tours for humanity

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DC WALKING TOURS: 

A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION  

Tours for Humanity is a group of charismatic guides dedicated to the proposition that history can help people. We believe in the power of stories and contribute a portion of our profits to charities fighting ignorance, poverty and disease.  Our walking tours won't save the world  but they're a step in the right direction.

Join us on one of our   walking tours of Washington, DC  to expand your knowledge of presidents, heroes, wars and why it all matters. Our guides are history geeks and their passion is on full display as they guide you from monument to memorial while unleashing tales of old. Our guides possess such charisma and knowledge that we want you to pick your own price. At the end of the tour, simply pay our guides what you think the tour was worth.  Because everyone should be able to afford a good story. 

Bring your classroom to life. Work with us to create a  customized tour  th at fits your curriculum. We are not only experts in the resources of DC, but also have experience as former teachers. Tell us more about your learning objectives and we will work together to inspire students.  

Join us in  our philosophy  that business can be a force for good. We were inspired to build something meaningful after one of our founder's battle with cancer. We are seeking to make a difference by donating a portion of profits to charities fighting ignorance, poverty and disease, including the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Every aspect of our business, right down to  our uniform , does good in the world.

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Tours For Humanity             P.O. Box 681, Arlington, VA 22216             Tel: (202) 780-4544    

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Charismatic guides - check! Entertainment - check! Knowledge and great stories - double check! Add a social mission to eradicate disease, educate others, and better the world and you have the real deal tour company! This is a wonderful experience for locals and tourists alike! Tours For Humanity is a recently launched company and I had to admit, I was a bit skeptical. Very rarely do companies have it figured out and the tour guide can really make or break the trip. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surpised and overwhelmingly impressed with how well-organized the company was, how charismatic the guides were, and how much I really enjoyed the information and stories that the guides gave. It was clear that this group really enjoyed what they were doing and really wanted to make sure that you were having an experience that could not be matched by other tour companies. As an added bonus, they have a really cool social mission. Their outfits highlight various causes and a portion of proceeds go to eradicting disease or educating others. This is a must not just for those visiting DC, but also for locals who could truly benefit from knowing the stories and history behind the monuments that we are fortunate enough to see on a daily basis and often take for advantage. Definitely check them out!

The Hotel Drinking Tour in DC was just amazing. Such a wonderful time and our tour guide Bo was exceptional!! Great stories, good drinks and lots of laughs. Such a fun way to spend an afternoon.

I went on a group tour with TFH and really loved it. Having lived in DC for a while, I am not easily impressed by tour companies, but this one was an absolute pleasure. Our tour guide Bo brought us around the monuments for an evening tour. He was extremely engaging and knowledgable, as well as very humorous and outgoing. Besides being a very high quality tour company, TFH is in a league of its own in that it donates a portion of all revenue to charity. It is definitely the best option for DC tours!

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Best tour guide in Washington dc - Tours for Humanity

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This was my third time going! Love this tour! Bo is funny, very knowledgeable and a super nice guy... read more

Had a great time on this tour. A great way to have a few drinks and recognize where you are in DC... read more

Best tour guide in Washington dc

Tours for humanity was fantastic!! Bo was very knowledgable. He kept both kids and parents entertained and engaged the whole week! He is funny and an all around great guy! Would definitely recommend tours for humanity!!

My girlfriend and I had a wonderful time touring the Arlington National Cemetery with Tours for Humanity. Our guide, Bo, was both entertaining and knowledgable. We were so glad we had someone there to show us all the little secrets the area had to offer. I cannot recommend this tour enough.

I've strolled around the National Mall and Arlington National Cemetery a zillion times and have really taken a lot of the history for granted. Bo and TFH helped me fix this huge oversight. The tour flew by; Bo's energy and passion for history were contagious. I would definitely recommend TFH to large and small groups alike; family and friends. A+

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Tours for Humanity: Travel with Purpose

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“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” –Robert F. Kennedy

I know it’s cliché to begin any article in our field with such a well-known and inspirational quote. But that quote has special meaning to me. Not just because Bobby Kennedy is a personal hero of mine. No, I read and walk by those words every week because they are etched into the stone across from his grave. He rests in our country’s most hallowed ground, Arlington National Cemetery, and it’s my job to walk those hills. 

