Surviving the cold without electricity in Ukraine

An aging population threatened by cold and lack of shelter

In areas close to the front line in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, the majority of MSF’s patients are over 50 years old and live with chronic conditions that are now being exacerbated by the extreme cold and lack of proper shelter. “Today we were in a village that had an hour and a half of electricity for the whole day,” says Ivan Afanasiev, an MSF doctor. “Even our medical team was cold — imagine how the residents must feel. Patients have more difficulty controlling their blood sugar levels and blood pressure, and people with disabilities who cannot move to warm themselves are more vulnerable to hypothermia.”

“It's not just people who are living on the streets,” explains Roman Horenko, an MSF anesthesiologist. “Due to power and heating outages, people cannot get warm in their own homes. We treated an older woman who had been lying at home for several days, struggling to move after suffering a stroke. Eventually an ambulance brought her to the hospital in Dnipropetrovsk, where we treated her for dehydration and hypothermia."

Even people in places farther from the front lines, like Kyiv and Vinnytsia, are feeling the impact of the power cuts. Some of the most extreme drops in temperature and power cuts have occurred in Kyiv. 

“The last few weeks of life in Kyiv have been more like survival than living,” says Anhelina Shchors, MSF communication officer. “The feeling of constant cold haunts us, with temperatures reaching minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and no way to warm up at home. It seems that spring will never come.” 

“Seeing mobile kitchens for those who can no longer make food at home is painfully reminiscent of images of Kyiv during World War II,” says Shchors.

Covering windows with pillows and blankets

Our MSF colleagues in Ukraine are also facing these same hardships. Kseniia Lipynska, MSF procurement supervisor in Dnipro, had her windows shattered during a drone strike. 

“Drones attacked a nearby power station, and I saw the flames through the kitchen window,” says Lipynska. “The explosions were getting closer, so my parents and I sheltered in the hallway while the force of the strikes shattered our windows.”

“During a pause between explosions, I ran to quickly put on some warm clothes,” she adds. “We covered the broken windows with boards, but it didn’t help. Now we block the windows with pillows and blankets. It's so cold inside that ice has formed on the blinds.”

The level of destruction meted out to residential buildings is widespread and reconstruction and rehabilitation can be slow. With additional costs due to inflation, some people question whether they should fix their homes — knowing there is a chance it will all be undone again.

As a coping mechanism, Ukrainians share jokes and memes about the war, as bombings and drone strikes continue to damage homes and wound or kill people almost every day. Instead of saying goodnight to friends and family, many now wish one another a “silent night” out of hope that they will not face bombing before morning.