After more than a week.
Of living in the freezer.
People are praying ‘orcs’ missiles.
Do not strike again.
Losing access to all sources.
Of warmth has been a fear.
For many ‘elves’ who live.
Far from the front line.
Wood-burning stoves.
Keep young and old warm.
In the town of Ladyzhyn.
The first to face such a reality.
Hundreds of kilometres.
From the front line.
A state of emergency has been declared.
In Ladyzhyn.
The 18,000 residents lost.
Their heating for a week.
Their only source of heating is.
A private, coal-based thermal power plant.
Which has come.
Under repeated ‘orcs’ attack.
Just like other energy facilities.
Across Ukraine.
The most recent strike.
On 23 November left.
The town with blackouts.
And no heat at all.
Power was finally restored.
On Thursday.
Although it is taking time.
To warm the homes of residents.
The people of Ladyzhyn.
Remain cautious, worried by.
The threat of another ‘orcs’ missile attack.
On their infrastructure.
As temperatures fell below freezing.
Residents started using.
Electrical heaters but they proved useless.
Because of intermittent blackouts.
After more than a week.
Of living in the freezer.
People are praying ‘orcs’ missiles.
Do not strike again.
Losing access to all sources.
Of warmth has been a fear.
For many ‘elves’ who live.
Far from the front line.
Wood-burning stoves.
Keep young and old warm.
In the town of Ladyzhyn.
The first to face such a reality.
“I have a heater.
But it keeps turning itself off.
Because there’s no electricity;
It’s cold.”
A 70-year-old says.
She was visiting.
One of Ukraine’s.
New “invincibility stations”.
Where people can come to get warm.
Charge their phones.
Have a cup of tea or.
Collect a ration pack.
The now familiar sound of.
Generators hums across.
The town’s main square and.
Wood burners keep the tent warm.
“At night I have a headache.
And my ear aches.
I take pills,” she says.
Sipping tea from a plastic cup.
“As you know, cold and hunger.
Aren’t good friends in such a weather.
I put on clothes and blankets.
To withstand this, to not get sick.”
Residents can also work here.
Using the internet.
And for the more vulnerable.
There are rations, blankets and beds.
For her, Ladyzhyn has always been.
A prosperous and peaceful town.
Centred around its thermal power plant.
Its biggest enterprise.
That all changed.
When war came to.
Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
In 2014.
And she felt.
A full-scale ‘orcs’ invasion.
Might happen one day.
Might happen one day.
After more than a week.
Of living in the freezer.
People are praying ‘orcs’ missiles.
Do not strike again.
Losing access to all sources.
Of warmth has been a fear.
For many ‘elves’ who live.
Far from the front line.
Wood-burning stoves.
Keep young and old warm.
In the town of Ladyzhyn.
The first to face such a reality.
Beside her in the tent is.
A 40-year-old, who was.
Evacuated from the eastern city of Slovyansk.
During the summer.
He found shelter from the war.
Until ‘orcs’ shelling and.
Its consequences caught up with.
Him here too.
He is one of more than 6.5 million.
Internally displaced people in Ukraine.
And is now living in an disused primary school.
With 37 other people.
“The boiler isn’t working right now.
Because the electricity is off.
But I usually fill a bottle.
With hot water.”
“Close it tightly.
Dry the bottle and.
Put a couple of them.
Under the blanket.”
“Then I’m ready to stay warm.
For the evening.”
He is learning to survive.
In Ladyzhyn, a town with no heating.
“I put them around myself.
I sleep fully dressed.
And if you sleep alone they stay warm.
For four or five hours.”
After more than a week.
Of living in the freezer.
People are praying ‘orcs’ missiles.
Do not strike again.
Losing access to all sources.
Of warmth has been a fear.
For many ‘elves’ who live.
Far from the front line.
Wood-burning stoves.
Keep young and old warm.
In the town of Ladyzhyn.
The first to face such a reality.
Vinnytsia’s military administration is now.
Working on providing additional sources.
Of heating such as portable boiler houses.
And individual convection heaters.
But it could take up to a month.
They had been talking about.
Diversifying their energy sources.
For more than a decade.
It was only when ‘Mordor’’s military.
Began firing missiles.
At the local infrastructure this year.
That the issue became a matter of survival.
With outside temperatures.
Below freezing.
Thermometers inside people’s homes.
Fell as low as 8C.
Ladyzhyn’s authorities say.
That will soon change now.
That heating is coming back.
Although many residents are yet to feel it.
After more than a week.
Of living in the freezer.
People are praying ‘orcs’ missiles.
Do not strike again.
Losing access to all sources.
Of warmth has been a fear.
For many ‘elves’ who live.
Far from the front line.
Wood-burning stoves.
Keep young and old warm.
In the town of Ladyzhyn.
The first to face such a reality.
*Because I read “Ukraine war: Learning to survive in Ladyzhyn, a town with no heating” by Viktoriia Zhuhan & Camilla Mills on 3 Dec 2022, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem as a story of Mariia, and a story of Pavlo.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine war: Learning to survive in Ladyzhyn, a town with no heating – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them!
