Warm winter: IOM and Partners Delivered Coal and Heating Devices to Frontline Villages

This winter, IOM and local partners supported the population of the regions most affected by the war with solid fuel and essential heating devices. 

In total, about 36,700 people living in hard-to-reach areas received help to survive the cold months. 

IOM's partner organization, “Angels of Salvation”, has delivered coal and electric heaters to over 4,000 households in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions that continue to suffer from the frequent shelling. 

Valerii and Liudmyla Melnyk from Semenivka, Mykolaiv region, survived the difficult months of occupation when their pensions were not paid and the nearest open shop was in the neighbouring village: 

"We had to go to Shevchenkove, but by the time we got there, there were already 200 people standing in line to the shop. If you got there before the curfew, you were lucky, you could buy a kilogramme of flour," says Liudmyla. 

Valerii and Liudmyla received a supply of coal to heat their home this winter. "Now we are recalling how we baked those black flatbreads last winter and we can even smile. This winter is much easier. The main thing is to get through the winter with confidence and in warmth," says Valerii. 

Olena lived most of her life in Donetsk, where she worked as a software engineer at a research institute. In 2014, when most of her friends left Donetsk, she decided to return to her parents' home in Myrnohrad. Now Olena lives alone and admits: 

Myrnohrad is constantly under attacks and shelling, and its residents suffer from power outages and high prices for solid fuel. 

In the frontline settlements, where ordinary things like heating are becoming a big challenge due to the difficult economic situation and military operations, residents have to fight for every degree on the thermometer. 

In total, this winter IOM and partners delivered 62,600 cubic meters of firewood and more than 18,000 tons of coal to 18,600 households in Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. 

In addition to solid fuel, vulnerable households also received heating devices. "Angels of Salvation" provided electric heaters to people in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, while the Charitable Foundation "Realization of Ideas" helped deliver 1,256 stoves and 7,439 heaters to Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. The total number of people who received assistance is over 16,000. 

Anatolii, who lives with his family in the village of Vasylivska Pustosh, Donetsk region, says: "Even during the darkest days there is a light of hope. Sometimes it comes in the form of a simple heater, but this warmth changes everything."

"It was difficult in winter. When there were frosts, it was very bad. We can't keep the boiler on all the time because it's expensive: three times it's on and it costs a thousand hryvnias.  I wanted to buy a heater myself, but it was also very expensive. I thought I could put hot water in bottles and get by somehow, so I didn't buy one," says Olena, a resident of Berezanka, Mykolaiv region.

In addition to households, 8 social institutions with about 250 people living there received heating devices. 

This critical winterization assistance was made possible with the funding from the European Union, USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund. 

Video by Victoria Shtukun