No heating. No light. No stove for cooking. Since Putin had his power stations bombed, nine million Ukrainians have had no electricity – and therefore mostly no heating or water. This is how winter becomes a weapon of war: at sub-zero temperatures, people threaten to freeze to death.
“Without electricity you are paralyzed. You freeze. You can’t work, you can’t cook, you can’t wash, you can’t sleep well, you can’t charge your mobile phone,” says Kseniia Priewe. She tries to help: in Opfikon ZH, the young Ukrainian stores goods that she has collected with her aid organization.
The linguist has been living in Switzerland for six years. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, she founded the ukrainehilfe.ch association. With her husband Thorsten, she traveled to a Slovak community on the border of the war zone, distributed clothing donations, sorted sleeping mats and received refugees. “Today, people in Ukraine have no electricity for heating. Warm clothing only helps to a certain extent.” Thorsten Priewe, an engineer at a Swiss electricity company, lifts a large box into his van with his colleagues: “What is urgently needed are generators.”
Ten generators in the trunk
Priewe will leave for Ukraine this Wednesday. In the trunk, he has ten medium generators worth about 8,000 Swiss francs. “One family even donated the money intended for their Christmas presents,” says Kseniia Priewe, moved, looking up at the sky with tears in her eyes. Her relatives live not far from Crimea under Russian occupation.
Shortly before Christmas, the federal government sent several trucks with 40 mobile heaters and 40 generators from Bern to the Ukraine. And while the general willingness to donate among the population has been declining for some time, the Swiss from all cantons are sticking to their commitment on a smaller scale. Clubs collect power banks, flashlights, thermos flasks, candles and winter coats.
Delivery in Poland
“Hau ruck” – and the last generator is in the hold. Minutes later, Priewe turns the ignition key and drives off. Tomorrow he would arrive in the Polish town of Przemysl, near the border. There he wants to transfer the cargo to a local aid organization, which will transport the urgently needed equipment to the countryside in Ukraine.
He will not be alone on the way back. “An acquaintance of ours has fled to Poland and is coming with us.”