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Return to Ukraine

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I write this as I return on the Przemyśl to Kharkiv train, after a 3-week break in England and Iceland (where the title photo was taken). I was away for the 4 year commemoration of Russia's brutal, illegal invasion of Ukraine. It was almost 4 years ago that I began a journey that has really transformed me, from Krakow to Lviv to Odesa to Kharkiv (nearly 2 years ago). This could be a very bleak post. The bombardment of Ukraine continues, against energy and transport infrastructure, and civilian homes. More than a million Ukrainians have been without electricity, heating and water during the coldest winter in years, with temperatures dropping to -20C and below outside, and to 5 or 6°C inside apartments. This cynical bombing campaign is sometimes described as the kholodomor (death by cold). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/24/four-years-ukraine-invasion-russia-gains-small-ukraine-remains-resilient?CMP=share_btn_url A person walks down a street in central Khar...
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Winter, bombing, resilience...

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A few nights ago Kharkiv was bombed for more than three hours. According to the city's Mayor, strikes targeted energy infrastructure, seemingly with the cynical goal of inflicting maximum destruction and difficulty on the coldest night of the year, I believe, with a low of -24° C. In order to prevent freezing of the network, city authorities had to drain the coolant in the heat supply system of 820 houses, serviced by one of the largest power stations. There was disruption of electric transport (underground trains, trams, etc, which has continued) so additional bus routes were launched. "Kharkiv will survive," Ігор Терехов (Ihor Terehov), Mayor, wrote in his Telegram channel, 03.02.2026. That night was nearly a repeat of the previous week, when 25 Shahed drones attacked the city over a period of 2.5 hours. 46 people were injured, including two children; one woman died. Apart from the short-lived 'truce' over last weekend, when attacks on energy infrastructure paus...
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Cold

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  The temperature of -19°C is shown on the House of Trade Unions, next to the Independence Monument on Independence Square, Kyiv, 15 January (Getty Images/AFP/Sergei). According to ChatGPT, linguists generally say that, across all human languages, there are likely hundreds, possible thousands, of words for snow and ice, and as many or more for describing cold, although I don't feel that we use many of them. My favourite for feeling extremely cold is "bone chilling," which is what we're experiencing now in the depths of winter in Ukraine. Today's daytime temperature of - 11/- 12 degrees centigrade is about my lower limit for being able to walk around comfortably, with all my layers, including a thick winter coat and good boots... These are the temperatures here in Kharkiv for the next week. So far, I'm lucky to be able to return to a cosy, warm apartment, although who knows for how long? In Kharkiv, on 15 January, Russian strikes destroyed a large critical ener...
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New Year

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It's hard to write with much hope and positivity for the New Year, given the scant prospect of peace in Ukraine in the near future and and the precarious state of the world elsewhere.  At the end of last year the Mayor of Kharkiv, Ігор Терехов, posted the following statistics. 728 shellings of the city. Air raid sirens: • in the region — 2403 signals, 4791 hours 20 minutes (this is 200 days) • in Kharkiv — 1826 signals, 2590 hours 56 minutes (this is 108 days) Injured : 973 people, including 106 children. Killed: 41 people, including 3 children. In 2026 we have already started a new toll of deaths and injuries, following 2 Russian missiles that hit a high-rise residential building in the centre of Kharkiv, mid-afternoon on 2 January. As bodies are still being pulled from the rubble, the death toll increased to five today, including a 3-year-old boy and his mother. Two people are still missing. It's hard to see how anyone survived this. Recently, I visited a small photographic ...
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