Growing up in a cold and dark Ukraine under constant Russian attack: ‘My 4-year-old can tell the bombs apart’

As world leaders wring their hands over Ukraine, Sam Kiley in Kyiv meets a leading politician whose daughter Sophia was born just before the invasion and - alongside her parents and sister - is battling to survive as Putin’s latest strategy targets power supplies NewsWorldEuropeSpecial dispatchGrowing up in a cold and dark Ukraine under constant Russian attack: ‘My 4-year-old can tell the bombs apart’As world leaders wring their hands over Ukraine, Sam Kiley in Kyiv meets a leading politician whose daughter Sophia was born just before the invasion and - alongside her parents and sister - is battling to survive as Putin’s latest strategy targets power suppliesSunday 15 February 2026 13:03 GMTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoverLife growing up in a cold and dark Ukraine under constant Russian attackYour support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreThe tawdry routine of everyday misery of cold, darkness, and fear that grinds at the human soul that is Vladimir Putin’s strategy of attacking civilians across Ukraine could break the country’s will to fight on. But it’s unlikely.Showers in darkness, a shave in cold water every morning, two small children who know the Russian president is trying to kill them, and dawn coffee and cocoa runs to a streetside stall the only morale booster for a new day. These are the routines of Kyiv residents like Oleksandr Morezhko. He knows he is lucky.His four-year-old daughter Sophia is the same age as the full scale invasion of Ukraine. The elder, Lilian, is seven so neither have known a world in which Russian troops are not fighting inside their country.Sophia can tell an outgoing missile blast from an incoming Shahed drone attack. She attends kindergarten. Her older sister has learning difficulties, so Sophia grabs her hand when the sirens scream and the air buzzes with what the family calls “bees” - incoming drones.She then leads her sister to safety in the Soviet-era bunkers outside their old but untargeted ground floor apartment where school carries on.open image in gallerySophia, aged 4, pictured right with her 7year-old sister Lilian, mother and father (The Independent)“For them it's normal. They cannot imagine their life without it,” Oleksandr explains. “They know that when they go to the kindergarten we still don't have power in the flat. When they come back there is no power. They have learned how to play using little lights and how to play in darkness.“Better than adults I think, children are more adaptable. And they never complain.”A couple of weeks ago what he thinks was a Shahed drone smashed into the top floors of the building next door, setting fire to two flats and injuring three people in the Kremlin’s ongoing campaign. Fragments, bits of plastic and yellow foam of the Iranian-designed autonomous plane loaded with 40kg of explosive, still pepper the snow outside the building - where this member of Ukraine’s parliament has lived with his family for four years.“We almost bought a flat in the new high rise but we could not afford it so bought on the ground floor next door - luckily for us - just before the full scale invasion of February 2022,” says Oleksandr, who is chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.A former human rights lawyer married to an academic, he can bring warm food to his small children from the parliamentary canteen. His cooker at home is electric and they’re unlikely to get power for more than a couple of hours in 24 - and usually after midnight.Roughly half of Ukraine’s power generating capacity has been destroyed by Russia. Most of these attacks have come since Donald Trump ended military aid to Ukraine last year - in the 36th month of the full scale invasion by Russia. Two thirds of its nuclear capacity has fallen and GDP is expected to take a three per cent hit.open image in galleryOleksandr Morezhko, along with his wife and two young daughters, are among millions in Ukraine battling for survival in freezing temperatures and daily power cuts (The Independent/ Sam Kiley)“I started to plunge into kind of depression and apathy because when it's cold, when for the whole day you cannot even warm up food, and it's dark, and it's cold - it is difficult psychologically and for me, for many people.“It looked endless, you know, just endless. And everything came at