Lisa Ann Maurer and I founded and run a social enterprise in Washington, D.C. called Tours for Humanity. That famous RFK quote sums up both our purpose and our philosophy: Tiny ripples of hope slowly improving lives and the world while building momentum with other social good causes. We provide walking tours of D.C., in person and via a mobile app, then donate a portion of profits towards charities fighting ignorance, poverty, and disease. We lead tours from Capitol Hill to the National Mall, from Arlington Cemetery to the fan-favorite Drinking History adventure. 

We are using moving stories of history to help people. Tales about the heroes of yesteryear generate not only inspiration for travelers but funds for the charities we support: the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Ashoka, and Honor Flight. We also donate tours to nonprofits and causes as fundraising tools, all the while moving towards our goal of B-Corp certification. The idea is to transform travel into a force for good. We know that even with scaling we are still small actors on a very large stage. That’s why one of our mottoes is “a tour won’t save the world, but it’s a step in the right direction.” 

We have been in operation for over a year. Our journey began with an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign through which we raised roughly $20,000 in start-up capital. Indiegogo, and platforms like it, are essential for entrepreneurs just starting out. As of now we have two independent contractor guides working for us in the busy season. We were not in the red last year but neither are we driving a Tesla. No one said this would be easy. 

Progress is too slow. I know most of us feel that way in our various fields. But scaling a traditional tour company is incredibly labor-intensive with hiring independent contractors and training new recruits, not to mention scheduling and managing multiple tours while you’re also out in the field. Tours for Humanity (TFH) will maintain this slow and steady path, on the one hand. In-person tours will never disappear and we want our guides to double as brand ambassadors for other social good companies. That’s why our guide on the standard tour is wearing TOMS shoes, a FEED bag on his shoulder, and has on a t-shirt made by Freeset. And you’ll never find me without my LSTN headphones. All these products improve the world in their own ways. 

On the other hand, we are pursuing a digital strategy with a mobile app of audio tours. Think of it as a tour in your pocket. Currently we have three tours available in D.C. with two more under production. Each of these tours has over an hour of story content for customers. We are proving our value with a freemium model where the app and National Mall tour are free and additional tours are $3.99 each. This is a huge savings to, say, a family of four when compared with a traditional tour. 

Digitizing your services comes with many benefits. I know that the quality of the content is assured and I don’t have to be out in the field myself. New guides don’t have to be hired, trained, and managed as often. This leaves a wider reach and more profits to be sent to our charity partners. 

TFH, working with our software development partner PearCircuit, can scale the app much more quickly than a traditional guide-on-the-ground company can. The strategy we are pursuing is unique at the moment, a hybrid model featuring part in-person guides and part mobile app sales. There are tours and revenue that the app may cannibalize and others it could not possibly replace. For instance, the Drinking History tour (our favorite) is far better face-to-face in a group. The social camaraderie and group dynamic are why folks book this experience. As for the app cannibalizing customers from more profitable in-person tours, well, if the atom bomb is possible then it’s better to develop it first. The chance of disruption exists and therefore we intend to be the disruptors. 

Currently there are the traditional by-foot walking tours that only have in-person guides and the all-digital, all-app companies. We believe the two to be complementary and synergistic. The plan is simple: expand to other cities with the app first. Then we follow up with boots on the ground and establish Drinking History tours. These in-person outings and the app advertise and support one another. At this stage even modest investment could be leveraged for rapid expansion. 

To build on this foundation, our guides and app will act as a gateway to other social good companies and causes. Our people are brand ambassadors leading travellers through monuments and memorials. They are walking billboards for conscious companies that meet and interact with dozens of tourists every day. On the app side, these same companies have the opportunity to sponsor individual tours, like a podcast advertiser, or even entire cities. 

We took a small step in this direction when LSTN headphones sponsored our app launch party. Their products were sold alongside people toasting our app (TFH events are almost always in Irish pubs). All of us know we make a greater impact when we stand together. That is why we are pursuing and in talks with multiple companies for partnerships. 

We started this company so we could continually give back to and promote causes we believe in. This whole endeavor began in the neighborhood bar on a bleary New Year’s Day. That’s where I met my business partner and girlfriend.  Little did she know she had met her caretaker and I didn’t know she’d battle through cancer.  That brush with disease and darkness is why we started this enterprise.  Now every day we work so that the next day will be a bit better. Through our app, pursuing partnerships, and the power of story, we are sending forth our tiny ripples of hope. 

