Ukraine’s Winter of Defiance and the World’s Test of Conscience

“We Decided Not to Give Them Anything”

ANJAN SARMA

There are winters that pass quietly, and there are winters that etch themselves into history.

For Ukraine, the winters since Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, have been unrelenting ordeals of endurance, identity, and sheer survival. Russian missiles and drones have targeted not only military positions but power plants, substations, transmission lines, heating systems, and civilian life itself. Cities have been plunged into prolonged darkness amid temperatures dropping below minus 20°C, the harshest conditions seen in recent memory.

Yet amid the freezing rubble, in candlelit apartments, trenches, and shelters, Ukrainians have demonstrated an unbreakable resolve: they will not surrender their land, their freedom, or their future.

“We will remember this winter,” wrote Oleksandra Matviichuk, the Ukrainian human rights defender and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. “When an entire nation froze in the cold right on the border with the European Union, fought against the Russian army’s advance, but did not give up… Because the Russians came to take everything from us – our land, our freedom, our joy, our children’s future. And we decided not to give them anything.”

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Her words capture a painful reality. In January 2026 alone, Russian forces conducted near-daily attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including five large-scale assaults that struck key components across at least 17 regions and Kyiv, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). These strikes damaged or destroyed generation facilities, distribution substations, and district heating systems, leaving millions with electricity for only a few hours a day-or none at all for extended periods.

In Kyiv, repeated hits on combined heat and power plants disrupted heating for nearly 6,000 multi-story buildings each time, with some areas left without heat through the rest of the winter. The attacks have continued into February, exacerbating an already dire situation as the coldest snap in years grips the country.

Ukraine’s pre-war generating capacity stood at around 38–40 GW; by early 2026, occupation and relentless bombardment have reduced available dispatchable capacity to roughly 12 GW-far short of the 16–18 GW needed during peak winter demand. Thermal generation has suffered catastrophic losses, with up to 80% damaged or destroyed in some estimates, while hydropower, gas production, and transmission networks have also been heavily targeted.

The result: rolling blackouts lasting 12–18 hours or more in many regions, hospitals relying on generators, schools shifting to remote or staggered schedules, and families facing life without heat or water in sub-zero temperatures.

The intent is unmistakable. International observers and Ukrainian officials describe these strikes as deliberate efforts to weaponize winter, to erode civilian morale, trigger humanitarian crises, and force submission through engineered suffering. Russia has turned cold into a tool of war, intensifying attacks precisely as temperatures plummet.

Yet the Ukrainian spirit has not broken.

From Kharkiv in the northeast to Odesa in the south, from frontline villages to western cities, people have adapted with extraordinary ingenuity and solidarity. Families huddle under blankets, cook on portable stoves by flashlight, and charge devices at “Points of Invincibility”-community warming centers offering heat, hot tea, Wi-Fi, and basic aid. Energy workers repair substations under constant threat, often returning to sites hours after bombardment. Volunteers deliver firewood to the elderly, neighbors share generators, and communities organize to support one another through the longest nights.

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These acts of resilience extend beyond survival. Ukrainians have found ways to affirm life amid deprivation: small gatherings with music by candlelight, children studying during brief windows of power, volunteers aiding the vulnerable. In the face of engineered darkness, they light candles-not just for illumination, but as symbols of refusal to be extinguished.

The human cost is heartbreaking and ongoing. In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone strike on February 3, 2026, killed two 18-year-olds-Sofiia Osadcha and Stepan Shtyk-as they walked home from the cinema, injuring nine others, including children. A 15-year-old girl was left in critical condition.

Ukrainian writer Svitlana Pustovit

As Ukrainian writer Svitlana Pustovit wrote in response to such tragedies: “These are not numbers. These are families shattered, futures stolen, ordinary evenings turned into lifelong trauma. Russia continues to target Ukrainian cities, far from the front line, where civilians live, work, study, and dream… We must keep speaking. We must keep documenting. We must keep standing with Ukraine. Because silence helps the aggressor. And the world cannot get used to this.”

Similar stories repeat across the country: a mother timing her child’s lessons to fleeting electricity; a railway worker staying at his post through air-raid sirens to keep evacuation routes open; elderly couples sealing off rooms with blankets to preserve a single heated space; medics working in frozen conditions where even digging trenches or performing burials becomes a struggle. Each narrative carries profound loss-and profound determination.

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Ukraine’s armed forces have responded with innovation and resolve. Drone operators have inflicted significant losses on Russian units, while targeted strikes have disrupted the aggressor’s war-sustaining infrastructure, including vessels in Russia’s “shadow fleet” used to evade sanctions and export oil. In December 2025, Ukrainian sea drones disabled the Dashan tanker-a $30 million vessel sanctioned by multiple Western countries-marking one of several such operations that raise the economic price of invasion for Moscow. These actions reflect a refusal to remain passive victims, even as the primary burden falls on Ukrainian civilians enduring daily terror.

Oleksandra Matviichuk

Civil society remains a pillar of strength. Women-led organizations coordinate evacuations, document alleged war crimes, provide legal and psychosocial support, and assist survivors of gender-based violence. Yet funding uncertainties threaten these essential services at the moment they are needed most.

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On the front lines, Ukrainian soldiers endure extended rotations, families navigate childhoods measured in brief reunions, and commanders acknowledge the toll of prolonged strain. Wartime unity has shown some fissures-corruption cases, political debates, the impossibility of elections under invasion-but the prevailing mood inside Ukraine remains one of guarded, unyielding resolve.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has expressed deep gratitude to the military, energy workers, rescuers, and volunteers who labor tirelessly. Their work continues in repair crews climbing damaged pylons, boiler rooms keeping what heat remains flowing, and distribution points delivering blankets and aid.

International support-military aid, air defenses, financial assistance, and emergency energy imports from Europe-has been vital. Yet as global attention shifts elsewhere, Ukraine’s winters remind the world that solidarity cannot be seasonal. Rebuilding the energy grid will require billions; sustaining civilian life demands predictable, sustained funding, advanced defenses to intercept incoming threats, and a path to just peace that includes accountability, reconstruction, and security guarantees.

For Ukrainians, the equation is stark and simple, as Matviichuk expressed: “They came to take everything. And we decided not to give them anything.”

In that decision lies profound inspiration and a grave warning. Inspiration, because a nation that repairs under fire, teaches by candlelight, comforts the grieving, and clings to culture and community amid bombardment reveals a depth of civic courage rarely demanded of any people. Warning, because resilience, no matter how heroic, is not infinite. The strongest spirit requires concrete support: systems to shield skies, power to heat homes, resources to heal wounds, and unwavering global commitment to stop the aggression.

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As the winter of 2025–2026 presses on, the image that endures is not only missiles streaking through frozen night skies, but the small flames flickering in apartment windows across Ukraine-candles lit defiantly against deliberate darkness. They illuminate children’s faces huddled under blankets, repair manuals open on kitchen tables by torchlight, neighbors sharing warmth and stories. They illuminate a collective refusal to yield.

History will remember this winter as one of extraordinary defiance. The question for the world is whether it will also remember-and fulfill-its responsibility to stand with a nation fighting not just for its own survival, but for the universal principles of sovereignty, dignity, and freedom that belong to every people.

TRANSLATED by PAHARI BARUAH

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