Russian troops retreated from the Kyiv region months ago but Zoia Pavliuk, 65, still cannot return to her home that was damaged by a Russian missile.

On Tuesday morning, she is standing in Borodyanka town centre watching one of the multi-storey buildings being demolished.

The building she used to live in has not yet been torn down but like many others damaged in fierce battles in March it is not suitable to spend the winter in.

The town, with a pre-war population of nearly 13,000, was a target of shelling and fighting in the early stages of the Russian invasion, which turned apartment buildings into charred, bombed-out hulks.

“This is just a room, but it's ours. Every ordinary person wants to return home,” says Pavliuk as she shows The Associated Press her tiny room in a building she'd lived in for years.

Around 200 people lived in this two-storey building but after a Russian missile that didn’t explode hit the second floor, just seven rooms remained occupied.

Many people were forced to find new accommodation, like Pavliuk, who moved into her sister’s apartment.

Almost nine months after the town was liberated, there are still traces of the explosions. Lamps are hanging from the ceiling in the corridor, and the silhouette of the hole can be identified by the new bricks of the rebuilt wall. The building lacks a proper roof, and the wooden carcass was recently covered with roofing film.

Those who didn’t find a new place to live and remain to live in a damaged building struggle to cover their basic needs.

“We live like homeless here,” says Hanna Reznikova, 63, wrapping up in a black thin autumn coat.

The temperature inside the building is no different from the outside. With rolling blackouts and no gas, the room where she lives with her partner is almost always cold.

She uses a candle near her bed when it’s dark, and to keep the room warm as long as she can, Reznikova uses a blanket as a curtain for her entrance door. The devices that could provide heat depend on electricity, which has become something of a luxury for Ukrainians across the country after Russia severely damaged its critical infrastructure.

Reznikova says that she always wears many layers of clothes and is determined to survive this winter.

"I sleep in clothes because it's very cold. I have one warm sweater and another one on top, and also I have outerwear on me," she said.

"We need humanitarian aid, food, warm clothes, as people ask for it," Pavliuk said. "They need hot prepared food at least once per week. People need to eat, but there is no electricity."

She keeps the keys to her room with her, hopeful to one day return. The war turned her life around; she is now displaced, and her monthly income, around $170, doesn’t stretch to cover her needs.

Read the latest on the Ukraine war: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/13/ukraine-news-russia-war-latest-bakhmut-iran-drone-zelensky/

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