Freezing for four months

Putin’s strategy comes with a double punch, as Russian strikes on power stations and substations over the past two weeks has also prompted the government to announce the suspension of energy exports.

As noted by Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko: "The export of electricity from Ukraine helped Europe reduce the consumption of Russian energy resources.”

Four full months of frost, snow, and wind.

Europe is already beginning to doubt whether the impact of the war on energy prices will be worth its support for Ukraine, especially when the cold sets in. Putin is trying to freeze Kyiv from without and within.

Now is the time to remember what a Ukrainian winter is like: four full months of frost, snow, and wind. With Putin's attacks on infrastructure, the risk is not merely the cost of energy, but that it might be completely cut off. Places where heat is shut for an extended time pose legitimate life and death circumstances, especially for the sick and elderly.

Memories of Leningrad

At this point, it is difficult to be surprised by Putin’s level of cynicism and outright cruelty. And yet. One should recall that he was born in the city that is now called St. Petersburg. During World War II, the city was named Leningrad, site of one of the most brutal siege’s in history: nearly 900 days of blockade during the Nazi assault, an estimated 1.5 million deaths — 97% from hunger and cold.

"Kyiv in three days", remember?

When Russians were the ones defending themselves from invaders, the seasons were both friends and foes: the snow and frost were two causes of great Russian wartime suffering, but ultimately helped defeat Napoleon in 1812 and Hitler in 1942. This is where we get the phrase "Russian winter," a sentence that evokes neither Christmas cards nor fireplaces, but the defeat of foreign armies and the desperate plight of civilians.

When Russia attacked Ukraine, the world was turned upside down. Putin sent an army that was not prepared for war to Ukraine, and even less prepared for winter ("Kyiv in three days", remember?). And now, he is trying to level the playing field by stripping Ukraine of its energy resources.

The genetic memory of war, hunger, and cold is still very strong in both Russia and Ukraine. It is no doubt in the very fiber of Vladimir Putin, and helps explain why he is spending his autumn sowing seeds of terror among Ukraine’s civilians, to deprive them of heat, steal their grain, leave cities in ashes.

My great-grandmother, after whom I am named, survived two famines and World War II. She died at a respectable age, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, in relative comfort and peace. And yet, until her very last day, before she went to sleep, she put a piece of bread under her pillow. There are seasons that we never forget.