Hi Tom, how are you there? Do you notice a difference with previous visits?
‘The city is dark. Street lamps do not work or hardly work, for many people the light is off. When night falls, people walk around with the lights on their phones so as not to trip. Many traffic lights don’t work. This is a direct result of the Russian attacks on the power supply.
‘Most places do have electricity, but the grid operator closes parts of the city in turn to distribute the scarce power. I just had to pay in a cafe while we were still eating, because according to the waitress this neighborhood was about to be closed and pins would no longer be possible. Five minutes later the power did indeed go out and the waitress lit candles.
‘A complete schedule can be found online stating which streets are without power and when. However, this is not always strictly observed: sometimes it says that you will have no power for four hours, but in reality it is eight or even twelve hours.
‘Today the air raid siren went off too, but I didn’t notice much panic. That’s because most drones and missiles land on critical infrastructure such as power plants, substations and water plants, which are usually located outside residential areas. Moreover, the anti-aircraft defenses are working better and better, thanks to experience and new anti-aircraft guns from other countries. Ukraine says it is shooting down the majority of missiles and drones, although I can’t control that.’
It seems to me a mixed feeling for Ukrainians: success on the battlefield on the one hand, and attacks on civilian targets on the other. How is the atmosphere among the residents of Kyiv?
“A few months ago it was like being in pre-war Kyiv, but the air strikes have brought the tension back. Today I spoke to two men who had told their refugee wives that they had better not come back yet.
“Russia nevertheless fails to demotivate the Ukrainians. I rather have the impression that they are becoming more combative and angrier. They draw a lot of hope from the developments at Kherson. Much is still unclear about how that battle will unfold there, but Ukraine seems to be winning. That is a completely different situation than this summer, when Ukraine lost more and more territory in the east. I notice that Ukrainians are not talking about the end of the war, but about the victory. Negotiating with Putin is still not an option.
‘Only: it’s still about 8 degrees here and the power cut is especially uncomfortable. In winter it can be 20 degrees below zero, then this is life-threatening. The water here is also distributed through the city with electric pumps, so that you often have no water if the power goes out. At sub-zero temperatures, the pipes can freeze if the water stops. In such circumstances, the residents of Kyiv may be forced to flee. That is the doomsday scenario that the authorities are trying to prevent.’
Do you notice anything else about the war, for example that people hold collections for the army?
“That never stopped. In cafes you can give money for Turkish Bayraktar drones instead of a tip. People make candles for the soldiers, because it also gets dark earlier at the front. Food is also still being collected for the army.’
Yesterday you were in Butya, where the Russian army carried out a massacre of civilians during the occupation. How are the inhabitants?
‘At first glance, Butja seems to be a normal suburb of Kyiv again. People are walking around with prams, the council is sweeping the leaves and the shops are open. Here and there some windows are replaced or someone is repairing a roof. In the meantime, the population has not yet processed what has happened, I noticed when I spoke to a team of psychologists who work there.
‘They described how families sometimes fall apart because the processing process is different for one person than for another. People with serious psychological complaints are still being admitted. Ukraine is not a country where people easily go to the psychologist, and many people are only now discovering how much mental damage they have suffered. As a result, the demand for psychologists is only increasing six months after the liberation, remarkably enough.’
What do you plan to do in Ukraine in the near future?
‘I want to join a group of war crimes investigators in the north of the country. All over Ukraine, all kinds of teams from home and abroad are busy documenting what is happening here. This is becoming the most documented war in history. My question is whether it will also be the best-documented war: to what extent are these investigations aligned? Or do witnesses have to tell their story again and again, which runs the risk of contradicting themselves in details and the defense discrediting their entire eyewitness account? In addition, I’m just curious how these teams work. What do they find, how do you bring justice?’