TORETšK A thin blanket of snow crunches underfoot. In the morning, the thermometer shows -12 degrees Celsius in the Donetsk region.
The roar of war can be heard in the background, but the 6-year-old Kseniya and 10 years old Daniel have ventured out to play.
– If there is snow, we do something about it, Danil explains the course of the game.
Ksenija says that many of the friends have moved away. It’s sad, but luckily there is Danil and the older brothers.
Toretšk is located less than ten kilometers from the front line of the war.
Russia’s goal is to conquer the entire Donetsk region, including Torechki. However, Russia’s strongest attack is currently directed at the city of Bahmut, which is located twenty kilometers northeast of here.
Children think that projectiles flying over houses are scary.
– When it explodes, I don’t like it at all, says Danil.
The upper floors of the house next door were completely destroyed in the Russian attack. Ksenija points in that direction.
– We were awake when it hit, mother and I. The whole sky was white, like a thunderclap.
The cold makes things even worse
Now the frost has brought a new challenge. Around the corner, people are fetching domestic water from a big blue tank.
It hasn’t frozen over, even though at night the frost approached twenty degrees.
– We get drinking water separately from food distribution points. Of course we are afraid, humans and animals, says the woman filling the water canisters.
He says that residents are given wood and coal for heating. However, in apartment buildings, most people depend on electricity, which is “regularly and irregularly”, the woman says.
There are many poorly insulated Soviet-era apartment buildings in Toretški.
A man in his seventies lives in one of them Lydia. He says he fled his home village, which is right in the middle of the fighting.
The top floors of Lydia’s apartment building are badly damaged after the Russian attack, but Lydia’s room is surprisingly cozy.
– Last night, the electricity started working. That’s why it’s nice and warm here.
Lydia has two electric heaters that smolder at almost full power. Enter the door quickly so that the heat does not escape from the apartment.
– It was five degrees warm in my room before the electricity started working.
Lydia says that she can get by with humanitarian food and medical aid, but there is almost no money for anything else.
He goes outside for walks, but there is a lack of company because most of the neighbors have left the city because of the constant gunfire.
– There are a lot of loud explosions. Of course I’m scared and a lot, but what can I do. There is no way out of this situation, Lydia sighs.
The mayor wants people to leave
We will meet in one of Toretški’s humanitarian warming centers Vitaly Chenchekthe city manager responsible for the civil and military administration of Toreshki.
Čentsek sighs when asked about people who don’t dare to leave the city.
– We do everything we can to get people to safe areas. But we cannot force them.
There are still around 16,000 inhabitants in the Toretški region. Before the Russian invasion, 70,000 people lived in the area of the mining town.
According to Chenchek, humanitarian aid is absolutely necessary, but at the same time, in a way, also a problem.
– We offer people food aid, medicines, coal and firewood. People get by with them and don’t make the decision to leave. Now we should invest a lot in refugee centers so that we can show the residents where they can go.
Three humanitarian warming centers have been established in Toretški. People can come here. In addition to heat, food and medical assistance are available.
– We can accommodate close to a thousand people here, but that’s only in an emergency. This is not a civil shelter.
Čentsek thanks international help. Now there is a strong need, especially for powerful generators and everything related to the storage and production of electricity.
– Solar panels, batteries, backup power sources, flashlights. We really need them. We do everything we can to make people feel good here. However, a lot of efforts are needed in the refugee centers in order for people to go to safety, says Vitali Čentšek, mayor of Toretški.