Mother struggles to keep children warm and fed amid power outages in Ukraine capital

Описание: (3 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv, Ukraine - 2 February 2026
1. Wide of Yuliia Dolotova and other people waiting in line in front of food truck
2. Close up of volunteers from World Central Kitchen organisation pouring food into plastic can
3. Dolotova waiting for the food
4. Close up of hands taking the food
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Yuliia Dolotova, Kyiv resident:
"I am not the only one like this in the country right now. All day long, there is no electricity, no way to cook food for the kids. Pretty much everyone is in this situation."
6. Wide of people waiting in line for lunch
7. Close up of feet of people on the ice
8. Volunteers from World Central Kitchen organisation providing food
9. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Yuliia Dolotova, Kyiv resident:
"Even when our building is sourced with heating, when I wake up in the morning, it is 10 or 12⁰C in the apartment, and I see ice on window sills.
10. Dolotova and her 18-month-old son Bohdanchyk
11. Various of Bohdanchyk in baby stroller
12. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Yuliia Dolotova, Kyiv resident:
"This is my third stroller. The previous two broke. They break quickly on the stairs when I carry my child and groceries. My husband is at war, so I have to do everything myself."
13. Various of Dolotova and Bohdanchyk in baby stroller going home

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv, Ukraine - 2 February 2026
++NIGHT SHOTS++
14. Various of building in the dark where Dolotova lives with her family
15. Dolotova and her son entering the building
16. Various of Dolotova pulling up baby stroller with her son step by step to her apartment on the sixth floor
17. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Yuliia Dolotova, Kyiv resident:
"I repeat this routine several times a day. We wake up with the child in the morning and go outside, because the child needs fresh air. We go outside, go to the store, buy groceries, and climb to the 6th floor, using the stairs. Then we go outside again for a walk and return home."
18. Various of Dolotova pulling up baby stroller with her son
19. Dolotova entering her apartment with no electricity
20. Various of Dolotova taking off winter clothes from her son and their dog walking around
21. Dolotova's two sons Bohdanchyk and Daniil (11) sitting in the dark and looking at the phone
22. Close up of children, zoom out showing dark due to lack of electricity
STORYLINE:
On the edge of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, volunteers ladle hot soup into plastic containers as residents wrapped in heavy coats queue for a meal they cannot cook at home.

Yuliia Dolotova, a mother of two, is among them, waiting with her 18-month-old son, Bohdanchyk, bundled in layers against the biting cold.

Life, she says, has been reduced to the most basic essentials: warmth, light and food.

“All day long, there’s no electricity, no way to cook food for the kids. Pretty much everyone is in this situation,” Dolotova, 37, said.

She lives in Troieshchyna, one of Kyiv’s hardest-hit districts, battered by repeated Russian attacks since the full-scale Russian invasion four years ago. Russian strikes using drones and missiles have left hundreds of thousands of people without heat or electricity as temperatures plunge as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit). The harsh winter is expected to continue in the coming weeks.

Without heat, water pipes in the district have also frozen and burst, adding to the strain on daily life.





Dolotova's husband is serving in the Zaporizhzhia area — one of the war’s most volatile sectors.

AP video by Srdjan Nedeljkovic
Production by Volodymyr Yurchuk



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