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Ukraine’s power supply is nearing a critical point as Russian strikes bring prolonged blackouts and cold to homes across the country, the BBC reported.
In Kyiv, single mother Daryna Kulchytska is trying to care for her two children in a seventh-floor flat while working from home. She says electricity has recently been available for only four or five hours a day, at unpredictable times: “For two hours we have electricity, then for eight hours we don’t.”
Scheduled rolling power cuts have been in place since October, as Russia intensified attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid. Ukraine has responded by striking Russian oil refineries.
Officials are concerned that life could quickly become unsustainable for millions of Ukrainians if electricity cannot be supplied for at least four hours a day. Some privately warn that the threshold is already close, with families in Kyiv facing outages lasting up to 20 hours.
The cuts began earlier this year than last winter and are already lasting longer. As temperatures fall indoors and outside, Daryna wears layers of clothing and a heavy coat. Just before 7:30pm, the electricity switches off, leaving the family without power until dawn.
The lift stops working, and water supplies are interrupted because electricity is needed to pump water up to the flat. Daryna, her son Kyryll and daughter Olena use torches and LED candles and play cards before going to bed early.
Twelve-year-old Kyryll, who learned English during two years living in the United States, describes the disruption: “There’s no light, no water, no heat, no electricity. And no fun. All the fun got sucked out with the electricity.” He says the family has a shelf of board games but has played them “like a hundred thousand times already”.
Blackouts have plunged entire neighbourhoods into darkness. “You look outside and sometimes you see nothing. You have a big city around but you see nothing because there’s no light,” Daryna says.
Kyiv has been hit hardest, with metro trains and trolleybuses at times brought to a standstill. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians nationwide have gone without electricity in recent weeks.
Damaged power station faces difficult repairs
A recent ballistic missile strike left one of Ukraine’s largest power stations barely standing. The BBC visited the facility, which it said could not be named for security reasons. The plant was reduced to twisted metal and broken pipes, with turbines buried under rubble, and was taken completely offline.
Volodymyr Kovalenko was on duty in the control room when the missiles hit at 3am. He said the attack was unlike anything the plant had experienced before. Earlier strikes had caused part of the roof to collapse, he said, but the latest one was particularly severe.
Kovalenko, who followed his parents into the profession and has worked at the site for 25 years, said the damage was heartbreaking but that he was confident it could be repaired.
Recovery work is being disrupted by air raids every 15 to 30 minutes. During the BBC’s four-hour visit, there were seven warnings. Alerts about drones and further missiles force teams to stop work and take cover; during the visit, the threats were either shot down or continued towards other targets.
If workers cannot reach the site’s main shelter in time, they take cover in the foundations of its tall chimneys. “You’ve mentally prepared yourself to do a particular job, and then… the air raid siren goes off, and you have to get out as quickly as possible,” said Vadym Bobyr, who is leading the recovery effort.
Bobyr, 39, has worked at the plant for half his life. He said it was emotionally difficult to see damage return after the facility had already been repaired and brought back into operation, but added: “It hurts, but we keep working and getting things done.”
During the visit, workers received another alert, this time for an incoming Banderol cruise missile. They ran through the site’s passages and pipework but could not reach a shelter, so took cover behind one of the plant’s thickest walls. The missile was intercepted 5km (3 miles) away.
Energy workers face serious risks. Since August, power facilities have been attacked almost daily, with several people killed every week, and the threat is increasing.
After the latest alert had passed, a team returned to repairing power lines that feed the national grid. The lines will not carry electricity from the damaged plant before the end of this winter, at the earliest.
Grid damage strains electricity supply
President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine still has enough generating capacity to meet electricity demand. The challenge, he says, is delivering power to homes and businesses after so many lines and substations have been hit. Russia is using “waiter drones” that attach themselves to pylons and cables and remain undetected until they are detonated.
Maxim Timchenko, chief executive of “DTEK”, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said Russia was placing even greater pressure on the damaged electricity grid than last year, while overstretched air defences could not protect all critical infrastructure.
“What is different is the scale of attacks and the different types of weapons used in these attacks. This is what is the difference — they’ve doubled in power and in scale,” Timchenko said.
He said rebuilding the damaged power station would take at least until next summer. Workers under sustained attack, he said, were able to complete only one or two productive hours of work each day.
“We are fighting for survival of not only the whole country but ordinary people, especially during winter,” Timchenko said.
Kovalenko said keeping the lights on was a mission: “Energy is the foundation of everything — people’s lives, the state. Nothing can function without it. I’ve dedicated my entire life to this.”
Many people are choosing to leave Kyiv or Ukraine to avoid months of bitter cold. Daryna, Kyryll and Olena know that winter has only just begun.
“It’s the worst feeling,” Kyryll said, describing how he comes home tired from school, lies down and then faces an air-raid alert, a blackout and homework.
After the children go to bed, Daryna says she thinks about moving somewhere safer or warmer. She is torn between staying close to friends and relatives and fearing that life could become unbearable. She says the strain is harming her mental health and worries about its impact on the children, particularly Olena, who has nightmares.
Despite the darkness, Daryna says she remains defiant: “I don’t want to live without light. But actually people in Ukraine say, OK, without light, but without Russians. Yes, we’re scared, we’re scared a lot. But better for us to be without power, but [also] without Russians.”
