“People said that it is easy to survive without light, but the real problems begin when there is no heat.”, — write: www.unian.ua
People said that it is easy to survive without light, but the real problems begin when there is no heat.
To cook food and warm up a little, Ukrainians even make bonfires / collage UNIAN, photo UNIAN, screenshotDue to the lack of light and heat, Ukrainians are forced to invent unusual ways to keep warm. How people survive in Ukrainian cities during the war and one of the harshest winters in recent years, CNN told.
After a large-scale attack by the Russian Federation on January 8, hundreds of thousands of homes in Kyiv and other cities were left without electricity and heating. The air temperature dropped to -19 °C, and in some houses indoors only about +10 °C was recorded, which is much lower than the norm recommended by the WHO.
Journalists talked to Kateryna Skuridina from Kyiv, who said that she goes to bed in a thermos, two sweaters and a scarf, and also covers herself with a down blanket and two blankets. And her secret weapon is the cat Pushok, which acts “like a heating pad”.
She has several blackout-protected portable chargers and gadgets at home. The apartment is full of artificial USB candles, Christmas lights and tourist lanterns. But when there is no heat, it becomes very difficult, says the woman.
“Actually, electricity is not that necessary””It is very difficult psychologically. Now that there is no heating, I realized that I don’t really need electricity that much. When you have heating but no electricity, everything is fine,” she said.
To improve her mood during outages, the woman visited the gym, but it was also closed recently, “because there is no heating and it’s very cold.” So now “you can’t go anywhere”. Skuridina ordered a lot of things from online stores that help to overcome the cold a little.
“In a moment of desperation, when it was very cold, I ordered everything I saw. Everything I liked,” she said, pointing to a product made from a clay pot and some tea candles.
According to her, this device “works like a fireplace for your hands.” It won’t heat up the room, but if you sit next to it at the computer, it will still warm up a little.
Journalists saw how Pushok Skuridina’s kick began to eat soup. The woman assumed:
“Maybe because it’s warm? He usually hates it.”
There is not even anything to heat the water onIn Ukraine, many schools do not work because they are unable to heat the premises to a safe temperature. Many shops, cafes and restaurants that would normally provide some shelter to residents were also forced to close temporarily.
It is said to have been so cold this week that some diesel generators, vital to keep the lights on during blackouts, stopped working.
Iryna Palandina, a resident of Kyiv, said that on Thursday she was forced to go to the point of invincibility, because she had no electricity, water or the ability to cook food at home.
“We came to drink tea, because I don’t even have anything to heat water. After the last attack, it became very difficult. Before that, we more or less coped. I always thought that our family was prepared. We have an inverter, uninterruptible power sources, batteries… But when there is only two hours of electricity a day, they simply run out of power and do not have time to charge,” the woman explained.
In social networks, Kyivans who have more hours of daylight actively offer their help to those who do not have it. And in some residential complexes, during power outages, neighbors gather in yards to cook food together over a bonfire and chat. Videos are also circulating on social media showing people grilling meat, drinking hot drinks and dancing to keep warm.
“Conditions force us to constantly experiment”Serhiy Salata, the owner of the company “Im Salata”, which grows lettuce and other products on specialized indoor vertical farms in Kyiv, shared his experience of survival. He explained that in order for plants to survive, temperature, light and the amount of CO2 in the air need to be as stable as possible, which is a difficult task during constant blackouts.
The company has solar panels and a generator to power critical parts of the system, but is still partially dependent on grid power:
“Conditions force us to constantly experiment. For example, I need to calculate the temperature in the room in such a way that if the lights are turned off for four hours, the temperature will not drop below a critical level.”
The situation with light and heat in UkraineAs UNIAN previously reported, as a result of the attacks of the Russian Federation on January 17, emergency power cuts were introduced in Ukraine on energy. The previously announced power outage schedules in individual regions have ceased to be valid. Energy workers are working to restore a stable power supply as soon as possible.
As for the heating situation in Kyiv, there are now about 50 houses without heat. As Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said, the situation is improving little by little, the damage in some houses is now being repaired.
It became known that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, instructed to urgently accelerate the increase in the import of electricity from partner countries. “All the solutions for this are already in place, and the increase in imports should take place immediately,” he emphasized.
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