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Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid continued over the weekend. The repeated attacks have left cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with long interruptions to electricity and heating. NPR's Joanna Kakissis reports from Kyiv as the country faces the toughest winter since Russia's full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENERATOR RUMBLING)
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: At a train station in suburban Kyiv, a large generator powers a sleeper railcar that's stationary. It's serving as a temporary shelter from the cold. In one of the compartments, 11-year-old Stas Leschenskyi (ph) is doing his biology homework.
STAS LESCHENSKYI: It's the third day when I come here. It's warm. We has always electric. I'm never there alone.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Laughter).
KAKISSIS: He waves at other boys and girls here. Their parents are at work. A shelter manager minds the children. Stas says he wears his coat inside his house, but it's still too cold to concentrate. I ask him about his bedtime.
Like, at night when you go to sleep, how many blankets do you have on your bed?
STAS: Like, five.
KAKISSIS: And under that pile of blankets, Stas is often awake because of Russian attacks, listening to explosions.
STAS: That's really scary because I hear boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.
KAKISSIS: Yes.
STAS: Or one big boom.
KAKISSIS: Yeah.
STAS: When something is flying, and you don't know - it's really just come to you and boom.
KAKISSIS: More children arrive. Bohdan Pavlov (ph) is also 11 years old. He says this railway shelter has become like a second home during the blackouts.
BOHDAN PAVLOV: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "Trains have this vibe that really calm me down," he says. "I almost forget about the war."
(SOUNDBITE OF GENERATOR HUMMING)
KAKISSIS: For days in Kyiv, residents have been crunching through the snow, looking for ways to warm up. Inessa Rozhdestvenska (ph) says she and her two young daughters, ages 2 and 5, take long walks. They stop wherever they can to fill up thermoses with hot water to use at home.
(CROSSTALK)
KAKISSIS: The family climbs into a bus that's been turned into a mobile shelter. They warm up with cups of tea and instant noodles.
INESSA ROZHDESTVENSKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "At home, we cook using this gas campfire stove. But you can't really make a proper meal on it," Rozhdestvenska says. This winter has become a real test because of the children. She loves Kyiv but says the winter blackouts may force her to leave it. She and others say that's exactly what Russia is trying to achieve.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: At a nearby apartment building, personal trainer Polina Liutikova is making Greek coffee on her stove. She has electricity after a week without it. Liutikova says she understands why some people want to leave Kyiv right now.
POLINA LIUTIKOVA: I think it's normal reaction of your body and your brain to protect yourself, but I don't know where to go. And of course, I will not leave my family here. My mom will not leave because of grandparents.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENERATOR CHUGGING)
KAKISSIS: As night falls, a mobile soup kitchen opens in another part of Kyiv. Svitlana Koida (ph) and her husband Ihor (ph) enjoy steaming bowls of bograch, a smoky goulash. The couple moved to Kyiv from Eastern Ukraine. Their hometown is occupied by Russian forces. They've already been displaced twice.
IHOR KOIDA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "We don't have anywhere else to go," Ihor says. "Nobody is waiting for us."
SVITLANA KOIDA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "We will survive this," Svitlana says, "as long as the Russians don't shoot us."
I KOIDA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: And Ihor says, "look; it's not that cold here. It is much colder in the trenches."
Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF OUR-FI'S "DECAY IN A DESERT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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