Winter is coming: Ukrainians dig in for brutal season ahead
As temperatures drop below freezing in eastern Ukraine, those who haven’t already fled from the heavy fighting, regular shelling and months of Russian occupation are now facing a brutal winter
KIVSHARIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Nine-year-old Artem Panchenko helps his grandmother stoke a smoky fire in a makeshift outdoor kitchen beside their nearly abandoned apartment block. The light is falling fast and they need to eat before the setting sun plunges their home into cold and darkness.
Winter is coming. They can feel it in their bones as temperatures drop below freezing. And like tens of thousands of other Ukrainians, they are facing a season that promises to be brutal.
Artem and his grandmother have been living without gas, water or electricity for around three weeks, ever since Russian missile strikes cut off the utilities in their town in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region. For them and the few other residents that remain in the complex in Kivsharivka, bundling up at night and cooking outdoors is the only way to survive.
“It's cold and there are bombings,” Artem said Sunday as he helped his grandmother with the cooking. “It's really cold. I'm sleeping in my clothes in our apartment.”
