Weaponization of Winter in Ukraine. Community Preparedness and Resilience.

Give Warmth. Give Light. Give Hope.

In the early hours of October 3, 2025, skies over Kharkiv and Poltava glowed orange as 381 drones and 35 missiles struck Ukraine’s gas and energy infrastructure. It was the largest attack on natural gas facilities since the full-scale invasion began. For the fourth winter in a row, Russia is trying to turn cold and darkness into weapons of war.

Every year, the pattern repeats: power plants targeted, heating lines severed, families left without light, or heat, or water. President Volodymyr Zelensky has just announced $36 million to reinforce energy defenses, but the attacks are relentless and endanger civilians.

At Nova Ukraine, we see the human cost—and the human response. Our mission bridges emergency support and long-term recovery. Through our BUILD pillar, which supports infrastructure and winter support projects in Ukraine, we make sure that every act of relief also builds Ukraine’s future capacity to endure.

Across the country, 56 Points of Invincibility—created in partnership with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation—keep people warm and connected when the grid collapses. These autonomous hubs are powered by generators, Starlink internet, and clean-water systems, with 45 including dedicated children’s rooms. Since 2022, more than 4.5 million Ukrainians have accessed these hubs.

Near frontline towns that struggle without heating or gas, Nova Ukraine, together with our partner RATEC, manufactures and delivers nearly 4,000 portable stoves, produced locally to sustain both families and jobs. We’ve supplied 2,051 generators to hospitals, schools, and shelters, and 6 solar stations now power water systems and clinics in Mykolaiv, Odesa, and near frontline communities.

These projects started as emergency measures; they are becoming the backbone of resilience. That is what BUILD means: connecting today’s survival to tomorrow’s recovery and reconstruction.

In Kharkiv, we help hospitals serve tens of thousands of hot meals each month—even under fire. In Kirovohrad, two schools heated by new solid-fuel boilers keep their doors open for 345 students, half of them displaced from their homes. These small systems sustain something irreplaceable: the classrooms, clinics, and community centers that prove life goes on.

While Ukraine’s government fortifies the national grid, we fortify the people who depend on it—the doctors, teachers, parents, and volunteers who rebuild every morning after the lights go out.

Putin’s weaponization of winter is both cruel and calculated. But Nova Ukraine and our partners are building something stronger than his strategy: resilience. Together, we’re keeping Ukraine warm, connected, and unbroken.

Give Warmth. Join us at Nova Ukraine.