The ordeal of living in a 27th floor without an elevator because of the Russian bombing

When someone’s leg has been lopped off, living on the 27th floor can be an impossible mission. That is what Viktor Lazarenko has to deal with in kyiv, as the elevator in his building is out of service due to Russian bombing.

The 68-year-old man lives at his son-in-law’s house. He was wounded early in the war during the terrible Russian siege of Mariupol, in the southeast, when he lost three inches of bone in one leg. Today, she is unable to move without a splint or crutches.

When he has to walk down the 27 floors to go to the doctor, the ordeal lasts almost an hour.

“Without this war, all this would never have happened”he says, crying.

“Power outages are incredibly difficult for people like him,” says his son-in-law, Viktor Dergai, a 46-year-old civil servant, citing the elderly, people with disabilities “or to the mothers who have to carry their children and their carts” among the main victims of the blackouts.

And yet, a year ago, both he and his family were excited about moving to a 27th-floor, apartment with stunning views of kyiv.

But that was before the invasion and the Russian bombings, which since October have systematically targeted Ukrainian energy facilities, leaving millions of people in the dark and without heating.

A resident pushes his bicycle on a snow-covered street past destroyed residential buildings in Borodyanka, near kyiv, on December 4, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP) (DIMITAR DILKOFF /)

“Who started?”

The Russians’ supposed goal is to knock out the Ukrainian power grid in the dead of winter, with temperatures below freezing and the country covered in snow.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putinjustified the attacks by claiming that Ukraine had bombed the infrastructure of its invader, such as the Crimean bridge.

“Who started?”, declared the president, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

The consequences of the Russian bombardments on transformers in Ukraine go much further: electricity rationing, little or no heating, water cuts, and heavily disrupted telephone and internet networks.

“Little by little, that is reducing the capacity of Ukraine to repair its infrastructures and the components of its electrical network, which it needs for the country to function”, observed Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at the CNA Research Institute in the United States.

According to him, this could cause a “increasing refugee flows, impeding return on investment, and making the war effort against Ukraine much more difficult.”

“We can not lose”

“Without electricity, modern cities simply cannot function”, said Robert Bryce, author of a book on the issue of electricity in developed countries.

Still, some residents of kyiv they try their luck every day and use the elevator, despite the risk of being stuck for hours waiting for the overworked maintenance crews to arrive.

The residents of the tallest buildings in the city have equipped their elevators with survival kits, consisting of water, biscuits, flashlights and even plastic bags to relieve themselves, in case a neighbor gets trapped.

Dmytro Sukhorushko42, runs the elevator maintenance company Ukrift and said that emergency calls have multiplied by “10 or by 15″ since the beginning of October, when the first massive Russian bombardments against electrical installations took place.

“It’s exhausting walking up 25 floors to get someone out of an elevator, coming back down and doing the same thing in another building.” explained to AFP.

His colleague, Konstiantyn Krul (36 years old) stated that lately he is performing about twelve interventions every day.

In one of them, he climbed 12 stories to rescue 71-year-old Mykola Bezruchenko.

“It was like sitting in a submarine.” Bezruchenko told AFP. He was locked in the elevator for an hour, in the dark.

But “we will survive”, he assured. “December will soon be over and then the January holidays will go by quickly and spring will come”held.

“We cannot lose in spring”, apostilled

Source: Elcomercio