As autumn sets in across the northern part of the world, Ukraine faces the winter months. Russia is targeting Ukrainian cities like Kyiv, their power plants and other infrastructure using missiles and drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that over the past week Russia has destroyed 30 percent of the country’s power plants. This has caused “massive blackouts across the country.” As temperatures near zero Celsius, Ukrainians who have not fled the war ready themselves for winter. Artem Panchenko is nine years old. Recently, he helped his grandmother tend a fire in their temporary, outdoor kitchen near their old apartment. Just like hundreds of thousands of other Ukrainians, Artem and his grandmother are facing difficult conditions. They have been living without natural gas, water, and electricity for about three weeks since Russian missiles cut off utilities in their town, which is in the Kharkiv area of eastern Ukraine. They survive by wearing warm clothes and cooking outside. As Artem helped his grandmother cook, he said, “It's really cold. I'm sleeping in my clothes in our apartment. Roman Semenukha is an official in the Kharkiv government. He said that officials are working to restore electricity to the area in the coming days but that repairs to water and gas lines will come later. Officials are giving firewood to citizens instead. He said that only after water and gas lines are repaired “…will we be able to begin to restore heating.
