A cold Ukrainian winter: effects on the body

Monday 2 February 2026

Winter is never merely weather in Ukraine; it turns into politics the moment a transformer station is struck. Cold is patient. She does not need to destroy a building in one spectacular blast. She only needs to keep the lights off long enough that apartments, stairwells and basements slowly drift towards the outside temperature. This is why Russia’s winter strikes on Ukraine’s energy and heating systems have consequences that are intimate, medical and immediate: the battlefield moves from the front line into the body.

In late January 2026 forecasters warned of a plunge towards roughly minus 30°C in parts of Ukraine in early February. At the same time the UN human rights office described renewed long-range attacks producing emergency power and heating outages, including thousands of residential buildings in Kyiv left without heat. In such conditions, “cold exposure” stops being an abstract risk. It becomes a predictable chain of physiological failures, particularly for the elderly, infants, people with heart or lung disease, and anyone whose life already runs close to the margin.

How the body loses heat

The human body maintains a narrow core temperature range because enzymes, heart rhythm and brain function depend upon it. Heat escapes in four main ways:

• Radiation (heat drifting from the body into colder surroundings)

• Convection (wind or moving air stripping away warmed air near the skin)

• Conduction (direct contact with cold surfaces)

• Evaporation (wet skin or damp clothing pulling heat away as moisture evaporates)

Even in a flat that looks “sheltered”, a power cut changes everything. Lifts stop, so older residents climb stairs and sweat. Water systems falter, so hygiene becomes harder and dampness rises. People crowd into one room, cook on improvised devices and increase humidity. Each of these factors can accelerate heat loss or reduce the body’s ability to produce heat.

The first line of defence and its costs

When it is cold, the body does two things immediately.

First, blood vessels in the skin and extremities narrow. This preserves heat for the core but starves fingers, toes, ears and noses of warm blood, raising the risk of frostbite. Occupational health guidance describes this “shifting” of blood away from the limbs as a central mechanism that increases risk of both hypothermia and frostbite. 

Secondly, the body increases heat production through shivering, which is rapid muscle activity. Shivering works, but it is expensive. It burns glucose and glycogen quickly, increases oxygen demand and can exhaust a person who is malnourished, sleep deprived or ill. In wartime those are not exceptional conditions; they are common.

Hypothermia: when the core temperature falls

Hypothermia is generally defined as a core temperature below 35°C.  It often begins quietly, with shivering and clumsiness. That quietness is part of the danger. As the temperature falls further, judgment and coordination worsen. People make poor choices, such as going outside underdressed “just for a minute”, falling asleep in unheated rooms, or failing to notice that wet socks have become a serious threat.

As hypothermia progresses shivering can diminish or stop, not because the person is improving but because the body is running out of metabolic capacity. Drowsiness and confusion follow. At the severe end, heart rhythm becomes unstable. In practical terms, this is why communities under blackout conditions see a rise in collapses, falls, strokes and sudden cardiac events, even without any direct blast injury.

Cold also stresses the cardiovascular system more broadly. Medical organisations have noted that cold exposure can affect multiple organs and may place additional strain on the heart and circulation. For those with hypertension, coronary disease, or heart failure, the combination of cold, physical exertion (carrying water, climbing stairs), and psychological stress can be a dangerous triad.

Frostbite: local freezing injury

Frostbite is not “just” numb fingers. It is tissue injury caused by freezing, most often affecting the nose, ears, cheeks, chin, fingers and toes. When blood flow is reduced, skin temperature drops quickly. Ice crystals can form in tissues, damaging cells and small vessels. Severe frostbite can lead to permanent injury and, in extreme cases, amputation. 

In Ukrainian conditions frostbite risk rises not only because of extreme outdoor temperatures, but because people spend longer periods in transitional spaces: stairwells, queues, bus stops and unheated workplaces. A flat may be “indoors”, but if it sits at 5°C for days, the distinction becomes meaningless.

Non-freezing cold injuries: damp, prolonged exposure

Not all cold injury requires subzero temperatures. Prolonged exposure to cold and wet conditions can damage skin and nerves, producing problems often grouped under “non-freezing cold injuries”, such as trench foot. Occupational guidance highlights that wet exposure combined with cold increases such risks. 

This matters in cities where heating is intermittent. People wear the same socks and boots for longer, dry clothing less effectively, and move between warm and cold environments. The feet in particular suffer.

Cold, cognition and morale

Cold impairs thinking before it announces itself dramatically. The brain is sensitive to temperature because it relies on steady blood flow and metabolic function. As people cool they become slower, less coordinated, more irritable and more likely to take risks. In a civilian population enduring strikes, this becomes a public safety issue: more accidents with generators and stoves, more falls on icy stairs, more road incidents, more domestic fires.

Russia understands this. Attacks on energy infrastructure are not only about industrial capacity or military logistics. They aim to degrade civilian functioning, day by day, by turning basic tasks into exhausting labours. Recent reporting has described how power and water outages in Kyiv have lasted substantially longer than in previous winters following strikes on the energy system. The objective is not simply darkness; it is cumulative fatigue.

The wartime twist: cold as a force multiplier

Ukraine’s cold becomes strategically significant because energy systems are the bridge between weather and survival. District heating, water pumps, lifts, hospital equipment, pharmacies, electronic payments and communications all depend upon electricity. When that bridge is repeatedly broken, a cold snap becomes a mass-casualty risk without a single additional missile.

This is why international bodies have reacted sharply to renewed strikes that produce heating outages. It is also why even short pauses in attacks, if they occur, are framed in humanitarian terms during extreme cold spells. A week can be the difference between pipes freezing and not freezing, between an elderly neighbour surviving and not surviving.

What helps in practice

The physiology of cold points to a few measures that matter disproportionately when power and heating are unreliable. None is glamorous, but each interrupts the slide from discomfort into danger.

• Keep skin dry and reduce heat loss: damp clothing is a heat sink. Change socks when possible, and prioritise insulating layers over a single heavy garment.

• Conserve core heat: hats and gloves matter because the body restricts blood flow to extremities in cold, increasing frostbite risk. 

• Eat and drink regularly: shivering burns energy quickly. Warm, calorie-dense food supports heat production.

• Warmth in zones: one heated room is better than trying to heat an entire flat. Shared warming centres, when available, are not a luxury but a medical intervention.

• Watch for early signs: uncontrolled shivering, clumsiness, confusion, and unusual fatigue can indicate falling core temperature. Hypothermia begins before it looks dramatic. 

Ukraine has, over successive winters, grown more adept at improvising resilience: repair brigades, generators, and public warming points. Yet physiology is stubborn. In extreme cold, the margin for error narrows, and every additional hour without heat disproportionately harms those already vulnerable.

In that sense, the effects of extreme cold on the body are not only a chapter in emergency medicine. They are part of the grammar of modern war. When a state attacks an energy system in winter, she is not merely targeting infrastructure. She is, indirectly but knowingly, targeting circulation, respiration, judgement and the fragile chemical steadiness that keeps human beings alive.