Ukraine-Russia conflict: The essential workers keeping cities going as war rages on

While images emerge of bombed out buildings and residents sheltering in underground bunkers, it is difficult to imagine being able to focus on the mundanities of everyday existence in Ukraine’s cities.

Yet in the war-torn country, where normality has been turned upside down since the invasion began in the early hours of Thursday morning, life must go on.

Many residents are spending their nights underground, emerging during the day to a cityscape that is very different to the one they are used to. In capital Kyiv, a curfew lasting the entire weekend was imposed. When it lifted on Monday morning, supermarkets reopened and residents queued outside to obtain what food they could.

In addition to the urgent priority of preserving life, the ordinary human needs of food, heating and shelter still require to be met, with Ukrainian city mayors required to down their standard-issue AK-47s to tackle the more mundane issues facing local residents.

A school was destroyed as a result of fight not far from the centre of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

The reality of daily life in a war zone was starkly evident in a recent video address by Ihor Terekhov, mayor of Ukraine’s second biggest city Kharkiv, when he addressed issues of heating and bin collections, which he said he regretted were being hampered by the conflict.

“Dear inhabitants of Kharkiv, we have endured a very difficult day today,” began Mr Terekhov, looking tired as he filmed the video messaged in front of what appeared to be a wall in his apartment, dressed in a black jacket. Overnight, Russian troops made a major assault on the city, with fighting in residential areas and artillery bombardment.

Mr Terekhov said the utilities’ providers in Kharkiv had reconnected central heating systems, although a number of homes remain without heat.

He said: "This morning we re-initiated garbage collection, but we had to stop because we were under gunfire. Bread, we do our best. Unfortunately the factory that bakes bread did not work because during the night it was also under shelling.”

The Kharkiv mayor paid tribute to food workers, whom he said had been able to provide sustenance for those unable to feed themselves.

"Immense thanks to our retail chains, which in terrible conditions distribute food today – for hospitals, maternity hospitals, for people who stay in the Metro,” he said, referencing deliveries made to the thousands of residents sheltering on platforms underground.

He added: “We are doing everything possible and sometimes – have to admit it – that it is impossible together with our utilities service to ensure the functioning of the city of Kharkiv. We will withstand.”

That food supply chains can function at all is a miracle, while the idea of bin collections continuing during heavy fighting seems bizarre.

Yet the authorities know that these things are essential if a public health crisis is to be averted.

Those fighting the war on the frontline are obviously heroes to Ukrainians, yet, just like in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in Scotland, it is the often-forgotten essential workers who also should be lauded. Without them, a city could not survive.

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