Bo Hammond has been a summer camp counselor, civic educator, and a tour guide. He founded and leads Tours for Humanity (TFH) with his partner Lisa Maurer. They started they started with a successful crowdfunding campaign and are now in year two of operation. TFH is a social enterprise walking tour company based in Washington, DC.  

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The Pandemic Changed The World Of 'Voluntourism.' Some Folks Like The New Way Better

Malaka Gharib

Last summer, Becca Morrison, 21, was all set to volunteer at a community arts nonprofit in Zomba, Malawi. She'd work with the marketing team as a copywriter and social media manager.

Then the pandemic hit, and the trip got canceled. "I was peeved," she says. "I was so excited to travel. I had the whole thing planned."

Still, Morrison was determined to find a volunteer gig, which she needed to graduate as an international development major at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, U.K. So she found another opportunity in Zomba, this time with a nonprofit group called the Sparkle Foundation . And it would take place virtually.

For three months last summer, Morrison helped the group — which runs a school and a medical facility for children in the community — do tasks remotely. She even personally raised $7,000 for the cause.

"I've done so much without even leaving my house, my room," she says. "I think the pandemic has changed the game completely for volunteering."

Becca Morrison, 21, at home in Norwich, U.K. She has been volunteering virtually with an arts nonprofit in Zomba, Malawi from her bedroom. Becca Morrison hide caption

Becca Morrison, 21, at home in Norwich, U.K. She has been volunteering virtually with an arts nonprofit in Zomba, Malawi from her bedroom.

The pandemic has indeed transformed the landscape of international volunteering, say researchers. A February survey of 130 volunteer organizations and 239 international volunteers by the International Forum for Volunteering in Development found that the pandemic had spurred volunteer groups to offer more remote volunteering opportunities and consider expanding national volunteer membership in the future.

Even as some groups gear for a return to the way it was, others are changing their modus operandi — and some of these new ways of working are a step in a more sustainable direction.

"The pandemic has shown us there are different innovative ways volunteers are able to provide services," says Christopher Millora , an academic based in Iloilo City, Philippines, who is leading research for the U.N.'s next State of the World's Volunteerism report. This could lead to a "paradigm shift as to what kinds of relationships international volunteer organizations have toward local communities."

That's an important move in an industry riddled with criticism. Over the past few decades, critics and activists have been urging volunteer abroad organizations to rethink their business model.

They say sending volunteers from rich nations to low-income countries perpetuates the white savior complex by portraying volunteers as superheroes who will rescue the poor from their misery.

"There's this postcolonial narrative of young, aspirational, light-skinned people from the West thinking they can go to Africa for two weeks and change the world," says Konstantinos Tomazos , a senior lecturer in international tourism management at the University of Strathclyde. "That's the main criticism of the sector that plays into the idea of the white messiah."

They say projects can be harmful and exploitative.

One of the most popular activities for volunteers, say the experts, is helping children in orphanages. That demand, as a result, has created perverse economic incentives . "In places like Kenya and Cambodia, Nepal and Tanzania, orphanages are prolific. But the children within them are not orphans and in many cases are being placed in orphanages in order for orphanage directors to profit from the [volunteer] tourism demand to engage with orphans," says Leigh Mathews , founder of Alto Global, an international development consultancy group and the co-founder of Rethink Orphanages, a group that helps volunteer groups terminate their orphanage programs and repatriate children with their families.

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And some critics question the helpfulness of volunteers.

In Ours To Explore: Privilege, Power and the Paradox of Voluntourism , author Pippa Biddle writes about a shocking discovery she made while volunteering in Tanzania as a teen. She and a group of young, inexperienced volunteers were assigned to help local workers build a small library at an orphanage. Days into the project, she found out that every morning, the local workers were taking apart the volunteers' shoddy work from the day before and redoing it correctly before they woke up.

"While my intentions to be helpful and encouraging and to give back came from a good place, my time at the orphanage did not even begin to address their real needs," writes Biddle.

A major industry

Despite these criticisms, international volunteerism is a big business.

Since the mid-1800s, when trains and ships made it possible for the public to travel cheaper, faster and farther than ever before, people have strived to "voyage to less-resourced nations for pleasure and purpose," says Biddle.

The phenomenon of volunteer tourism is now a $3 billion a year industry, says Tomazos. The funds paid by participants go to the thousands of groups that coordinate the trips along with the development programs they support.

The money also benefits local economies. The volunteer organization Habitat for Humanity, for example, says their trips alone bring in an estimated $6.9 million to the drivers, hotels, restaurants and gift shops that serve international volunteers when they visit.

