In front of the First Point café in kyiv, the winter cold is starting to bite people’s faces and the generator is making a hell of a racket. The tables on the terrace are deserted and no one goes out to smoke a cigarette. Inside this trendy café in the Podil district, on the other hand, the atmosphere is serene. Young people get used to the restrictions and chat by candlelight. Some work on their computer until the battery runs out.
It was at First Point that Pavlo Kaliuk and his friends held their first “war meeting”, four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, to see how people in the neighborhood could help each other. Since he created on Facebook, after the revolution of Maidan, in 2014, the group Podolianochka (literally “podilian”a resident of Podil), Pavlo has established a network of 6,000 members, of which the 500 most active correspond on Signal messaging. “With the bombings and the curfew, without public transport, Podil was a bit disconnected from the rest of kyiv, says the activist. So the feeling of local community was strengthened. »
At the time, at the first meetings, we discussed the manufacture of Molotov cocktails that would have to be thrown at the Russian tanks if they entered the city, the purchase of rifles and shooting training, the supply of walkie-talkies and batteries if the electricity and telephone networks are cut. After the failure of the Russian army to conquer kyiv and its withdrawal from the region, the spirit of community continued. “The feeling of being able to take action together” is even stronger in adversity, says Pavlo Kaliuk.
These days, when moreover winter is coming, the network Podolianochka finds medicines and gathers vaccines against the flu. Activists are also taking over apartments with fireplaces and ordering wood, so that the inhabitants can gather there if one day the heating is permanently cut off in the buildings.
Strategic position
Life in kyiv has been marked by Russian air attacks which, since October 10, have methodically destroyed civilian infrastructure. When it is not cut off because of the bombing of power stations by missiles and drones, electricity is rationed, between “planned outages” and “emergency stops”. The technical services of the government, the municipality and the operator Ukrenergo apply it to certain districts at certain times, then to the following districts. Various applications, created in a few days, allow Kievans to consult on their telephone the cut-off times planned in their neighborhood.
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