Fiona4Ukraine

  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...

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 ...