XPost: alt.survival, alt.politics.immigration, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: talk.politics.eu
Residents collect rainwater from drainpipes and huddle in the few cafes
with power after a barrage of deadly Russian air raids.
Published On 25 Nov 2022
Residents of Ukraine’s bombed capital clutched empty bottles in search
of water and crowded into cafés for power and warmth, switching
defiantly into survival mode after new Russian missile strikes on
Wednesday plunged the city and much of the country into the dark.
In the city of three million, some residents resorted to collecting
rainwater from drainpipes, as repair teams laboured to reconnect supplies.
The aerial onslaught on Ukraine’s power grid left many with neither.
Oleksiy Rashchupkin, a 39-year-old investment banker, awoke to find that
the water supply had been restored to his third-floor flat but the
electricity supply had not. His freezer thawed in the blackout, leaving
a puddle on his floor.
So he hopped into a cab and crossed the Dnieper River from the left bank
to right, to a café that he had noticed had stayed open after previous
Russian strikes – sure enough, it was serving hot drinks and food, and
the music and WiFi were on.
“I’m here because there is heating, coffee and light,” he said. “Here is
life.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said about 70 percent of the Ukrainian
capital was still without power on Thursday morning.
As Kyiv and other cities picked themselves up, Kherson on Thursday came
under its heaviest bombardment since Ukrainian forces recaptured the
southern city two weeks ago. The barrage of missiles killed four people
outside a coffee shop and a woman was also killed next to her house,
witnesses said, speaking to The Associated Press news agency.
In Kyiv, where cold rain fell on the remnants of previous snowfalls, the
mood was grim but steely. The winter promises to be a long one. But
Ukrainians say that if Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intention is
to break them, he should think again.
“Nobody will compromise their will and principles just for electricity,” said Alina Dubeiko, 34. She, too, sought out the comfort of another,
equally crowded, warm and lit café. Without electricity, heating and
water at home, she was determined to keep up her work routine. Adapting
to a life shorn of its usual comforts, Dubeiko said she uses two glasses
of water to wash, then catches her hair in a ponytail and is ready for
her working day.
She said she would rather be without power than live with the Russian
invasion, now in a tenth month.
“Without light or you? Without you,” she said, echoing remarks President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made when Russia on October 10 unleashed the first
of what has now become a series of aerial attacks on key Ukrainian infrastructure.
Western leaders denounced the bombing campaign. “Strikes against
civilian infrastructures are war crimes,” French President Emmanuel
Macron tweeted.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov acknowledged on
Thursday that it targeted Ukrainian energy facilities. But he said they
were linked to Ukraine’s military command and control system and that
the aim was to disrupt the flows of Ukrainian troops, weapons and
ammunition to the front lines. Authorities for Kyiv and the wider Kyiv
region reported a total of seven people killed and dozens wounded.
Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said: “We are conducting strikes against infrastructure in response to the unbridled flow of weapons to
Ukraine and the reckless appeals of Kyiv to defeat Russia.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also sought to shift blame for civilian hardship on Ukraine’s government.
“Ukraine’s leadership has every opportunity to bring the situation back
to normal, has every opportunity to resolve the situation in such a way
as to meet the demands of the Russian side and, accordingly, end all
possible suffering of the civilian population,” Peskov said.
In a strange new wartime first for her, 31-year-old health department
employee Kateryna Luchkina resorted to collecting rainwater from a
drainpipe, so she could at least wash her hands at work, which had no water.
She filled two plastic bottles, waiting patiently in the rain until they
had water to the brim. A colleague followed behind her, doing the same.
“We Ukrainians are so resourceful, we will think of something. We do not
lose our spirit,” Luchkina said. “We work, live in the rhythm of
survival or something, as much as possible. We do not lose hope that
everything will be fine.”
The city mayor said on Telegram that power engineers “are doing their
best” to restore electricity. Water repair teams were making progress,
too. In the early afternoon, Klitschko announced that water supplies had
been restored across the capital, with the caveat that “some consumers
may still experience low water pressure”.
Electricity and water were gradually coming back elsewhere, too. In
Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the governor announced
that 3,000 miners trapped underground because of power blackouts had
been rescued. Regional authorities posted messages on social media
updating people on the progress of repairs but also saying they needed time.
Mindful of the hardships — both now and ahead, as winter progresses — authorities are opening thousands of so-called “points of invincibility” — heated and powered spaces offering hot meals, electricity and internet connections. More than 3,700 were open across the country as of Thursday morning, said a senior official in the presidential office, Kyrylo
Tymoshenko.
In Kherson, hospitals without power and water are also contending with
the gruesome after-effects of intensifying Russian strikes. They hit residential and commercial buildings on Thursday, setting some ablaze,
blowing ash skyward and shattering glass across streets. Paramedics
helped the injured.
Olena Zhura was carrying bread to her neighbours when a strike that
destroyed half of her house wounded her husband, Victor. He writhed in
pain as paramedics carried him away.
“I was shocked,” she said, welling with tears. “Then I heard [him] shouting: ‘Save me, save me.’”
SOURCE: AP
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/25/bombed-not-beaten-ukraines-capital-flips-to-survival-mode
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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.
- George Orwell
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