And while it's hard to pinpoint how many international volunteers there are in the world, the U.N. estimates that if volunteering were a full-time job, it would account for 109 million workers.

It's easy to understand the appeal of overseas service, says Biddle. There's a sense of adventure, and people feel good about helping those who are less fortunate. Studies have found that volunteers perceive the trips as a meaningful and transformative life experience . People often come away from the trips with feelings of improved well-being, purpose and happiness.

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On a more practical note, "voluntourism" is a practical way for people — like Morrison — to gain experience in international development. Maia Gedde, author of Working in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance , says people hoping to start a career in the field "volunteer as a steppingstone to build skills, knowledge and networks to put them in a much stronger position when applying for humanitarian jobs in the future."

But not all volunteer programs are the same. In the world of international volunteerism, there are two kinds of gigs. One is volunteering with development programs, such as the Peace Corps in the U.S. and Voluntary Service Overseas in the U.K. These groups, often funded with government aid, assign volunteers to long-term projects around the world — a year or two or more working at a school in Malawi, for example, or supporting helping small business owners in India. Such programs typically provide the volunteers with basic accommodation and a modest allowance for food and other living expenses.

Then there's volunteer tourism — nicknamed "voluntourism" by academics. People pay to take part in shorter-term projects abroad, which can range from tutoring kids in Nepal for a week to spending a few months conducting nutrition workshops in Thailand to traveling with a church mission group to the Philippines to dig wells. Volunteers must pay for their journey, including flights and transportation, meals and lodging as well as fees to the organizations and the programs they support.

In-person trips not required?

During the pandemic, both the development programs and volunteer tourism groups have had to recalibrate their efforts. And some groups have been surprised by how eager volunteers were to stay involved — even though their trips to the field were canceled.

One of the most well-known groups in the latter category is Habitat for Humanity . Its Global Villages program invites people — mostly from Western countries — to help out in 30 mostly low- and middle-income countries. Over the course of about two weeks, groups of 15 people, half volunteers, half local staff, build homes, hand-washing and health-care facilities as well as participate in other kinds of projects. Volunteers do not need special skills but do need cash. There's a fee of about $1,650-$2,500 per person to participate, often raised through donations from friends and family. About 12,000 volunteers participate each year. During the pandemic, that number dropped to zero.

Despite that, many of the 800 projects planned for 2020 still got done, says Jacqueline Innocent , senior vice president of integrated programs at Habitat for Humanity. Local staff and paid contractors — mason workers, for example — pitched in. It just took a little longer because there were fewer helping hands.

Innocent was also pleased to see that many of the volunteers whose trips were canceled did not ask for a refund. They let Habitat keep the funds as a donation. And many organized their own virtual workshops, events and music festivals — to raise funds.

Dave Kovac, a 20-year veteran volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, speaks to students from his international service class at Oregon State University. For 10 weeks last fall, the class conducted a virtual Habitat build. Each week, the students checked in with Habitat staff in Vietnam as they built a house for a family in need. Natalie Kovac hide caption

Some volunteers even arranged "virtual builds." Dave Kovac is a 20-year Habitat volunteer veteran and teaches courses on international service at Oregon State University. He was scheduled to go on three trips with Habitat in 2020, including one with a cohort of students. When the trips were canceled, he worked with Habitat to create an online program where students "adopted" a Habitat build in Vietnam. Over 10 weeks, Kovac and his students met weekly to fundraise, learn about Vietnamese culture, get updates from local staff about the project's progress and speak to the family whose house was being built.

The program was so successful that Kovac says he is trying it out again in August, this time with Habitat Brazil. He says he likes the model because it targets "people who are interested in some kind of experience but can't go abroad due to timing, job, personal issues, family. So maybe they can tag along virtually."

The virtual engagement made Habitat realize something, says Innocent. "We're not as dependent upon cross-border volunteers as one would have previously thought. It has been surprising how much people are willing to do [for Habitat] even though they don't get that reciprocal experience" of being there.

"I suspect," she adds, "what we're going to see when we're able to come back is more hybrid approaches" — creating opportunities like the virtual builds for international volunteers, for example.

But, she says, "I don't see a scenario at the moment where we would want to eliminate the [field] experience." The trip is what people love, she says — and local staff rely on those volunteers to help carry out the projects more quickly.

