Planning, Not Reacting: Ukraine’s Rescuers and Nova Ukraine Prepare for Winter Side by Side
On the tenth floor of an apartment building on Kyiv's left bank last January, Svitlana could not bathe her three-year-old daughter, Arina, or cook her a hot meal. After strikes on the energy system, they had gone more than three days without heat or electricity, in temperatures as low as -18°C. So she wrapped Arina in layer after layer and took her down ten floors of a dark stairwell to a heated tent that Ukraine's State Emergency Service had set up outside. There they could warm up, eat something hot, charge a phone and talk with a psychologist. Millions of Ukrainian families lived some version of that winter. When the power goes out, heat and water often go with it, elevators stop, and anyone who depends on electricity for medical treatment is suddenly at risk. UNICEF, which documented families like Svitlana's, observed that darkness and freezing temperatures intensify fear and stress for children. For the rescuers of the State Emergency Service, known in Ukraine as DSNS, a winter like that changes the job. They still fight fires and search damaged buildings after attacks. But when power, heat, and water fail, they also put up warming tents, install generators, and help residents get through the outages. Last winter left them, and everyone working alongside them, with a plain lesson: the time to prepare for an emergency is before it happens. Ukraine Is Preparing Earlier This Winter
