As freezing winter approaches, Kyiv residents look for shelter elsewhere

After weeks of escalating Russian attacks, which by the end of September had included petrol stations, power plants and key bridges over the Dnipro river, Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said the city was facing a "very dramatic situation".The attacks, he said, were "tearing Kyiv apart".Mariia's children, four-year-old Artur and Kira, who's two, were both born after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.Unwilling to subject them to another miserable, dangerous winter, she's taking them abroad. They plan to spend the winter in Hurghada, on Egypt's Red Sea coast. It's cheaper than Europe, Mariia explains, and warmer too."I don't feel safe in Ukraine in any way," she says.Polls show that many Ukrainians are feeling the same way, even if not everyone has yet made such a radical decision.A September survey by the Gradus research company found that 40% of Ukrainians were considering relocating if living conditions continued to deteriorate; 35% said they would not move elsewhere, while 25% were undecided."People are thinking about a combination of stress factors," Evgeniya Blyznyuk, Gradus's founder and CEO, told us. "Not just about electricity and blackouts like last winter. Russians are targeting big logistics centres, which means that the population is worrying about products, about food during the winter."