two were killed and one was wounded. Two people were wounded in the Kherson region, while one died in the Chernihiv region.

There were 26 air strikes on civilian infrastructure. In particular, the occupants used 10 Shahed-136 UAVs, but all of them were shot down. In addition, the enemy made 80 attacks from multiple rocket launchers, civilian settlements were also hit,” the General Staff said in its latest operational update.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/31/europe/russia-ukraine-new-years-eve-strikes-intl/index.html

Alyona, President of the Ukrainian Embassy in Bakhmut and Avdiivka Directions, as reported by the U.S. Embassy

Russia continues to conduct offensive actions at the Bakhmut directions and is attempting to improve the tactical situation at the Kupiansk and Avdiivka directions.

“The municipal ‘life support system’ of the capital is operating normally. Currently, 30% of consumers are without electricity. He said on Telegram that he was due to emergency shutdowns.

The open section of the red metro line in the city had to be checked for the presence of missile debris.

“From 2023 I really want to win, and also to have more bright impressions and new emotions. I miss it very much. I also want to travel and open borders. And I also think about personal and professional growth, because one should not stand still. Alyona said that she needed to work for the benefit of the country.

“This year, it’s a symbol, not that it’s a small victory, but a symbol that we survived the year,” said Tatiana Tkachuk, a 43-year-old pharmacy employee.

“And I want to thank everyone who helps Ukraine. We’ve made a lot of friends. We had to go through bad times in order to understand that we have a lot of good things. But so many people are doing real miracles for Ukraine.”

Cities should be covered with joy and hope on New Year’s Eve. Ukrainian cities are again covered by missile wave from Russia,” Zelenska tweeted.

The noise of siren sirens in Ukraine during the early stages of pregnancy and beyond: Kateryna and Oleg, a young girl living in Ukraine

But as they begin 2023, they are also preparing for the arrival of twin boys. Kateryna, who is 34, is eight months pregnant. CNN agreed to use only first names for her and Oleg as they fear for their privacy.

She told CNN that on New Year’s Eve she tried to take a nap. “But I woke to the sound of explosions, and they went on through the night. The sirens were on for much of the night, until 4:30 a.m.,” she said.

When the sirens are silent, Kateryna said, there is another noise that has never been heard in her area: the chattering of generators as people and businesses try to make up for having no electricity for 12 hours a day.

Kateryna goes to central Kyiv twice a week to use the co-working spaces that have popped up across the Ukrainian capital.

These spaces have become quite professional, with furniture, heat, lighting and reliable internet, provided through Starlink terminals, bought from the company owned by Elon Musk.

Kateryna feels they are both involved in the effort to secure Ukraine’s future. She helped raise money for clothes and equipment for the Ukrainian army in the early months of her pregnancies.

Kateryna and Oleg are luckier than most Ukrainians in that they have a small generator at home, but they use it sparingly. There is always the risk of running out of diesel to power it – it uses a liter of fuel every hour and needs to cool down every four hours. They have to choose which appliance to use, it is lights or laundry.

Sometimes I have to use a flashlight because there isn’t enough food in the stores. They keep about two months’ worth of food supplies stacked in the house, just in case the situation goes from bad to worse.

“I have a job here; Oleg has a job here and he cannot work remotely. Many of our friends live here. For me it’s a nightmare to move somewhere else,” Kateryna said.

The company my husband is employed by has a fund which they use to help the Ukrainian fighters who are on the front line. She said they helped collect money for such equipment.

“I really want my children to live in a free Ukraine, I want them to be safe. They have the same rights as any other child in the world. I don’t want them to live in fear of dying from a Russian rocket, they should be happy and carefree,” she said.

She is concerned that she may be in the hospital during another wave of missile attacks. She said that she will pray very hard when the time comes.