These virtual opportunities with reputable organizations offer "a wonderful alternative to on-the-ground voluntourism," says Biddle. They "bypass so many of the issues voluntourism creates and require the volunteers to show true commitment to a cause and a community — even from afar."

Greater appreciation for local volunteers

For other organizations, the pandemic has affirmed a decision they've made well before the crisis: recruiting more local volunteers instead of Westerners, says researcher Millora. And the pandemic has driven home the importance of these helpers.

Voluntary Service Overseas is a U.K.-based development organization that hires and places skilled volunteers in long-term projects in nearly 30 low- and middle-income countries.

But over the last few years, the group has been recruiting more in-country volunteers. "They're the ones who can hold the government accountable, who know the context," says Papa Diouf , who heads VSO's global work in health and is based in Kigali, Rwanda. Many of these volunteers are graduates from the School of Education at the University of Rwanda.

In the first few months of the pandemic, VSO Rwanda had to send its 50 international volunteers home. Because the group had a preexisting membership of 200 national volunteers, it was able to carry out its education program, says Diouf — training public school teachers to improve literacy and numeracy skills among primary school students.

OPINION: Volunteering Abroad Is Popular And Problematic. Let's Fix It

The international volunteers, who were brought on for their expertise in school leadership and education development, stayed involved ... virtually. Using Zoom and WhatsApp, they checked in with local volunteers, who were doing much of the in-person work — visiting schools and mentoring teachers. And when schools were shut in Rwanda due to COVID-19, it was the local volunteers who kept in touch with the schoolteachers via WhatsApp.

Diouf doesn't think VSO is going to end its practice of sending volunteers abroad anytime soon. The international volunteers have crucial expertise that the organization's projects need. In fact, now that some travel restrictions have been lifted, some of the international volunteers who were sent home from Rwanda at the start of the pandemic have returned.

But, he says, the pandemic helped him see how crucial local volunteers are, especially in times of crisis. VSO's Rwandan volunteers mobilized to spread COVID messaging in their country and track essential health services disrupted by COVID. Supporting "those local volunteers had already been a shift in our program thinking, but COVID-19 has only helped us move faster in that direction," he says.

Benjamin Lough , an associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a global volunteerism researcher, says VSO Rwanda's emphasis toward local service in the pandemic is "a great turn." But he has a caveat.

"The pandemic revealed both the strengths of relying on local volunteers as well as the limitations when support from abroad is lacking," he says. "We can't just pass on more responsibility to domestic volunteers without providing additional support" in the form of funds or manpower.

Booking again ... but with a difference

As vaccination rates soar in the West and more countries loosen COVID travel restrictions, volunteer groups have started offering trips again.

For many overseas service operations, those trips abroad are their bread and butter, says Tomazos, the tourism researcher from University of Strathclyde. "They have a business model. No volunteers means no money."

Volunteers also bring important knowledge into the mix, says Lough. Local staff from some volunteer abroad groups have told him: "We value the skills those volunteers are bringing into this community. We want them to come in."

And people have begun booking trips again.

But things are definitely different.

Kovac sees real promise in the virtual Habitat builds, because it may help people focus on the real reasons they're volunteering. "It's really for people who want to help because they want to help, not because they want to travel."

As for Morrison, she says she "feels lucky" that she was able to accomplish so much with the Sparkle Foundation last year even if she wasn't physically in Malawi. In fact, the group liked her work so much that they asked her back this summer as a paid intern working remotely.

In her bedroom in Norwich, she says that without the distraction of feeling "mesmerized" by an exotic location, she's been more honed in on her true purpose as a volunteer. And that's made her reevaluate the concept of overseas service.

"It's almost [discriminatory] that to make a real difference, you have to pay all this money to travel somewhere very far away," she says. "That's not how charity works."

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Tour for Humanity

Description.

National News

Sponsored content, health and wellness, investigative news, news bloopers, report a video issue.

• Preplanned tours
• Daytrips out of Moscow
• Themed tours
• Customized tours
• St. Petersburg

Moscow Metro 2019

Will it be easy to find my way in the Moscow Metro? It is a question many visitors ask themselves before hitting the streets of the Russian capital. As metro is the main means of transport in Moscow – fast, reliable and safe – having some skills in using it will help make your visit more successful and smooth. On top of this, it is the most beautiful metro in the world !

