Emergency repair crews are working around the clock to restore electricity across Ukraine’s Kyiv region after sustained Russian attacks devastated critical energy infrastructure, leaving tens of thousands of residents exposed to freezing winter conditions.
In Boryspil, a town of roughly 60,000 people near the capital, power workers dismantle and rebuild damaged electrical systems despite temperatures plunging to minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit).
According to Yurii Bryzh, head of the Boryspil regional department at energy company DTEK, crews begin work early each morning and often continue until midnight, battling both exhaustion and extreme cold.
Their efforts have allowed limited electricity to return for about four hours each day. Yet the relief is short-lived. “When the power comes back on, people turn on all the electrical equipment that is available in the house,” Bryzh explained.
Residents rush to wash clothes, cook meals, and recharge phones, causing the fragile system to overload and collapse once again.
The outages are among the longest and most widespread since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. In some areas, homes have been without electricity for days, plunging apartment blocks into darkness and bitter cold.
Across the capital, snow-covered streets remain largely unlit at night. Inside apartment buildings, windows glow only occasionally, illuminated by candles or torches. Residents venture outdoors bundled in multiple layers as temperatures drop well below freezing.
For scientists Mykhailo, 39, and Hanna, 43, the situation has become a daily struggle. The temperature in their five-year-old daughter Maria’s bedroom has fallen to minus 15 degrees Celsius. While the family can still cook using a gas stove, nights are spent huddled together under multiple blankets to conserve warmth.
During the day, the couple takes Maria to work with them, as their workplace has a generator. Her kindergarten, like many facilities, lacks heating. Even festive Christmas decorations in their apartment are visible only when lit by handheld torches.
Elderly residents are also improvising to survive. Seventy-six-year-old Zinaida Hlyha heats water on her gas stove and fills plastic bottles to keep warm in bed at night. Despite the hardship, she refuses to complain.
“Of course it’s hard,” Hlyha said. “But if you imagine what our guys in the trenches are going through now, you have to endure. What can you do? This is war.”
As winter tightens its grip, Ukrainian authorities warn that the coming weeks will remain difficult. Yet amid darkness and cold, residents continue to display resilience, while exhausted repair crews press on, racing to keep the lights on in a country at war.