Kyiv is under constant threat: Moscow’s drone and missile campaigns now strike in the city’s heart, while renewing winter conditions bring prolonged, deadly shortages of heating and electricity.
In the early autumn, Mariia Shostak, mother of two, packed her small flat for good. She says the last cold spell was one of the hardest: sub‑zero temperatures, repeated power cuts and the constant fear of a strike inside her own building.
She is not waiting for the next winter. The attacks in late August and September have turned Kyiv into a “target number one.” Her two young children, born after the 2022 invasion, would “not survive another such month” in the capital.
Shostak plans to stay with her children in Hurghada on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, a location that is both cheaper and far warmer than Kyiv. The decision reflects a growing trend: a September survey by Gradus found that 40% of Ukrainians across the country are considering relocation if conditions worsen and a further 25% remain undecided.
Another mother, Olena Konoplia, chose a different route. After weeks of searching, she settled in a cottage in a small village two hours from Kyiv, free of factories, warehouses or railway stations—features that could make it a Russian target.
Konoplia’s home is fortified with gas‑powered heaters, a stack of firewood, and high‑speed internet to keep her connected to her Kyiv‑based charity work. On city walls the sound of air‑raid sirens and the sight of explosions have become all too familiar; in the countryside she finds peace and a chance to sleep without terror.
Officials in Kyiv are also offering shelters in converted sanatoria and launching small‑scale, steel‑capped power plants to stabilize the grid. Nonetheless, crucial shortages of food and scheduled power cuts continue to push people toward the idea of leaving.
While an exodus is not expected imminently, many residents postpone the move until conditions “become really unliveable,” says Gradus CEO Evgeniya Blyznyuk, citing jobs and schooling concerns.
For now, as winter darkens its breath on the city’s streets, a stark choice faces Kyiv’s citizens: stay under a new barrage of attacks or risk loss of life and livelihood by relocating to safer places elsewhere.
