N After getting up, my first walk was to the heater. Cold! There was snow outside and the thermometer showed minus 9 degrees.
Russian missiles and drones flew over Kyiv all night long. Explosions could be heard every ten minutes. That’s why I decided to sleep in the hallway. The nearest shelter is too far from my apartment. So I took important documents, phone, notebook, power bank and the new dress that I had recently bought. It would be a shame if it were destroyed by Russian drones.
For the people of Ukraine, war has become part of everyday life. Despite the mortal fear of air raids and fighting, life goes on: people go to work, school and university. They love, laugh, get married, have children, go on vacation. They mourn, worry – and hope for peace. ➝ to the column
At around 3 a.m., I was reading the news on Telegram and saw drones and their debris flying over Kyiv apartment buildings. And in this half-dawn state I eventually fell asleep again.
Without heating, electricity and water
In the morning the heating stopped working. Electricity and water were also gone. I was lying on my makeshift bed in the hallway and didn’t feel like starting the day. And I was scared because the forecast was 17 degrees frost. And then no heating! How can you survive like that? In cartoons about superheroes, people become snow sculptures or blocks of ice in such situations. And when it gets warmer again, they thaw out again and keep running. So are Ukrainians now superheroes too?
Yuliia Shchetyna
Ukrainian journalist and producer from the Kherson region, 28 years old, lives in Kyiv. Master in Cultural Studies. Since 2022 she has been working on a news and analysis project about the lives of people in the south of Ukraine during the war. As a producer, she creates the history project “Deokupowana istoriia” (Liberated History) about Russian myths in southern Ukraine.
The power stayed off all day. In the evening I drove to the office with a friend to charge my phone and notebook. Our conversation lifted my mood and everything felt a little easier. And so we decided together to go on a little trip the next day: to the frozen Kyiv Sea.
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The Kyiv Sea is a reservoir – just 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian capital. This year there is really ice and snow here, so the lake has frozen over and turned into an endless white expanse, almost like Antarctica. Kyiv residents have already chosen this as their new photo spot on social media. And we also wanted to take a little inspiration from it.
Like an icy fairy tale
You can only reach the lake with your own car. Most buses don’t go that far. The road was slippery and not everything had been cleared. Pieces of ice and frozen snow lay in the middle. It was like an icy fairy tale. It had rained the week before, then suddenly a severe frost came and everything iced over almost overnight: trees, bushes, roofs, power lines. Fairytale-like, but also worrying – because icy pipes mean new challenges for energy suppliers. And a long time without electricity.
Half an hour later the Kyiv Antarctic lay before us. The sun was shining and so it felt almost warm despite the minus 13 degrees. Many people were traveling with sledges and skis. They drank tea from thermoses and took photos, and so did we. And then we just lay down in the snow and looked at the sky for a few minutes.
For me, in moments like this, time simply stops. The noise of the city falls silent, job deadlines disappear from my mind. But the most important and beautiful thing is that for a while you forget about the war and the missiles that are flying to kill you.
After an hour we drove back. It was already dusk in Kyiv and the power still hadn’t returned. But the heating worked again. Hurray, I won’t become a block of ice! Everything is a little easier now.
I warmed myself by the heater like a fireplace. And I caught myself thinking: We are learning to be happy about things that we didn’t even notice before. The warmth in the house, the water from the tap, the light in the room – everyday things that now become events. And even though the war tries to take our lives every night, we stubbornly fight to get it back.
From Ukrainian Gaby Coldewey