In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, starting a full-scale war. Having failed to seize Kyiv, and after the slowdown suffered in the various ground operations in the Donbass due to the strenuous resistance of the Western-backed Ukrainian army, Russia changed its war strategy as winter approached and began attacking power stations, resulting in an extreme state of cold and darkness forced upon the population left to endure the harsh Ukrainian winter. With more than half of the country lacking electricity, heating, and water, the situation in Kyiv and its suburbs is particularly difficult. The areas destroyed in the first months of the war are continuously targeted by missile and drone attacks on a near-daily basis, and, during winter, the temperatures drop as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius. After two years under an ongoing state of war, a difficult winter is once again imposed upon the people of Ukraine.
