The hope for ordinary Ukrainians in 2023 is the victorious return of their country – and of the light

‘Soon, as days get longer and nights shorter, nature itself will come to the aid of Ukrainians.’ Dark streets of Kyiv on 11 January, 2023. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Ukraine has entered 2023 as if going into a dark room where it is impossible to turn on the light. It seems that there are windows, but there is darkness behind them too. We must wait for the dawn or the restoration of the power supply. While there is neither one nor the other, darkness provokes a feeling of deep fatigue.

The Lviv University teacher and well-known Ukrainian poet Galina Kruk has noticed an unsettling pattern in her life – during a blackout, the power banks and batteries that feed her torches and lamps stop working about half an hour before the electricity comes back on. Then there is pitch darkness, which seems even thicker than when the lights first went out – that “early” darkness with which it was still possible to somehow cope.