The Russians have gone. Now Kherson faces a relentless new enemy – winter

Residents in the newly liberated freezing city are gathering all the wood they can after the bombing devastated their power supplies

If it were not for the war, Ukrainian children would have crowded the squares, parks and streets thisweek to play in the first snow of winter. If one of the most brutal conflicts of the last 50 years hadn't been raging, Kateryna Sliusarchuk, 71, a resident of Kherson, would have taken advantage of the cold to prepare pyrizhky, typical baked, boat-shaped Ukrainian buns with a variety of fillings, and enjoyed them with her grandchildren.

But this will not be a season like any other. The first snow to dust the streets of Kyiv, last Thursday, marked the beginning of what is expected to be the hardest winter in the country's history. The Ukrainian cold is coming and with it a nightmare for millions as they face it without electricity, water or heating.