Water vapour rises from residential buildings' autonomous heating systems during a power blackout and freezing temperatures, after critical civil infrastructure was hit by recent Russian missile and drone attacks, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 3, 2026. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
KYIV, Feb 4 (Reuters) - At 66, railway worker Volodymyr Vasyliev could have long since been fully retired. Instead, he was below ground in the middle of a 24-hour shift, trying to fix pipes that had burst under a Soviet-era high-rise, part of an army of technicians drafted in to keep Ukrainians warm through the coldest winter yet of war.
As Russia keeps pounding Ukraine's heating and power system in what Ukrainians say is a campaign to freeze them into submission, fixing pipes is Vasyliev's way of fighting back.
"What, am I supposed to forgive them? Say, 'That's it, I give up'?" he said on a break from his shift in the city's northeastern outskirts. "They'll never see the day."
Ukrainian negotiators met their Russian counterparts on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi for a new round of U.S.-brokered talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year war.
SCRAMBLE TO RESTORE HEATING
Meanwhile, Moscow's forces have been hammering Ukraine's energy grid, knocking out power and heating for long periods in Kyiv and other major cities as temperatures hover as low as -20 Celsius (-4 F) in the capital.
Russia briefly paused strikes after President Vladimir Putin made a promise to U.S. President Donald Trump, but resumed them on Monday with some of its worst attacks yet, knocking out heat to more than 1,000 residential towers in Kyiv.
Vasyliev is one of a group of nearly 250 state railway workers from around the country dispatched in recent weeks to prop up recovery efforts in Kyiv. They have so far restored heating or water to 160 buildings, the company says.
During a recent visit by Reuters, he was snaking through the darkness of a damp cellar scattered with debris and dust from broken insulation. Clanking metal echoed. Another bundled worker held a hissing flame to a pipe.
Later, in his own kitchen where power had just returned after a 12-hour outage, Vasyliev teared up while recalling an elderly woman who attempted to pay him during a shift.
"Her son is fighting (in the war), and there she is with the money," he said, his voice crackling. "Our people are wonderful."
NO MOOD FOR COMPROMISE
Polling suggests Russia's attacks have done little to break Ukrainians' will.
Sixty-five percent say they are ready to endure fighting as long as necessary, according to a survey released on Monday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. Just over half reject giving up all of the eastern Donetsk region, which Russia demands in any peace deal. The figures have not significantly shifted in months, despite the brutal winter.
"Ukrainians are once again demonstrating that they are able to survive in the most difficult conditions," wrote the institute's executive director Anton Hrushetskyi. "And not just survive, but also maintain optimism and will."
(Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Peter Graff)
