Ukrainians and the tactics they came up with to face blackouts caused by Russia

Russian attacks left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity and heat. Residents improvise, temporarily change cities and create solidarity networks.

Kiev residents have been feeling the effects of massive Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for almost a month, which knocked out the heating system in homes and establishments. The capital is facing a prolonged wave of intense cold, with double-digit negative temperatures almost two weeks ago.

Despite peace negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States, the Kremlin launched new large-scale attacks not only in the capital, but also in other regions of the country. There were civilian casualties and further serious damage to energy supply infrastructure. According to the deputy head of government, Oleksii Kuleba, 800 thousand people were without electricity in Kievlast Saturday.

Part of the residents began to leave the capital.

“As we had no electricity, heat or water, my husband, my two children and I moved to my parents’ country house, and my father also came here,” one resident told DW.

The house has a gas heater and, in the garden, it is possible to connect a diesel generator. “So we have light, water and heat. We take water from a well. When the generator is working, we have electricity and the pumps work”, explains Anastasia. She is a beautician and has flexible hours, usually depending on the clientele. Now he’s on vacation.

“My husband is an energy engineer and needs to go to Kiev every day. The journey is long and difficult, because the highway is frozen. It can take him up to two hours to get to work”, she says.

Hotel discounts

Ukrainian writer and translator Tamara Horicha Sernja also left the capital with her children. “I saw a woman on Facebook offering 50% discount at your hotel in the Lviv region for people from Kiev. It charges around 900 hryvnias per day (around 17 euros) per adult, with three meals included. The next day, we packed our bags and left,” he says.

The winter holidays for most educational institutions in the capital have been extended until February 1st. The government thus hopes to redistribute the saved energy to residential areas. University classrooms are empty, but university residences are not.

“Most of the students went home because it was vacation time. Only those who have jobs in Kiev stayed,” said the director of a residence at the University of Transport, who preferred not to be identified. According to the person responsible, the electricity supply is problematic. But water and heating have already returned to homes.

“After the Russian bombing, we were without electricity or heating for 28 hours”, he reports.

Stay or leave?

Around 600,000 of Kiev’s 3.6 million inhabitants have left the city since the Russian attacks began on January 9, the mayor told AFP, based on the number of active cell phones in the city. The military administration in Kiev, however, does not confirm this estimate.

“If so many energy consumers had not left, the supply situation would probably not be so critical,” spokeswoman Kateryna Pop said on Ukrainian television.

Roman Nizowytsch, research director at think tank DiXi Group, disagrees.

“Electricity consumption can, in fact, be used as an indicator. But I don’t know if that is significant at the moment, because the supply is very irregular“, he tells DW. “As soon as the electricity comes back on, there is excessive consumption, because people do laundry and cook immediately.”

Among those trying to face the problems without leaving Kiev is Anja Syrotenko. The young woman lives in a high-rise building and takes care of her three-month-old baby alone since her husband was mobilized for military service.

“I live on the 15th floor. There is almost no electricity, and without electricity, there is no water“, he told DW. As the stove doesn’t work without power, he bought a gas camp stove. “With it I can fry eggs and heat water to wash the baby. Good thing the baby is being breastfed.”

Helping the most vulnerable

Marta Semenjuk, who raises a young daughter with her husband in Kiev, has not had working heating in her building for weeks. To keep warm, the couple uses a gas oven. “When there is electricity, we turn on a fan to spread the heat throughout the apartment,” he says.

Marta doesn’t want to take her daughter back to kindergarten, which has remained open. The girl fell ill with bronchitis after attending school without heating.

Kiev authorities serve hot meals daily to the most vulnerable people. Many volunteers also help those who are unable to travel.

“We take hot meals in our cars directly to the apartments where elderly people and people with disabilities live,” reports Mykola Djatschenko, leader of an aid organization. “I deliver about 115 meals a week.”

No heat until spring

Meanwhile, Ukrainian technicians are working to restore electricity, water and heating systems. It is expected that it will take up to two weeks to reconnect the entire city.

Small heating plants bear most of the load. Even when heating returns, it will not be able to operate at full capacity, Roman Nizowytsch, from the DiXi Group research center, told DW.

In buildings where pipes or radiators have burst due to freezing water, the expert believes that there will be no heating until spring, in March. It is feared that, in these cases, it will be necessary to completely replace the heating systems of entire residential blocks.