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There are acts of love that can only be told in the privacy of a kitchen with candles. Above all, if they imply a silenced “I love you” to a military son who prepares his return to the front line of battle. Oleksandr hasn’t found it yet handwritten message hidden by his mother under the patch of the uniform or, at least, not answered. In the war there are so many ways to say goodbye, that each one fits it in their own way.
they express it There Y Victor in a dark room Shevchenkovea small town northeast of kyiv which the Russians took in March. A month later, with the liberation and strong presence of troops, they began to receive soldiers. Food, bed and heat that the Army recognized with an official thank you plaque. The profession of his son had little to do with that decision, yes the rapes and executions of their neighbors at the hands of the invader. War wounds made them rear guard soldiers.
They are many and nothing organized. Pavlo donates 70% of his salary to the Army; Dimko he organizes campaigns to raise funds and buy material that he himself transports to the front; Firewood runs an NGO that provides psychological support to kids displaced from the occupied territory, and many millions more like Andrii, Luda or Anatoly survive with limited electricity and water in the struggle of a country that needs all of civil society to beat the kremlin.
For two months, the russian military strategy has concentrated on broad attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. All regions of the country have suffered long blackouts this week, symbolic of the anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum in which Ukraine handed over its nuclear arsenal in exchange for the defense of its territorial integrity. The new Russian doctrine is clear: punish the people and provoke a humanitarian crisis that forces Volodimir Zelensky to sit in the negotiating table.
The people will tip the balance
“Putin can take away our electricity and kill us, but he will not win the war,” he says Oksana in Lviv, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest front line. She says it by warming her hands in a dark shop where he sells fur coats. Although in the country as a whole the import of generators It’s multiplied by ten, she can’t afford one. The elimination of tariffs and other government measures have not prevented prices and shortages of batteries they shoot.
Conscious of the suffering of a population already punished, with seven million refugees and as many internally displaced persons in the countrythe members of the NATO (including Spain) are sending a significant number of generators. USA, has even announced a game of 1,100 million dollars to stabilize the energy sector of Ukraine and Moldova. However, on days with temperatures below zero and with the harsh winter on the horizonthe key question is another: will the population be able to endure?
“Electricity is the most important thing, without it the water systems do not work, nor the light of houses and businesses”, insist from the regional Administration of Kherson. We talk about employment and well-being, but also about food, hygiene and health.
Since they began drone and missile attacks against energy infrastructure in October, the outrages in the kyiv region they have increased by 55% due to the lack of lighting. Hospitals postpone non-vital interventions and health workers operate in operating rooms with the flashlights of their mobile phones.
The situation was foreseeable and required the Ukrainian authorities to ask the refugees from neighboring countries to delay their return until the spring, to save energy and survive the winter. “Unfortunately, the consumption limit of many regions has already been exceeded by now, so they are applying blackouts emergency”, lamented this Wednesday the state energy operator, ukrenergo.
A hole in the accounts
The reconstruction of the country it will be slow and expensive (the World Bank figure for the moment in 600,000 million, slightly less than half of Spanish GDP). The problem now is to find the formula to continue forcing the economy of a country at war and with most of their workforce wielding rifles in the mud.
According to the US Institute for Peace, Ukraine generates a monthly deficit of 5,000 million monthly in Budgets, not including military spending. By the end of the year, estimates indicate that the country’s debt will rise from 50% to 95% of the GDP.
“The Army is prepared to die, but victory depends on two factors: that the population resist the winter and that the arms supply don’t stop,” he confesses. IvanDubei, lieutenant colonel of the A1129 Antiaircraft Regiment.
fearing a possible abandonmentthe Ukrainians know that, if the successes in the counteroffensive, international aid will dwindle. That is why they push an Army that aspires to continue its progress during the winter to make Putin fail in his fight to seat Zelensky to negotiate.
Sitting between walls that witnessed an air strike that nearly killed her daughter, Irina Maniukina sums it up like this: “We are not in the military, but our mission now is to stand our ground and work hard. We are the Army of the rearguard”. It’s been a long time since Ukraine he understood that his only option is to fight until the end. In the trenchesand away from them.
