In a lush garden between two blocks of flats in the city of Kramatorsk, Oleskandr Matviyevsky chops dead trees into kindling.

Everyone in this part of town, about 25 kilometers from the front lines, knows that the winter will be harsh.

The gas has been shut off and the fighting shows no sign of stopping as soldiers across the city prepare for battle.

The residents stock up on wood for the brick kilns set up in front of each building and their heating stoves.

“We’re going to band together to stay warm… and what’s going to be is going to be,” Matviyevsky said, chainsaw in hand as artillery fire echoed in the background and air raid sirens wailed.

“We were friends before, we just got closer,” said the 42-year-old worker.

Gas was shut off in May in the Donetsk region, which is partially controlled by Russian forces, and in the neighboring occupied Lugansk region after damage to infrastructure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July called for the mandatory evacuation of civilians from the Donetsk region both to avoid fighting and ahead of the winter season.

“Please evacuate,” Zelenskyy urged.

But Olga, 60, said she has no intention of leaving her apartment despite a recent strike at a building in her neighborhood.

Local media reported that some residents were asked to sign waivers expressing their decision to stay despite the warnings.

“I’m not signing anything,” Olga said.

“We’re all going to die here together. If it’s a grave for everyone, then so be it. But we stand firm,” she said, raising her fist in the air.

After living in Kramatorsk for 36 years, she has nowhere else to go.

Sitting on a bench in front of her building, surrounded by her neighbors and her cat, she said she feared her young grandchildren would struggle in the cold winter.

Of the 220,000 who lived there before the war, around 60,000 people still live in Kramatorsk, according to local officials.

“We don’t have the means to heat the residential areas,” said Igor Yeskov, spokesman for the city administration.

But the city has made preparations, asking a local businessman to provide around a thousand traditional wood-burning stoves to help those who remain.

However, the stoves are not suitable for heating the city’s numerous apartment blocks.

Olga’s cousin Andrii Kasionkin, 54, has chosen a different solution.

Since February he has been living in his basement with his family to protect them from the bombing raids and in the hope that he will provide some warmth during the winter.

He said that the temperature in the basement can be kept at 10 degrees Celsius in winter, even at minus 10 degrees Celsius in winter.

“We live here for now and try not to think about tomorrow,” he said.

“We try to live with dignity. Even in this situation.”

In the city of Sloviansk, closer to the front lines, a local hospital prepared by installing a new heater that can burn garbage, coal or wood.

Valentyna Glushchenko, the director of the hospital, said she was “very worried”.

“A healthy person can be comfortable in different conditions, but a sick person needs a certain temperature. He needs warmth during his treatment.”