Kyiv residents find ways to cope with blackouts and cold

Описание: (6 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv, Ukraine - 6 February 2026
1. Wide emergency shelters, or so-called “Points of Invincibility"
2. Wide of people inside shelters
3. Mid of person laying on the couch
4. Mid of women working on computer
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Volodymyr Yefemchuyk, Kyiv resident:
"We do not have electricity, there is a very little heat. At night I sleep under a thick blanket, a wool blanket and another a blanket. It is cold."
6. Mid of student Olha Molishevska
7. Close of Olha Molishevska drawing on computer
8. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Olha Molishevska, student:
"Overall everything is not good. There is almost no electricity all day. It is impossible to do full-time work. In terms of studying it is also very bad, as you can't connect (to internet) while we have online classes now. Internet can not connect, I cannot communicate normally. I paint and I need to do my homework on the computer, so I come here to paint."
9. Mid of shelters
10. Close of generator at work
11. Mid people queuing for hot meal
11. Various of hot meals being distributed
12. Close of meal
13. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Irina Evtushok, volunteer at charity foundation Dopomoga.aet:
"Our task, as it seems to us, is to unite and support ordinary people, because this is our war and we need to stand up and survive while our guys on the front line are fighting for the existence of our nation. We are trying to support people here to share love and goodness because it is very difficult to give something positive at this time."
14. Wide of pensioner Mykola Tromza playing football
15. Close of football
16. Mid of Mykola Tromza playing football
17. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Mykola Tromza, pensioner:
"We didn't have water for a whole week, we had a bit of cold water, there was no hot water, there wasn't any heating, the temperature in the apartment was plus 4 (degrees Celsius), the steam was coming out like now. I was touching the nose and God, it was like a icicle and it lasted for a week. You see, I have survived. I was coming out running back and forth, back and forward, and I am alive and healthy. Do you see?"
18. Mid of Mykola Tromza running
STORYLINE:
Ukrainians are packing into emergency shelters, or so-called “Points of Invincibility” in Kyiv to cope with blackouts caused by Russian strikes on the country's energy sector.

For many, they have become a lifeline, offering a place to work, charge phones, or simply escape the cold inside their apartments.

Each shelter provides heat, electricity and mobile communication for people stranded by Russian strikes during record cold weather.

“It is cold,” says 76-year-old Volodymyr Yefemchuyk, a pensioner from Kyiv speaking to The Associated Press.

“We do not have electricity, there is very little heat. At night I sleep under a thick blanket, a wool blanket and another blanket.”

Eighteen-year-old student Olha Molishevska says she comes to the 'Points of Invincibility' to do her homework.

“There is almost no electricity all day. It is impossible to do full-time work. I paint and I need to do my homework on the computer, so I come here to paint,” Molishevska says.

Charity foundations also operate in Kyiv to provide residents with hot meals. People queue for food they cannot cook at home.

Irina Evtushoko says her foundation Dopomoga.aet distributes up to 700 meals per day.

“Our task, as we see it, is to unite and support ordinary people, because this is our war and we need to stand together and survive,” she says.




AP video by Dan Balashov

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