Outages shroud Ukraine as Russian strikes on power plants take their toll
After an attack over the weekend, the state electricity company, Ukrenergo, said electricity rationing would be needed throughout the country.
KYIV — The cutoffs started Monday and have only increased throughout the week, plunging much of Ukraine’s capital into darkness save for a few hours every day. In some parts of the city, even the traffic lights are turned off, and at night entire neighborhoods are draped in black.
The relentless pounding of Ukraine’s power plants by Russian drones and missiles is finally being felt. The state electricity distributor, Ukrenergo, said the latest onslaught on the power grid over the weekend meant rationing power throughout the country. It had been the sixth such barrage since March.
“We are catastrophically short of electricity for our needs,” Serhii Kovalenko, chief executive of the Ukrainian private electricity distributor, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
The power cuts have divided Kyiv into the haves and the have-nots — with even residents at some privileged, high-end addresses suddenly finding themselves in the latter category.Residents trade tips about what has kept their homes powered while their neighbors went dark: power lines connected to a railway office, for example, or a children’s hospital.
Aline Laptiy, 18, a coffee shop worker who lives in a neighborhood outside Kyiv’s city center, said she and her boyfriend used a gas camping stove when the power went out.Water supply was another question, however. They live on the upper floors of a high-rise building supplied by an electric water pump. When the power is turned on briefly — the other night they had electricity for just two hours, she said — they fill up anything they can with water: “In our bathtub, in bottles, anywhere,” she said.
The power outages have heralded the return of the chugging sound of gasoline generators on the streets of Kyiv — once the familiar soundtrack during the winters of Russia’s previous attacks, but somewhat unexpected on the long, warm summer nights.
At Remi, a hip new restaurant in central Kyiv, the doors have opened and closed throughout the day and night this week as the kitchen tried to manage without power. The restaurant opened in April, before the power cuts went into effect, and doesn’t yet have a generator. Workers hope to receive one by Thursday or Friday. It will be a lifesaver after several days of lost supplies and customers.On Wednesday, the restaurant closed its doors several hours earlier than usual. Its ingredients had spoiled and its pizza menu couldn’t be produced: The machine that kneaded the dough required electricity, as did the oven.
There was “no power, no people, no food,” said Arsen, 20, a waiter at the restaurant who asked that only his first name be used, because of the sensitivity of the subject.