As winter tightens its grip on Ukraine, cold itself has become a weapon of war, deliberately unleashed through systematic attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure. With temperatures plunging well below freezing, millions of civilians are being forced to survive without heat, electricity or light — a strategy observers describe as psychological warfare aimed at breaking public morale.
Since mid-autumn, repeated Russian strikes on power and heating systems across eastern, central and southern Ukraine — including Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv — have resulted in daily blackouts. For weeks, residents endured a grim cycle of four hours with electricity followed by four hours without, day and night.
Cities plunged into darkness and cold
On January 9, a massive attack on Kyiv’s energy grid left around 6,000 residential buildings — nearly half the city’s housing stock — without heating. Similar strikes on January 20 and 24 again cut power to thousands of the same buildings. These outages coincided with temperatures falling to between minus 15°C and minus 20°C at night.
According to Ukraine’s economy minister, Oleksii Sobolev, damage to the energy system over just three months is estimated at $1 billion. Yet officials say no figure can capture the human cost of living through a winter intentionally turned into terror.
‘Kholodomor’: echoes of historical trauma
Ukrainians have begun calling this reality “kholodomor” — death by cold — evoking memories of the Holodomor famine of the 1930s. Then, hunger was the weapon. Now, it is winter.
Human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk has described working wrapped in layers of winter clothing indoors, refusing to complain despite the hardship. Across Kyiv, families heat bricks on gas stoves, pitch tents inside apartments, and sleep in thermal gear.
Survival, defiance and war crimes
Despite the suffering, daily life continues. Emergency workers repair heating pipelines in frozen rivers. Shops allow stray animals inside for warmth. Young people organise generator-powered gatherings as acts of defiance.
Observers say the objective of Vladimir Putin’s campaign is not only physical destruction but also to turn civilians against their own government. Many argue the deliberate targeting of civilian heating systems in winter amounts to a war crime.
As history once failed Sarajevo, Ukraine’s winter siege is unfolding in real time — demanding recognition, accountability and urgent global attention.