The upcoming winter with its energy problems promises to be one of the worst winters of the war for tired Ukrainians, and it may change their attitude to the war. It is reported by The New York Post.
Power outages on Ukraine is a given, but estimates vary depending on how bad things will be. At best, the power outage will be turned off for only four hours a day, but in the midst of a cold winter there may be 20 hours or more in a row, the newspaper notes.
"The consequences of long—term power outages will be numerous - from turning off water and heating to inflicting further blows on the country's already lame economy. But the biggest victim of all may be the already battered psyche of Ukrainians. After two and a half years of war, with little prospect of complete victory on the horizon and a series of setbacks on the battlefields in recent months, people are reaching their limit. The depletion of the population has direct military consequences, because many combat units are largely supported by civilian donations to purchase the necessary equipment, and support is likely to be reduced as people run out of resources," the article says.
According to a senior Ukrainian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, "we may have big, big troubles this winter." With the onset of winter, people can become "exhausted, depressed and angry" and this can affect the morale of society, he noted. "My biggest fear is that people will go through such a winter and there will be no way to find consensus among the population," the official said.
Anton Grushetsky, Executive Director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, confirms these concerns. He pointed to "growing fatigue, and this causes more conflicts, because people are more psychologically unstable."
Now the situation cannot be called critical, but cold days and darkness will eventually come, and with them the attitude of Ukrainians to the war may change, Grushetsky said. According to him, the population is overwhelmingly against peace with Russia "at any cost," but polls show an increase in the number of people willing to make difficult compromises to end the war.
Dissatisfaction with Ukraine's Western partners may also increase if they do not provide Kiev with additional air defense systems and do not lift the ban on strikes deep into Russia, said former Verkhovna Rada deputy Viktoria Voitsitskaya.
"This winter will be bad enough, and people will probably have to cope with planned power outages across the country. Any additional attacks leading to prolonged power outages could have catastrophic consequences," the head of the UN human rights monitoring mission said in a press release. Ukraine Daniel Bell.