Joy needs numbing. The population cheers in the streets and in the squares. For eight months, the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Kherson was in the hands of the occupiers. Now the Russian troops have retreated to the other bank of the Dnieper. The provincial capital is again Ukrainian. Soldiers are hugged, journalists are greeted with yellow and blue flags. When President Volodymyr Zelensky (44) showed up in a surprise on Monday and sang the national anthem, tears even flowed.
A young man sums up the mood. “Thank you, dear friends. I’ve always believed in our liberation,” he tells SonntagsBlick. But then he tells what the liberation costs: “We can’t charge our cell phones, we can’t call our families. We have no electricity, no water. But we will survive!”
Temperatures down to minus 25 degrees
Winter is coming. Cold snaps down to minus 25 degrees are not uncommon. The first snow has already fallen in Kiev. And it is not only in the liberated areas of the war-torn country that a humanitarian catastrophe is brewing. More than 140,000 homes have been destroyed since the invasion began. The United Nations estimates that more than nine million people are currently in need of assistance.
Nearly seven million people are on the run in Ukraine. More than a million people are in poorly heated public buildings such as schools or gyms. Putin’s army’s barrage of missiles destroyed about 40 percent of power systems. Tuesday saw the heaviest shelling since the Russian invasion. Sometimes tens of millions of people were without electricity. Particularly affected: the regions of Odessa, Kiev, Vinnytsia and Sumy.
Politicians and aid organizations are now announcing winter aid. At its November 2 meeting, the Federal Council approved an action plan worth CHF 100 million. The primary goal is to rebuild the energy infrastructure in Ukraine. The European Commission is proposing a €18 billion loan to restore destroyed buildings and secure energy and water supplies. The G7 meeting of foreign ministers in Münster in early November promised a winter aid package. Generators, heaters, living containers, tents, beds and blankets are intended to help the Ukrainians through the harsh winter.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) coordinates a regional relief plan for refugees with partners such as UNDP, WHO, Save the Children, HelpAge International, Intersos, Project Hope, UNFPA, NRC, Unicef, WFP and IOM. In Switzerland, organizations such as Swiss Solidarity, the Swiss Red Cross, Helvetas, Caritas and Medair provide both financial and practical support, supplying water, food, medicines and pellet stoves.
Urgent measures overslept
In the eyes of Kilian Kleinschmidt (60), this help often comes too late. The German entrepreneur and former head of several UNHCR refugee camps has been to attacked Ukraine six times as an adviser. “Hardly new homes have been built and hardly any container villages have been built. Windows and building materials are missing. Far too little came from abroad. Large institutions have simply overslept these urgent measures.” But now it’s getting hard to get anything going.
“A combination of emergency measures is needed: emergency shelter, building materials, repairs. For example, manufacturers could have produced 10,000 living containers worldwide. That would have taken six months. You should have started all this in April or May. We knew what was in store for Ukraine,” Kleinschmidt told SonntagsBlick. With the 862 million euros donated in Germany alone, it would have been possible to build 500,000 square meters of apartments in addition to housing containers and house 100,000 people. The refugee expert warns : “Many Ukrainians will leave the country to spend the winter in other European countries.”
Poland also expects a new wave of refugees from the neighboring country. 1.3 million displaced people have already been taken care of. And now more than 100,000 new places in collective housing have been prepared, Polish Integration Minister Agnieskza Scigaj (47) said on Radio Plus. The Ukrainian government is now appealing to those who have fled abroad not to return home for the time being.