After running her stiff fingers across the keys, Ukrainian piano teacher Yevgenia retreated to her fort of mattresses and sheets to escape the cold that reigned in her Kiev apartment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that the country would declare a “state of emergency” in its energy sector, battered by massive Russian strikes and shutdowns as temperatures plunged to -20C.
A Russian barrage of drones and missiles last week left half of the Ukrainian capital without heating, prompting mayor Vitali Klitschko to ask residents to temporarily leave the city if he can.
Six days later, some 300 apartment buildings still lack heating and the capital is facing prolonged emergency power cuts, imposed by authorities to ration precious supplies.
In Yevgenia’s flat, the temperature was hovering at a chilly 12C.
The heating in her building connected to the city’s electricity grid is cut off with every blackout, as the backup batteries don’t have the capacity to take over.
“We have been without power for 12 hours,” she told AFP. “And that’s not even the worst case scenario.”
Every hour without power, the temperature in her living room dropped further.
“Every day that passes, we are getting closer to zero.”
– ‘To break people’ –
Armed with her flashlight and her cat by her side, Yevgenia descended into a pocket of warmth inside the apartment: a makeshift mattress castle.
The temperature inside reached 24C.
“This idea came to me yesterday at midnight,” said the 32-year-old, surprised by its effectiveness.
“I just wanted some kind of feeling, I don’t know, of security, of childhood.”
Russia has crashed Ukraine’s power grid every winter since it invaded in February 2022, attacks Kyiv says are intended to hurt civilians.
“This is an attempt to break people,” Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Kiev-based Energy Industry Research Study Center, told AFP.
He accused Russia of trying to lead big cities “into a man-made disaster, into an absolute crisis.
“Right now the situation is the most difficult of the entire war in terms of power supply and heating in several key regions,” he added.
In Kiev, the glow of the headlights of cars and the lamps of runners dot the streets of the city that were otherwise frozen and repaired after sunset.
The sound of Russian attack drones mixed with the low hum of power generators.
But the residents did not dare to look up to check the threat from above, their gaze fixed on the road ahead to avoid slipping.
People have exercised by candlelight in gyms, cut their hair by the light of headlamps, and scanned supermarket shelves using the light from their mobile phones.
Without electricity in the houses, fridges served as shelves and balconies as freezers.
– No ‘disaster’ –
The city has also set up large, heated tents where hot meals are distributed.
But amid the crisis, politics was also at play.
Zelensky blasted city officials for the response.
“Too little has been done in the capital”, he said in a video address on Wednesday.
Mayor Klitschko, political rival and former heavyweight boxing champion, hit back.
Such statements “reduce the altruistic work of thousands of people,” he said on Telegram, denouncing messages of “hate” directed at him.
Zelensky ordered an urgent increase in the volume of electricity imports to help turn the lights back on.
Meanwhile, Yevgenia was waiting for the winter to end in her blanket fort, accompanied by her phone, her power bank “and the kitty, of course.”
“The cat is precious,” she said.
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