in Kharkiv, the fear of spending a winter without heating or electricity

With a sharp tap of his shoulder, Vitali opens the worm-eaten wooden door of his house. “ Since the bombing, no door closes anymore correctly », he sighs in his hoarse voice. The old man with his fragile and elegant figure cautiously enters the cluttered corridor of his house. “ My parents bought it when I was 10 years. It's a miracle that it's still standing after the bombing “, he said. On August 31, a Russian warhead ended its course in the asphalt of the neighboring road, about thirty meters away, destroying doors and windows, shaking the walls of his home. For more than two months, Vitali has been trying to patch up his house and prepare it for the coming winter, which, in Kharkiv, is often synonymous with temperatures below -10°C.

With a gesture of his finger, he points to the large gaps in the walls, filled with lots of polystyrene blocks and fruit juice cartons…