. There are over 220 stations and 15 lines in the Moscow Metro. It is open from 6 am to 1 am. Trains come very frequently: during the rush hour you won't wait for more than 90 seconds! Distances between stations are quite long – 1,5 to 2 or even 3 kilometers. Metro runs inside the city borders only. To get to the airport you will need to take an onground train - Aeroexpress.

RATES AND TICKETS

Paper ticket A fee is fixed and does not depend on how far you go. There are tickets for a number of trips: 1, 2 or 60 trips; or for a number of days: 1, 3 days or a month. Your trips are recorded on a paper ticket. Ifyou buy a ticket for several trips you can share it with your traveling partner passing it from one to the other at the turnstile.

On every station there is cashier and machines (you can switch it to English). Cards and cash are accepted. 1 trip - 55 RUB 2 trips - 110 RUB

Tickets for 60 trips and day passes are available only at the cashier's.

60 rides - 1900 RUB

1 day - 230 RUB 3 days - 438 RUB 30 days - 2170 RUB.

The cheapest way to travel is buying Troyka card . It is a plastic card you can top up for any amount at the machine or at the ticket office. With it every trip costs 38 RUB in the metro and 21 RUB in a bus. You can get the card in any ticket office. Be prepared to leave a deposit of 50 RUB. You can get it back returning the card to the cashier.

SamsungPay, ApplePay and PayPass cards.

One turnstile at every station accept PayPass and payments with phones. It has a sticker with the logos and located next to the security's cabin.

GETTING ORIENTED

At the platfrom you will see one of these signs.

It indicates the line you are at now (line 6), shows the direction train run and the final stations. Numbers below there are of those lines you can change from this line.

In trains, stations are announced in Russian and English. In newer trains there are also visual indication of there you are on the line.

To change lines look for these signs. This one shows the way to line 2.

There are also signs on the platfrom. They will help you to havigate yourself. (To the lines 3 and 5 in this case). 

Radiators fail once more: Moscow suburbs residents appeal to Putin

R esidents across the Moscow suburbs are besieged by a heating problem, for which they plead direct intervention from President Vladimir Putin. These individuals have yet to experience any semblance of home heating since winter started due to a dwindling supply of heating oil. The issue, one largely avoided by local authority communication, has left residents desperate to the point of directly appealing to the president.

While plots have been uncovered to disrupt Ukraine's infrastructure for a second consecutive winter, thus depriving civilians of heating, it seems Russians are now mired in their crisis. Irony drips from the fact that those under Putin's leadership are looking to cause turmoil in Ukraine, yet at home, they face a similar predicament.

Many dwellings within the Moscow agglomeration are presently without heat. The capital's residents are desperate, directly appealing to President Putin due to a perceived lack of alternate avenues for assistance. The absence of suitable heating functionality since winter commenced pushes them towards desperation with no relief in sight.

This seems improbable, but in Russia, it appears that anything can happen.

It remains uncertain if Vladimir Putin is actively addressing the heating crisis. Some experts suggest that Russia's heating oil reserves are depleting, which negatively affects residents' quality of life. Plagued by cold radiators and plummeting winter temperatures, these citizens have directly addressed their pleas to their head of state.

This heating crisis is happening in Elektrostal, a town approximately 71 miles from Moscow.

Ironically, Russia has constantly aimed to destroy the Ukrainian infrastructure since war broke out, deliberately trying to leave Ukrainians without heating during the harsh winters, aiming to break their strong will. It's an irony they now struggle with a domestic heating crisis, particularly near Moscow, their largest and most pivotal city.

Desperate individuals are reaching out to Vladimir Putin. They question his knowledge of the heating infrastructure conditions in the Moscow suburbs and the dire situations residents face there. Sundown brings no relief from the harsh Russian winter and without heating, their houses turn cold. With elections nearing, more and more residents find themselves reaching out directly to their president.

"Since winter's start, we've been without heating. This has been a yearly occurrence for the past three years. Despite paying for heating, we don't have enough. We implore you, help us!" - these are the desperate pleas from the heavily dressed populace dealing with the Russian winter conditions.

Experts attribute the heating oil shortage to international sanctions and surging demands for diesel fuel, pivotal to military operations. Russia now grapples with a dearth of raw materials essential for boiler and heating plant operation. As supplies dwindle, houses grow cold with little hope of any immediate corrective intervention.

It would be adequate if the war ceased, residents were prioritized, and attention accorded to their welfare.

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Putin faces strategic dilemma in prolonged Ukrainian war

Former Ukrainian deputy Kywa assassinated in Moscow amidst war tensions