Gas just came back to Kramatorsk,
a boon of battlefield gains.
Maria, a 70 year old pensioner,
wasn't expecting
it had bought a wood burning stove
full of no less cooker.
It was hard without gas, she tells us.
And now, thanks to God, we're okay.
But for how long?
When the government
turned the gas back on here
at the beginning of November,
they did it without any big announcement
because like every other critical service
here, gas depends on electricity.
And that's what Russia is targeting.
When I met the mayor
here, three months ago,
he was urging residents
to leave ahead of winter.
We do not have gas at all,
and it's not possible to repair gas lines
when we meet now.
He tells me the population
has actually increased
by 30 to 35,000 people over
80,000 total residents returning home.
Even though the situation
because Russia is targeting
the power grid
is much more precarious lives
he fears may be lost
in what he expects
to be the harshest winter
since independence 30 years ago.
I am sure when the electricity disappears
cities are plunged into darkness.
Anything can happen.
Boilers can stop.
Gas distribution networks can stop.
It can be left without everything,
even without heat.
Keeping warm is on everyone's minds.
This factory making heating logs
from sunflower seeds
demand outstripping capacity.
Peninsula's requests
have gone up three or four fold.
We don't have enough trucks
for deliveries.
They're working at full capacity here.
Everything that's ready
shipped out immediately.
But the whole system here
extremely vulnerable.
The electricity
could go off at any moment.
Every log delivered.
A few hours spared from the cold.
Each sack,
perhaps a week's peace of mind.
Is he got everything that he ordered
His answer?
Everything. Everything.
All good? Perfect.
I don't have words.
Your food is also on people's minds
this winter.
Mostly pensioners, mostly poor.
Bundle up against the cold.
A free bread distribution.
Tempting them out of frigid homes.
Yes.
If they help us like they do here,
it will be fine.
84 year old Yulia tells us.
I'm a child of World War Two, she says.
We were cold, hungry, but we survived
the rain.
Across town, another pensioner.
82 year old Alexandra,
shows us the basement
she shares with neighbors
already stockpiling food for winter.
No gas for warmth here.
Just an old electric heater.
But when there's no electricity,
you have no heat. How do you stay warm?
So by thaw,
we just have to put on our coats
wrap ourselves in blankets and go to bed,
she says.
That's how we live.
That's how we exist.
Born into war,
she says, I'll probably die in war.
Such a difficult situation.
But for everyone there
that you've been speaking with Nick.
But I have to ask what this means
going forward,
especially given
that Russia
has accused Ukraine of an unwillingness
to negotiate towards Pais to end this.
Has there been any progress
since Alinsky laid out this
ten point peace plan
Yeah.
Russia is really
intensely trying to pressure
Ukraine into into talks.
It's been doing that
since President Putin called that
illegal referendum
and annexed those eastern parts
and southern parts of the country.
And Russia is getting more desperate,
it appears,
to get into some kind of talks
because it's losing on the battlefield.
And this is costing Putin
politically at home.
What we've heard from the Kremlin
today are statements that say, well,
it would be good to have
the international community
the United States and others
in on the talks between Moscow and Kiev,
because Kiev will do
what its Western partners say
Until recently,
Russia was essentially saying
that it only wanted to negotiate
with the United States
because it wanted
the United States to
to force Kiev to come to talks
What we've
heard from
President
Zelensky is a very clear position
and and it's put that template
plan of how to achieve it.
But the bottom line in his plan
is that
the country goes back to its pre 2014
borders pre the 2014 Russian invasion.
And this summer
that at least
certainly Crimea
is a very big red line for Russia.
It seems that
the two sides are a very long way apart
and what we're hearing at the moment
a different versions of Russia
trying to pressure
President Semansky into talks.
We are getting some sense of
that as well from
from from
from Washington
we've heard from General Mark Milley
the Joint Chiefs of staff at the Pentagon
saying that
he thinks
this is a good time to negotiate But
but that doesn't seem to be
the will on the Ukrainian side
because they are winning
on the battlefield
essentially on Russia's losing.
And that for them is no time to stop
to talk
when Russia won't even consider
what they've put on the table.
Yeah, exactly.
Nic Robertson for us.
Stay warm if you can. There in Kiev.
Thanks so much for your reporting.