‘I froze my feet’: Volgograd residents survive harsh winter

The winter of 2026 has turned out unprecedentedly cold for the Volgograd region — thermometers have been staying below minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4°F) day and night, and fierce blizzards threaten to turn any passerby going to a nearby store or walking a dog into a real snowman. City residents told how they are surviving the critical frosts and what helps them avoid turning into a block of ice on the way to work.

‘I Warm Myself Against the Dog — It’s Hotter Than a Radiator’

Anna, a middle-aged Volgograd woman accustomed to the famous Volgograd heat, is barely enduring the frosts that have hit the region. The woman walks around the apartment in felt boots, and at work she puts a medical gown over a wool sweater and fleece-lined pants, never letting go of a mug of boiling water instead of tea:

— The frost is terrible. At work in the hospital, it«s freezing cold. At night, my replacement always turns off the radiators in the office for some reason, probably waiting for them to freeze over. She, you see, is too hot. In the morning, I turn them on, the pipes seem to heat, but there»s a draft from the window, even though the double-glazing is new. The nurse freezes so much that she warms her feet on the radiator when no one is in the treatment room. Patients in the wards lie under blankets, we turn on the split system for heating, and still people are freezing, — says Anna.

At home, the Volgograd woman also freezes — the heating cannot cope with the frosts, and not only people suffer from the brutal cold:

— In the apartment, you have to insulate yourself, — says Anna. — At night, I warm myself against the dog — it’s hotter than a radiator, but it also gets cold, sleeping only under a blanket. The dog is a Miniature Pinscher, half-bald, its delicate white belly is completely unsuited to the thermal trials of this winter. Nevertheless, this willful, freezing even in the apartment, puny male dog categorically refuses to wear a winter jumpsuit or any other clothing for walks — it walks naked for 5 minutes: just does its business and runs into the entrance, tucking its paws.

‘While Driving to Work, My Feet Freeze Off’

Ksenia, a 22-year-old girl, complains about the severe frosts, which she manages to survive only at the cost of superhuman efforts and thanks to her inexhaustible love for work, where a powerful electric heat gun stands in the middle of the office:

— Only thanks to this heater are we still alive, — says Ksenia. — Maybe our hot hearts, full of determination to fulfill our professional-patriotic duty to the native company, also warm us. If in the office you can still somehow survive, then in the next room the cold is terrible, it even chills you to the bone. It’s better not to go to the restroom at all — it’s a real refrigerator, returning from there alive is a real quest. I can imagine what electricity bills will come to the office. Good thing we don’t have to pay them.

In the minus 20-degree frost, the girl prefers not to go outside, calling a taxi from the entrance of her house to the doors of the building where she works:

— I freeze so much that my whole body shakes, I feel sleepy, nauseous, I don’t want to eat anything, and this is generally a vicious circle, — says Ksenia. — You don’t eat, the body has no energy for heating — you freeze even more. I feel sluggish, on the street I almost lose consciousness. While driving to work in a taxi, especially early in the morning, I hope to nap a little, but from the cold my legs go numb and I wake up. I wear wool tights and fleece-lined jeans, a sweatshirt, winter boots and a down jacket, and I’m still terribly cold.

The girl hopes to live until spring, but almost no longer believes that the heat she adores will return to Volgograd:

— I frostbited my face while somehow walking from the bus stop to the house — and that’s only 8 minutes… I pray that my kidneys and other organs don’t freeze off. It’s no laughing matter now, just to endure this wretched frost.

There Is a Place in the City Where It’s Warm Not Only in the Soul, But Also in the Radiators

Escaping the cold, city residents try to heat their homes in a rather unsafe way: turning on gas stoves and ovens, creating at least somewhat livable conditions in their own apartments:

— It’s cold in the apartment, we don’t turn off the heater, and we also heat with gas, the prices for electricity and gas in the bills will be astronomical, — laments Volgograd resident Olga about the cold.

— At work today in the office it’s plus 12 degrees Celsius (54°F), how can you work, it’s a kindergarten, a medical office, — says Volgograd resident Irina.

The severe freeze caught city residents off guard not only at home, in offices, hospitals, and other institutions, but also in public transport, where, according to passenger complaints, it is simply impossible to be without a personal portable heater:

— In the apartment it’s normal — you can live. But with transport — it’s a disaster. When it was warmer, they heated the transport like crazy, but now — it’s freezing. Today in the frost the tram is cold — inside the window is covered in a layer of ice with frost. Heating is completely absent, and in the old carriages everything is full of cracks — it drafts terribly, — complains Volgograd resident Natalya.

However, Volgograd residents have found a place in the city where it is always warm and any frost is not scary:

— Spartanovka is freezing. What’s sad in this situation is that it’s cold in schools, kindergartens, and transport, but in the district administrations it’s always warm! Now that’s a puzzle and an interesting fact! — says another Volgograd woman concerned about the cold.