Kateryna and her husband Oleg endure what every citizen of Kyiv must \u2013 long blackouts, hours without any internet connection and constant apprehension about the next missile barrage. <\/p>\n
She\u2019s not getting much rest ahead of the big day. The air-raid sirens blare almost every day, the crump of explosions is all too familiar. Their lives are shaped by the scheduled power cuts, as electricity is shared among the regions to mitigate the impact of Russia\u2019s strikes on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult for residents to distinguish between the sound of air defenses in operation and the impact of Russian cruise missiles and drones. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t mind the blackouts,\u201d Kateryna said, \u201cbut we worry about the next wave of Russian missiles. Will it be us? It\u2019s like a constant gamble.\u201d <\/p>\n
A nearby district \u2013 Vyshhorod \u2013 was hit a month ago, and the <\/strong>indiscriminate <\/strong>nature of the strikes means that residential districts are as much at risk as power plants and railway lines. Dozens of heath facilities across Ukraine, including maternity and children\u2019s hospitals, have been struck since the beginning of the conflict. <\/p>\n When the sirens aren\u2019t wailing, Kateryna said, there is another noise that is new to her neighborhood: the chattering of generators as homes and businesses try to compensate for being without electricity for as much as 12 hours a day. <\/p>\n \u201cThey are the jingle bells of this Christmas,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Despite the risk and the imminent arrival of the twins, Kateryna still travels into central Kyiv twice a week to use one of the co-working spaces that have popped up across the Ukrainian capital. <\/p>\n These spaces have become quite professional, with furniture, heat, lighting and reliable internet, provided through Starlink terminals, bought from the company owned by Elon Musk. <\/p>\n Kateryna works in logistics, helping to import large containers into Ukraine. It\u2019s more than just a livelihood. It\u2019s also a way to contribute to the war effort. <\/p>\n Kateryna and Oleg are luckier than most Ukrainians in that they have a small generator at home, but they use it sparingly. There is always the risk of running out of diesel to power it \u2013 it uses a liter of fuel every hour and needs to cool down every four hours. They have to choose which appliances to run: it\u2019s lights or laundry, they said. <\/p>\n They fully expect to need it long after the twins are born. <\/p>\n Living in Kyiv during Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine is about being prepared. Kateryna and Oleg have cupboards full of batteries, power banks and flashlights. If the Russian missile campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure continues, as most expect it will, the scheduled power outages may become less predictable, with more emergency cuts. <\/p>\n There is enough food in the stores \u201cbut sometimes I have to shop with a flashlight,\u201d Kateryna says. They keep about two months\u2019 worth of food supplies stacked in the house, just in case the situation goes from bad to worse. <\/p>\n Like many people from Kyiv, Kateryna and Oleg moved away from the capital to a safer area in western Ukraine when the invasion began last February. But they never wanted to leave the country. And soon they felt the draw of home pulling them back to the city. <\/p>\n \u201cI have a job here; Oleg has a job here and he cannot work remotely. We have many friends here, our home. For me it\u2019s a nightmare to move somewhere else,\u201d Kateryna said. <\/p>\n Kateryna feels they are both involved in the effort to secure Ukraine\u2019s future. In the early months of her pregnancy, she helped Ukrainian volunteer organizations with fundraising for warm clothes and equipment for the Ukrainian army, she said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe company my husband works for has a fund and they help the Ukrainian fighters who are on the front line with equipment like drones and pick-up trucks. We helped collect money for such equipment,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Like many other Ukrainians, they helped a family that had fled the frontlines earlier in the war. The mother had given birth in the midst of Russian shelling of their hometown of Kreminna in eastern Luhansk region. When the family settled in a Kyiv suburb, Oleg and Kateryna helped them out with warm clothes and food. <\/p>\n Kateryna says she is not afraid of becoming a wartime mother. She and Oleg want their sons to grow up in an environment that would be the polar opposite of what life would be under Russian occupation. <\/p>\n \u201cI really want my children to live in a free Ukraine, I want them to be safe. They have the right to safety and protection just like all other children in the world. I don\u2019t want them to live in fear of dying from a Russian rocket, they should be happy and carefree,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Her one concern \u2013 beyond giving birth to healthy children \u2013 is that she might find herself lying in the hospital amid another wave of missile attacks. At that point, she will pray very hard, she said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kateryna and her husband Oleg endure what every citizen of Kyiv must \u2013 long blackouts, hours without any internet connection and constant apprehension about the next missile barrage. She\u2019s not getting much rest ahead of the big day. The air-raid sirens blare almost every day, the crump of explosions is all too familiar. Their lives <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}