Kyiv family, with its pets and pigs, defies Russia and the cold

When the Davydenko family woke up shivering through the night in their winter coats and hats, buried under several layers of duvets, they knew it was time to abandon their apartment in Kyiv.

Systematic Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid since October last year have left their 12th-floor flat with no electricity for eight days and heating for almost two weeks.

In the meantime, nighttime temperatures plunged to minus 20 degrees Celsius.