In an interview with ERR, Estonian volunteer aid worker Triinu Perve, who is now in Kyiv, said the situation in the Ukrainian capital is very difficult. The lack of electricity means temperatures inside residential buildings have fallen extremely low.
What is the situation in Kyiv right now? Is there electricity today (January 23 – ed.)?
The Conditions are difficult. We hardly get any electricity. It all depends on the day. We use an app to monitor how much electricity we will have during the day.
In the morning, we had it for two hours, then it disappeared for five hours. After that, it came back on for about an hour, and now it’s gone again. We’re just waiting for it to come back on.
What is the temperature in the rooms where you are living and in general for people in Kyiv at the moment?
I’m still doing okay, it’s 10-12 degrees Celsius in our room. When there is electricity, we turn on the electric radiator, because the radiators on the walls are cold.
Central heating is very limited. I was just watching the news. They said that around 3,000 households are completely without heating.
How are people coping when their apartments are as cold as it is outside – and it’s freezing outside?
They are coming up with all sorts of ways to keep warm: some put hot water bottles under their blankets, others build brick stoves that they heat with candles. Others still warm themselves with gas-fueled stoves in the kitchen. In some apartments, the temperature has dropped to almost 1 degree Celsius. That, in turn, causes the radiators to burst.
How is your water supply? Are you able to wash and use the toilet?
We have water. At least we have it when we have electricity. When there is no electricity, there is no water either. Because of this, we buy large five-liter canisters of drinking water from the store. We are able to wash and use the toilet, but the situation is, of course, very difficult.
Triinu Perve. Source: ETV
How are people coping with this situation? Are they leaving Kyiv?
Some people have left. According to the Mayor of Kyiv, around 600,000 people have left the city. I don’t know how accurate that figure is. Those who can afford it have bought EcoFlow (a portable charging station – ed.). Those who have more opportunities have bought generators that can be placed on balconies.
But Ukrainian pensioners receive an average of €50 per month. You can’t buy an EcoFlow for €50. I think it’s even harder for pensioners than for young people.
What is the mood like at the front?
People are tired, but still full of hope. No one is giving up. It’s just hard and cold. It’s very cold at the front. I myself have tried to find more EcoFlows or generators to send to the front. After all, all the drones are working thanks to these charging stations and they are used to warm up equipment. They are not only necessary to keep people warm.
The situation is such that people are trying to cope as best they can. I haven’t seen anyone give up, but you can see from the faces of the men and women that they are getting more and more tired. Everyone here is tired.
Sometimes it seems as if it is even safer at the front than in Kyiv. A couple of days ago, Kyiv suffered one of the largest attacks on its entire energy infrastructure. It seems to me that Russia is not going to stop in that regard, and so we are waiting here every day to see what happens next. There are still more energy facilities that can be targeted.
This morning, more sad news arrived, showing how hard the energy workers are working here: some workers who were restoring power supplies died from exhaustion. These workers are heroes just as much as the men on the front lines. There is no difference between them. People see them as heroes because they really do work around the clock to provide everyone with hot water and electricity.
Winter is not over yet. How cold is it in Kyiv now, and what do the forecasts show?
Today it was -8C, yesterday it was -10C. The forecast shows a slight drop. It definitely won’t get any warmer. It’s not tempting to go outside, and it’s also difficult to walk there because all the streets are covered with ice. Absolutely everywhere you look, there is ice. The entrances to the metro are all covered in ice. People are showing photos of their houses, where the entrances are simply covered with a thick layer of ice.
Tents in central Kyiv, where people can go to help keep warm. Source: SCANPIX/AP Photo/Dan Bashakov
It’s very difficult, and it’s probably hard for other people to imagine what’s going on here. Everyone is trying to stay positive, but this is how it looks: you go outside, and at some point, for example, when you are in a grocery store, it becomes pitch black because the electricity has been cut off again. Although they are trying to restore it, it is really difficult to predict anything. The main sound you can hear on the streets is generators.
More and more help is needed precisely because there are fewer and fewer helpers. People are tired of all this, and perhaps soon they will also tire of hearing how much this help is needed, but the situation truly is extremely difficult and critical.
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