AFP, Kyiv

Shivering in her flat after Russian strikes knocked out the heating, 91-year-old Lidia Teleschuk said she couldn’t remember a winter this harsh since World War II.

Russia has this month stepped up its strikes against Ukraine’s power and heating infrastructure, plunging Kyiv residents into darkness and cold as temperatures dropped as low as -20C.

“In 1942, it was even worse,” Teleschuk said.

“There hasn’t been a winter like this since. It’s been awful. It will be hard for us to survive.”

The heavy targeting of the Ukrainian capital -- which Russia failed to seize at the start of its invasion -- has forced residents to find makeshift solutions to stay warm.

It has been particularly painful for elderly people like Teleschuk.

In her flat deprived of electricity, heating and hot water, the 91-year-old showed AFP how she gets through the day.

Running her hand through her brittle white hair, she mimed heating water on a gas stove to wash herself in the cold mornings.

She had also poured some of the hot water into plastic bottles, turning them into small sources of heat.

“But it’s not enough, dear children. It’s just enough for me to warm up a little,” she said.

The temperature inside her apartment hovered between 8C and 11C.

Volunteers from the Starenki foundation, which delivers food and essentials to the elderly, were visiting Teleschuk to check in on her.

She beamed as one of them, programme director Alina Diachenko, gave her a battery-powered fairy light.