The news website Realna Hazeta, formerly based in Luhansk and now relocated to Kyiv, is looking for a temporary new office because the apartment where the team used to work has been flooded and the building has no heating, Realna Hazeta chief editor Andriy Dykhtyarenko reported in a Facebook post.
Dykhtyarenko says that on the frostier days it was impossible to stay in the office for more than half an hour at a time. Still, the team continued to work there: recorded videos, explainers for the displaced, covering the situation in the occupied territories from their studio. “Absurd: I was in the studio filming a video about a utilities-related emergency in Alchevsk, all the while steam was coming out of my mouth, because at that moment I was in the middle of a utilities-related emergency in Kyiv,” said the chief editor ironically.
He explained that, just as in occupied Alchevsk, the water was not drained from the pipes in their building and the team was taking turns doing office duty for a whole month.
“We would heat up the batteries, get out in the middle of the night and drive there from our own cold and dark homes whenever somebody in the house chat would say that a neighbour’s batteries had burst and all our equipment could be floating around in icy water,” said Andriy Dykhtyarenko.
He said that the editorial team had spent some time working like this, hoping that the system would be fixed.
“And today we saw that we’ve waited long enough: now our office is flooded, too. And again we were lucky, there’s no damage yet in the room where our studio is. But now we will have to take out our equipment, because the weather is about to get frosty, the house still has no heating, so all these leaky pipes and batteries will freeze over and then they may burst again,” chief editor explained.
He stressed that the team would continue to work despite the issues with the utilities. There will be somewhat less video content in the near future and evolving as a news outlet will be more difficult in the state of chronic disaster.
“But we survived the occupation in 2014, in 2022, and we can not allow this freezing trial to kill us in 2026. As they say, we have gone through fire, water, and now the copper pipes (which burst from the frost). Greetings to the Russians who are trying to kill us. Not going to happen!” the chief editor added.
As for the work of the Kyiv utility services, he said that the problems of their building had been long ignored.
“And I feel very sorry for the people who live in this building permanently. And this nightmare continues. I would like to apologise to our partners and grantors, who have not been getting quick responses and reports from me these days. We are having it really hard now,” added Dykhtyarenko.
He also shared the bank details for those who want to support the news outlet with a donation.
