Winter is here.
Winter is not coming. It is already here. Is Europe ready to help Ukraine? Are we prepared for millions more refugees to flee the cold?
It is now definitively cold and winter. Snow is on the ground across Ukraine. This week has shown that Russia will spare no mercy in brutally taking out what is left of Ukraine’s ability to provide electricity and heating to its citizens this winter. We see the unbearable imagines, we hear the stories, and I keep asking myself: who in Europe is doing anything to get ready? What will happen when millions more refugees arrive here in a short period of time, when housing and money is already in short supply, and those who have been working day in and day out for nine months and counting are already exhausted?
Kyiv is a city of 3 million residents. I don’t know the population estimate right now, but even if it is only half, what happens when that half head westward? Not everyone will be able find nor afford a simple house in the countryside to spend the winter in, heated with wood-burning stoves. That is a solution for some, but there will be others who will wait until the very last moment in their cold apartments before giving up, getting on a train or bus, and arriving on our doorsteps, asking for help and humanity. Will Europe offer it? I fear the individual countries may not, which is why an EU-wide funding package and more specific instructions may be needed. Austria will only march when it is told to march, even though if it was up to me I would be on the phones right now with every mayor in every town across the country making arrangements to find all available living spaces. But this requires money. Money that still hasn’t been put on the table. Biting consumer inflation (and not only) is putting the focus on domestic problems, and the war in Ukraine becomes like background music — you get used to it, the headlines no longer shock people, the open arms from early last spring and Austrians volunteering to open up their homes simply will not happen again, because no one knows for how long you are inviting strangers into your home.
Ukraine’s leadership has been incredibly brave and seems to have super-human stamina across the board, but for how long, before they too advise civilians to leave for other countries for the winter, en masse? And this statement, from the Director General of IAEA, is incredibly alarming. Part 1 & Part 2. A potential nuclear accident on top of a freezing winter with no heat? Russia is losing in the battlefield, it knows it is losing the war, so it retaliates with this cruel madness. Listen to this FM4 radio report I heard this afternoon — more than half of Kyiv residents still have no electricity, and NATO is condemning the attacks, but what if condemnation isn’t enough? Because, one worries, condemnation alone could potentially last years with dire consequences.
If you read German, do read this paywall-free detailed reported “A horrible ordinary day in Kyiv” by an Austrian journalist who was with a leading Austrian minister and a group of eight EU politicians in Kyiv for a visit this Wednesday when misses barraged down.
Wenn Menschen in Österreich behaupten, dass die Ukrainer nur wegen dem Geld zu uns kommen, dann macht mich das zornig.
This made me think. Maybe Minister Karoline Edstadler can help, not just to advocate for Ukraine’s plight, its need for more weapons to defend itself and harsher punishment of Russia for targeting essentially the entire civilian population of Ukraine with these strikes on the country’s power networks, but also to advocate for better conditions and more immediate housing for those Ukrainians seeking shelter in Austria. It isn’t exactly her role in government (she is Austria’s federal minister for the EU), but she saw everything just now with her own eyes. In Ukraine. On the ground. That is very important. And nothing will get better for refugees in Europe this winter without more EU-level funding. The individual country governments are all too bogged down with domestic problems to prepare an adequate response to what could be now huge flows of new refugees arriving from a snowy Ukraine without heat and power.
Listen to this radio report (in German) with Austrian journalist Daniela Prugger from Kyiv:
I didn’t have a chance to write earlier this week with card deliveries (thank you!) and Thanksgiving (a work/schoolday here in Europe but nevertheless managed to cook turkey and trimmings and pies for 11!), and as I look through my Twitter feed, I see story after story reminding us of the severity of what is happening in Ukraine right now. It feels like “part 1” started in March with the first arrivals at the train station, and “part 2” begins now, has already begun, yet everyone who was so active in part 1 is already burnt out and what does that mean from part 2? Will new people, resources and organizations now jump in, now that they realize what millions of people freezing (literally) this winter in Europe means? I feel like we see the horror headlines but the natural response will be that many will head west and seek accommodation in countries that at least still have electricity and heat, for now. Ukraine has already started evacuating people from regions where it says it cannot guarantee heat this winter.
That is the big picture update from Ukraine right now. It is really weighing on my mind, and I keep asking myself, where can people like me be most useful and I suppose for the moment that is keeping on doing what we are doing — helping those already here. If someone asked me to coordinate finding new housing across this country, I would do that too. In a heartbeat. But so far, no one invited me to join any larger organization (I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult lol), so I will keep working as I have been with an open mind to other areas where an urgent response is needed. This week, I was able to deliver dozens more cards thanks to a few very generous donors. I reopened my waiting list, and now have about 30 families / empty enveloeps. I am optimistic I will slowly receive cards for them over the course of December. To help directly with this little waiting list of families who just contacted me now, please contact me for my mailing address to send cards directly or donate here.
The Secret Santas have been busy! I delivered chocolates to three different “elves” today, two more are coming tomorrow, added another dorm address to our already very long list, and discovered where giant chocolate Nikolos are on sale this week.
To my American readers, I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing Thanksgiving long weekend. I managed to prepare a full 7 kilo turkey and sides, as well as a few pies. Definitely took on an entirely new meaning this year, after having interacted with so many people in such challenging situations. The table full of home-cooked comfort food to share felt in an of itself a reason to be grateful. A lovely fellow volunteer who also helped so many Ukrainian women and kids this year was able to join us, and she was thrilled to taste the American classics she had only ever seen on TV. The kids each invited friends of different nationalities — not by design, just because those are their friends and that’s how it worked out and I thought it was beautiful. I wished I could have invited the hundreds of Ukrainians (dare I say thousands) I have met along the way and shared the meal with them too. Instead, I will continue to focus on helping them to put more meals onto their own tables in Austria.
Thank you for reading and for your continued support. Attention spans are short in this TikTok era, and I really fear the world may start to turn away from Ukraine in the moment when they need our help the most. Winter is not coming. Winter is here.