CHERNIHIV, Ukraine -- “We have bought three carloads of various kinds of firewood,” said Iryna, an employee of the central heating plant in the city of Chernihiv, some 150 kilometers north of Kyiv and 40 kilometers south of the border with Belarus. “We got the cheapest they had at the sawmill. Good firewood costs at least 6,000 hryvnyas ($165) per carload."
“This is pine,” she said, showing a reporter around the modest pile that she hopes will get her family through the coming, cold winter. “It burns quickly and gives little heat. We also bought a load of scrap lumber for 4,500 hryvnyas ($123). We will stay warm somehow.”
Iryna -- who, like the other locals interviewed for this story asked that their last names and images be withheld because of the ongoing Russian invasion -- lives in a house of some 100 square meters in the settlement of Zhavynka, on the southern edge of the Chernihiv. Because of her job, she has seen with her own eyes the damage inflicted on the city’s heating and electricity infrastructure by recent Russian air attacks targeting civilians.
“I hope it will survive the winter,” she said.
The government in Kyiv and the international community have denounced the Russian attacks, which have struck facilities across the country. Officials said on October 22 that some 1.5 million homes have been left without electricity and that about 40 percent of the country’s electrical grid had been damaged by the attacks, which began on October 10.
Authorities in Chernihiv, with a prewar population of some 285,000 people, have warned residents that the heating season this year will be a difficult one and have advised them to make preparations quickly. Locals have been stocking up on firewood, either buying it or raiding nearby forests. Social media platforms are full of “life hacks” on how to keep warm when temperatures are below freezing.
'It's Better With Heat'
Iryna lives with her husband, her son, and her retired parents.
“My father advised me years ago not to throw out the wood burner,” she said. “Friends then were telling me it could cause problems with the gas heater. But father left it in. Although it is old and ugly, we are now thanking God we have it.”
The city has faced hardship since the early days of Russia’s invasion in February. It spent several weeks under Russian siege before Moscow’s initial thrust toward Kyiv was stymied and the Russians withdrew in April. During those days, people ran out of gas supplies and there were frequent blackouts. People made homemade stoves to cook in their yards. Now locals are dusting them off again, installing them inside their homes or even in the cellars where they shelter during attacks.
“Suppose you have to sit there for a few days,” Iryna said. “It’s better with heat.”
Volodymyr is a doctor with a private practice in Chernihiv. He, his mother, and an aunt have been gathering firewood in the forest.
“We collected small branches for kindling,” he told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. “We have a wood burner that heats the house and can be used to cook food as well.”
The family lives in a small house that was built by Volodymyr’s father some 40 years ago. He never finished it and now extra bits of unused lumber are being held in reserve in case it’s needed for heat this winter.
“What we were preparing for the construction,” Volodymyr said, “we will now burn to keep warm.” He added that other locals were preparing to chop up furniture or dismantle wooden outbuildings.
Valentyna is a pensioner who lives alone in a first-floor apartment in a residential district on the edge of Chernihiv. She said she is used to cold winters as the city doesn’t heat generously even during peacetime.
During the siege in February and March, the temperature fell to 7 degrees Celsius in her apartment.
“I slept in my clothes,” she recalled. “There was no water, no electricity, no gas. Today there is water. Only cold water, but still.”
She has electrical heaters but knows she might not be able to rely on them. For now, she doesn’t use them because of calls to minimize consumption.
“The whole country is saving electricity,” she said. “How can I turn on the heater when I need to save electricity?”
“I keep warm in the kitchen when I’m cooking,” she said. “I can heat up two large pots of water…. The steam warms the apartment a bit.”
Valentyna spends much of her time in the kitchen, embroidering remembrances of Chernihiv’s war dead.
