'We can get through it'

Kyiv citizens brace for a harsh winter

- Julian Borger

The residents of Kyiv taking shelter in their local "invincibility station" were well aware that their own morale has become the central battlefield of the war, and it is not territory they are prepared to concede to Vladimir Putin.

The insulated grey tent set up on a street corner in the Pecherskyi district of Kyiv, one of thousands established around the country last week, was offering electricity, warmth, tea and sandwiches after the latest Russian onslaught.

"It's like 24 February, when the invasion started, and the beginning of March, when people really came together," said Maryna Honcharova, who was bundled up in a winter coat in the middle of the tent. If this was Putin's grand plan for grinding down the will of the people, she added, it had backfired. "It just makes the anger towards Russia grow stronger. We just curse and hate Russia more."

There were murmurs of agreement from around the tent. Those who had been chatting in Russian earlier switched to Ukrainian to drive home the point.

A salvo of cruise missiles had knocked out the national power grid last Wednesday, and with it the water supply for much of the country. On satellite images, Ukraine stood out as a pitch-black island. Kyiv was dark that night apart from a few public facilities and businesses with generators.