Russia’s escalated strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are threatening to turn the coming winter into an exceedingly tough time for millions of Ukrainians facing severe electricity shortages, damaged water supply and cold houses.
Kyiv residents are enduring lengthy power outages, with some homes receiving electricity for just a few hours daily, as officials implement rotating blackouts to manage the nation’s limited energy supply.
One of them is Daryna Kulchytska, a single mother of two children, who lives on the seventh floor of an apartment block in the Ukrainian capital. She said electricity has been provided for about two hours recently before disappearing for as long as eight hours.
The outages have disturbed families’ daily routines, from cooking to working from home and helping children with schoolwork. When the power goes out, water supplies become unstable, as pumps rely on power to bring water up to apartments on upper floors.
It was especially difficult because the family was left without light, water, heating and electricity, with little entertainment during the long hours of darkness, said Kyryll, Daryna’s 12-year-old son.
Public transport has also been disrupted by the crisis. In recent weeks, metro trains and trolleybus services in Kyiv have been disrupted, and hundreds of thousands of people across Ukraine have reportedly been hit by power outages.
The issue comes amid escalating Russian strikes on power plants, electricity substations and other vital energy facilities. One of the recent big attacks saw Russian soldiers strike numerous Ukrainian districts, devastating crucial infrastructure and leaving families without electricity.
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Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been attacked repeatedly. But the latest effort has sparked concerns about the country’s ability to ensure sufficient supplies of electricity and heating as temperatures decrease.
BBC reporters who visited one of Ukraine’s main power stations reported substantial damage from a ballistic missile assault. The facility has not been able to resume energy production before the winter season is over because of damage to equipment and power-generation facilities.
Ukraine’s energy sector also has to deal with defending crucial infrastructure against increasingly sophisticated Russian weapons.
The head of Ukraine’s biggest private energy business, DTEK, Maxim Timchenko, said the scale and intensity of the attacks had grown dramatically compared with prior years.
He cautioned that strained air defence systems were trying to protect all energy sites and repairing damaged infrastructure remained tough as personnel continued to operate under the fear of more assaults.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country has sufficient electricity-generation capacity to satisfy demand but the heavy damage to transmission lines and substations is making it more and more difficult to transmit the power to households and businesses.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has also warned of a high possibility of Ukraine suffering electricity shortages in winter 2026-2027.
Ukraine’s efforts to boost electricity output, improve storage capacity and bolster protection of infrastructure were not enough to counter the threat presented by Russia’s more sophisticated drones to Ukraine’s energy system, the agency said in an assessment issued on November 4.
Heating supplies were particularly vulnerable, the IEA cautioned, with more than 30 per cent of Ukrainian households depending on district heating systems that have been repeatedly targeted.
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As the situation grows worse, some inhabitants are thinking of leaving Kyiv, or perhaps going abroad, in search of safer and warmer places.
Her decision is complicated by her attachment to her house, family and friends, and by concerns about the emotional impact of the situation on her children.
Her daughter has apparently been suffering from nightmares, and the family has been living in a state of everyday fear due to the uncertainty surrounding the electrical supply and security.
The growing energy crisis is playing out against a backdrop of efforts to resolve the war, as representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the United States convene talks in Abu Dhabi.
But the continuous strikes on essential infrastructure have increased fears about the humanitarian toll of the conflict, especially as Ukraine faces another bitter winter.
With energy, heating and water supplies under increasing pressure, millions of Ukrainians face the prospect of another winter under terrible conditions as the war shows little indication of ending.
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