A New Winter of War - November 21st 2023

November 21st 2023

Yuriy reflects on the approaching winter in war-torn Ukraine and the challenges that lie ahead. Amidst the cold and fear, Yuriy finds strength and determination to endure the hardships of war.

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TRANSCRIPT: (Podbean app users can enjoy closed captions)

It is November 21st. 

I haven't written anything for a long time. There was almost no free time for it, but I'm very grateful to you for your birthday wishes, they really warmed me in our already very cold autumn. That time of the year has already begun, which since May, I thought about with a shudder. The daylight hours are very short. There is mud under foot, then ice, and every day it is getting colder.

In the spring when it rained almost nonstop and we were constantly wet, in the summer with its heat, which makes you want to throw away the bulletproof vest because it was unbearably hot in it. I told myself that all this was nothing compared to what I had to experience in the winter. I remind myself of a silly but true story, but it is better to be covered with sweat seven times than with frost, just once. Getting wet in the rain in May and getting wet in the rain in November is completely different matter. In November. There are a hundred times more chances catching pneumonia and therefore rain in May is just a small adventure and not a problem.

You know, everyone understood, both in the summer and then the spring, but the war would not end until the winter. That all what we had already gone through last year, we would have to experience again. And ice and cold and frozen ground, which cannot be dug, but it is necessary to dig. I have a personal memory from the last winter we lived in the house on the outskirts of Bakhmut, the wall of which had several holes from the impact of shells. The wood burning stove was able to hit only the first floor of this house, but there was not enough room for me there, so I slept on the second floor. 

I slept in the sleeping back without taking off my outer clothes and sometimes without even taking off shoes. It was so cold there. I remember how one morning I woke up and saw that the water in the plastic bottle on the floor was completely frozen. There was solid ice. I didn't take my winter jacket for several days and still could not keep warm. 

As I said, we all understood that we would have to go through all this again. But there was still a spark of hope that the war would end before the cold, that we would no longer have to freeze in trenches and concrete bunkers risking catching a cold in our kidneys and all other organs along with them. This spark went out with the first gust of cold winter winds. It has already started to be covered with snow, which fell in several regions of Ukraine. This week, we are entering a new winter of war. Again with nightmares of cold nights when you wake up from the chattering of your own teeth are added to the endless nightmares of shellen and bombing. 

This winter, there will be many dead and wounded again. There will be destruction of peaceful Ukrainian cities again, and Russians will again try to destroy our civil infrastructure in order to leave people without heat and light, so that the front, with its deaths cold and fear will come and in the rear it'll be difficult for us.

Very difficult. I can't even explain how difficult it is even for civilians to live in the cold winter without heat and light under rocket fire, but we will endure. We must endure.