How Ukrainians cope without electricity

closed in on Kyiv in February, staff at a care home for the elderly in Fastiv, a nearby village, were so spooked that some tried to blow up an approach bridge. Luck, and the valour of the Ukrainian army, meant that Fastiv never of Russian occupation, as some nearby villages did. But nine months on, Vladimir Putin’s war has brought a new horror to this care home. Mr Putin has decided that if he can’t beat the Ukrainian army, he can at least . For several days in November, the Fastiv home found itself . Exhausted staff are at their wits’ end, unable to change nappies or wash their patients, as protocols require. The centre’s cold, mostly bed-ridden residents are afraid. “I’m freezing,” some of them murmur, as they fumble their way down darkened corridors, helped by staff with head torches.