KYIV — Devastating attacks on Kyiv’s energy system over the past week have left hundreds of thousands in the cold and dark, as temperatures plunged well below freezing, sparking a war of words between President Volodymyr Zelensky and the mayor over the plight of the capital’s residents.
In Kyiv, a frigid lottery of sorts is playing out in which limited resources mean residents may have power, heat or water but almost never all three depending on where they live in the city and on which floor their apartment is located.
As temperatures plummet — and are forecast to remain low for days — energy workers are scrambling to restore utilities to millions of Ukrainians in the capital and other major urban centers across the country.
Zelensky declared a state of emergency in the energy sector on Wednesday night and then slammed the Kyiv city administration for how it has dealt with the crisis.
“Unfortunately, Kyiv has done much less — very little has been done in the capital. And even these days, I don’t see any urgency — we need to urgently rectify this now,” he said in his regular evening address after convening a special meeting on the energy situation.
A few hours later, Mayor Vitali Klitschko responded.
“What ‘intensity’ in the work in Kyiv in an emergency situation does the president not see, in particular, in recent days, as he said?” he wrote on Telegram, saying “utility workers are working around the clock in the bitter cold to repair critical infrastructure.”
“Such statements, first and foremost, negate the selfless work of thousands of people, specialists,” Klitschko said, adding that he saw the criticism as “nothing but hate.” He said that “at least I am speaking honestly and warning people about the extremely difficult situation. And I don’t care about any ratings or illusory elections.”
The war of words underlines the political turmoil in the country as Zelensky’s administration, weakened by corruption charges, appears to be trying to score points against his political rivals.
For Oleh Braharnyk, a repair crew commander for DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, the work has been nonstop. On Friday, right after the first set of strikes, he said, his team worked for 26 hours straight across the city, rushing to repair the damage and restore utilities.
The group then took a six-hour break and returned to work for 12 hours more. On Tuesday, he said, they worked 14 hours — and otherwise have worked 10- and 12-hour shifts since the attacks began last week.
He said the work did not halt even as the drones circled and missiles fell. “On Friday, there were constant attacks where we were working,” he said. “Drones flew over our heads — they exploded and were shot down, falling not far away.”
The Russians attack the same locations repeatedly, he said, citing one set of power lines that had been damaged five times this winter.
As in previous winters, Ukrainian officials have established “resilience points” — heated tents where people can escape their icy homes, get something warm to drink and charge their electrical devices. In Kyiv, there are some 1,200 of them, Klitschko said. Railway officials have also set up seven “resilience train cars” in the region outside the city.
On Tuesday, about a dozen people gathered inside two orange tents housing beds, tables and benches, with a generator humming outside, in a district on the left bank of Kyiv, the part of the capital east of the Dnieper River.
Alla Porpat, 55, said she and her family had been without electricity for two days. Even so, she said, “in some buildings, I know that there has been no electricity for five days.”
“Our building simply does not have a normal hot water supply,” she said, adding that upper floors are the worst hit because it is difficult to pump water there. “I live on the eighth floor, and I’m cold.”
“We don’t have any heaters — we just dress warmly. At night, we warm up normally under the blankets,” she said, the exhaustion clear on her face.
Large portions of Kyiv are subsisting without basic necessities — though the situation is gradually improving — after Moscow’s forces launched two major assaults in five days.
On Friday, Kremlin forces bombarded Kyiv and other parts of the country with missiles and drones, including an Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, in the western Lviv region.
Then, on Tuesday, Russia launched an assault of drones and missiles overnight across the country, leaving close to 70 percent of Kyiv without power according to state electrical grid operator Ukrenergo.
Last week, Klitschko said about 6,000 buildings were without heat and advised residents to leave the capital temporarily if they could. By Thursday, however, he said the number had been reduced to 400.
Typically, Kyiv’s left bank is harder hit after Russian aerial assaults. However, after the attacks, the right bank — where government offices and downtown are located — was also plunged into darkness.
Authorities have instituted rolling blackouts to apportion the limited electricity available. On Wednesday, districts on the left bank were without power for up to 10 hours, interspersed with periods of three to four hours when it was switched on. The right bank, meanwhile, was on a five-hour-on, five-hour-off schedule.
This is not the first winter in the four-year war when the Kremlin has targeted Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure, in an attempt to break the people’s will by plunging them into darkness and cold. Individuals and businesses alike have adapted, purchasing generators and power banks to cope.
But this winter has been tougher, given that the previous two were more mild. Moscow has also significantly increased the numbers of drones and missiles it is hurling at Ukraine’s cities, overwhelming air defenses. Last week, swarms of Russian drones pounded the eastern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk overnight, plunging almost the entire area into darkness.
“We see that the enemy is going all-in, spending all its forces and means to destroy the energy system,” Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolisnyk said in a briefing for journalists Tuesday, following the second Russian barrage.
Ukrainian officials have intensified pleas for sufficient air defense systems to counter the Russian assault.
Last week, Zelensky said air defense was a “priority issue,” and he discussed increased missile deliveries with European leaders at a Jan. 6 meeting and with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December.
“I did not just discuss it … I showed Europeans in detail — which I will not speak about publicly now — which systems urgently need missile deliveries,” Zelensky told journalists during an online briefing. “As for systems from the United States, no new systems have arrived.”
Meanwhile, repair work on Kyiv’s electrical grid continues.
On Wednesday, Braharnyk’s team of eight repaired a cable that had been damaged from electrical overload. He said that after five days of intensive work, the situation was finally improving.
“Today will be my first normal eight-hour shift,” he said.
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