Ukraine’s power supply nears critical level after Russian strikes
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are pushing Kyiv and other cities towards a winter crisis, with some households facing electricity outages of up to 20 hours a day. Planned cuts have been imposed since October, earlier and for longer than last winter. Daryna Kulchytska, a single mother living on the seventh floor of a Kyiv apartment block, recently had power for only four or five hours a day, often split into two hours on and eight hours off. Without electricity, the lift stops, water cannot be pumped upstairs, heating is disrupted and home working becomes nearly impossible.
One evening, the power lasted until just before 7:30pm before the flat went dark. Daryna, her 12-year-old son Kyryll and her daughter Olena used torches and LED candles, played Uno and went to bed early. Kyryll, who learned fluent English during two years in the United States, said the blackouts had taken away light, water, heat and “fun”. Kyiv has been hardest hit: metro trains and trolleybuses have sometimes stopped, while hundreds of thousands of people nationwide have recently lost power.
The scale of the damage was visible at a major power station left almost completely destroyed by a ballistic missile strike. Volodymyr Kovalenko, who had worked there for 25 years, described the attack as the most severe the plant had experienced. Recovery crews are repeatedly forced into shelter by air-raid warnings, sometimes every 15 to 30 minutes; during one four-hour visit, there were seven warnings. Officials fear life could become unsustainable for millions unless supplies remain available for at least four hours daily. Ukraine has responded by striking Russian oil refineries.
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