Bracing for winter in Kharkiv, one of the worst war-hit cities in Ukraine
Bracing for winter in Kharkiv, one of the worst war-hit cities in Ukraine
Kharkiv is among most vulnerable cities in Ukraine this winter due to relentless Russian attacks.
Three years after the invasion, despite the devastation, thousands remain in Saltivka — people with nowhere else to go, or those who have fled from even more war-ravaged towns, seeking whatever shelter they can find.
A woman passing by a destroyed apartment block in Saltivka.
Olena and Kostiantyn moved to Saltivka from Chuhuiiv, a small town located some 40 kilometres from Kharkiv. After the Russian shelling destroyed the heating system in their town, their only option was to move into their son’s apartment in Saltivka, which had stood empty since he and his family fled the war to Germany. But the apartment was far from livable.
“When we arrived in autumn, all windows in the apartment were damaged. Pigeons were living in here. Every day we can hear the drones, but we shelter behind two walls. We live on the eight floor, and we are not young anymore, so we cannot run up and down every time," Olena says.
As part of the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) winter assistance programme, UNHCR and its NGO partner the Angels of Salvation, replaced all windows and a balcony door in Olena’s home, so when the first cold arrived, they were able to stay protected from the freezing temperatures. "Now it is much more comfortable, and with the new windows we are able to stay warm," Olena shares.
Despite challenges, Olena and Kostiantyn hope that the war will end soon and their family will return home from Germany.
UNHCR is supporting a total of 2,400 families in the Kharkiv region with window replacements to help people stay warm in their homes. The new windows are triple glazed and are made with tempered glass, which is not only stronger and more resistant to breakage, but also designed to reduce the risk of shattering into dangerous shards during an airstrike.
For those living in private houses, like Larysa, increased energy and heating costs is a main challenge during winter. She is 72 years old and lives by herself, after losing her elderly mother in 2022. All her life, Larysa worked in a heating facility and now struggles to heat her own house with a stove. This winter, UNHCR provided her with cash assistance which she used to buy a big deliveryof firewood:
“My husband passed away and I have no children. My pension is very small, so this assistance helped me a lot. I am using firewood to keep my home warm, and I feel that we are not forgotten.”
Cash assistance for fuel is vital for people living in the private houses, like Larysa.
During this winter season, UNHCR is providing one-off cash assistance to internally displaced and war-affected people living in nine regions that have been the most affected by the ongoing war: Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Chernihiv.
This initiative is implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Policy and the Pension Fund to support the most vulnerable people, many of whom rely only on their small pensions.
Larysa is still coping with grief after losing her mother, and she finds solace when visiting one of the “warming points” established by the authorities in Kharkiv, where warm meals are provided daily to vulnerable residents in the neighborhood. Here, she is able to meet and socialize with other people who find themselves in difficult life situations due to the war.
UNHCR has supported 20 such facilities in the city, providing refrigerators, microwaves, power banks and kettles, while also delivering a generator to one of the “warming points”. Having an alternative source of energy will ensure that the facility will run and provide crucial support to people even during the recurring power cuts.
A warming point in Kharkiv provides daily warm meals to people in need.
By the end of 2024, UNHCR’s winter response has supported over 275,000 people with specific vulnerabilities, including internally displaced people and people remaining in frontline areas where access to critical services is severely disrupted. This assistance included cash support, house repairs and insulation, provision of Rapid Thermal Kits to improve home insulation, installation of roofs, windows and doors, as well as support to collective sites hosting displaced people and delivering generators and power stations to the most affected communities.
The winter response will run until March 2025 in coordination with the Government of Ukraine, and as part of the broader inter-agency winter response planLink is external.
Oleksii Barkov and Elisabeth Haslund contributed to this story.
