Today in Dnipro, I visited a shelter for people who fled the frontline. More than 200 internally displaced people are living there. There are 2 newborn babies and many people with respiratory diseases. And just when our medical team arrived, the electricity went out. Dark corridors, cold rooms, and no way to heat food. This is daily life for the people living in those kinds of shelters and for many people still living close to the fighting.

They told me how, before fleeing, they tried to cook outside their apartment blocks during short pauses between bombardments, making small fires near the entrance of their buildings just to boil water.

Repeated large-scale attacks by Russian military forces on energy infrastructure cause power cuts across the country. This directly affects our patients and the wider healthcare system. In many areas, including where we live and work, electricity is available 3 or 4 hours during the day and 3 or 4 hours during the night and heating and water often go out as well.

Surgeons sometimes have to pause operations, power surges can damage essential equipment, and lifts often stop, meaning our teams carry patients upstairs on stretchers.

MSF teams are prepared for many scenarios so we can continue responding. But it is already clear that this winter will again be extremely difficult for people in Ukraine.