Darina Kolchitska is a mother facing enormous pressure. She is a single mother who lives in a seventh-floor apartment in Kiev, trying to provide food for two lively children and keep up with their schoolwork. But Darina also faces the added burden of a deadline she doesn't know exactly when.
All you know is that soon the lights will go out, the internet will go down, and the taps will run dry. This night, electricity continued to flow for an additional hour than announced, but Darina was still racing against time to serve dinner and finish her work from home as well.
“For the past few days, we have only had electricity for four or five hours, but not at the same times,” she says. “We get electricity for two hours, and then we don’t have it for eight hours.”
While peace talks continue, with US envoys meeting with Russian and Ukrainian leaders on Thursday, the Ukrainians face a continuing schedule of scheduled power outages as a result of intensifying Russian attacks on the country's energy grid, to which Ukraine has responded by targeting Russian oil refineries.
Officials worry that life will become unsustainable for millions of Ukrainians if electricity cannot be maintained for at least four hours a day.
Some of them warn, in private conversations, that the situation is already close to this stage, as some families in Kiev are experiencing power outages of up to 20 hours a day.
Power outages were imposed earlier this year than last winter and are already lasting longer, making homes like Darina's darker and colder. Darina is wrapped in layers of clothes and a heavy coat, as temperatures continue to drop both indoors and outdoors.
Just before 7:30 p.m., a clicking sound is heard, and then darkness falls. The light does not return until dawn comes.
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The elevator stops working, and the water is cut off because getting it to their apartment requires electricity to operate the pumps. Then Darina gets out her flashlights and candles, and gathers with her son Kirill and daughter Olena to play a round of the card game Uno, before going to bed early.
Kirill, who is twelve years old, is fluent in English, which he learned during the two years he spent in the United States. He speaks frankly about the extent of the disruption these conditions have caused.
He says: "There is no light, no water, no heat, no electricity, and no fun. All the fun has disappeared with the power outage." "We have a lot of board games. We have a whole shelf, but we've played them about a hundred thousand times already," he adds.
Many families sit in the shade as power outages sweep through entire neighborhoods, choking homes and streets in darkness.
“You look outside and sometimes you don't see anything,” Darina says. “You have a big city around you but you don't see anything because there is no electricity.”
Kiev was hardest hit, with metro trains and trolleybuses sometimes stopping running entirely. Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been deprived of electricity in recent weeks.
We saw why as we visited one of Ukraine's largest power plants, barely standing after a recent ballistic missile strike, the most powerful and devastating in the Russian campaign against Ukrainian energy targets.
Image source: Matthew Goddard
The huge station, which we were asked not to reveal its name for security reasons, was reduced to a pile of twisted metal and broken pipes. Its turbines were buried under rubble, putting the entire facility out of service.
Volodymyr Kovalenko was on duty in the control room, supervising the operation of the station and maintaining its operation, when the missiles struck the site at three in the morning.
He says: "It was a very powerful attack. We had never seen anything like it before. We had previously suffered strikes, and part of the ceiling collapsed, and the situation was very bad. But this time the destruction was much more severe."
Volodymyr Kovalenko, who followed in his parents' footsteps and worked at the site for 25 years, adds that the extent of the damage is distressing, but he is confident that it can be repaired.
But repair work is hampered by air strikes that occur every 15 to 30 minutes, with seven warnings sounded during our four-hour visit. Every warning of new drones or missiles forces the work teams to stop immediately and take shelter, although during our visit all threats were shot down or continued on their way to other targets.
If there is no time to reach the main shelter on site, workers resort to hiding in the foundations of the station's towering chimneys.
“It's very difficult,” says Vadim Popper, who is leading the rehabilitation efforts. “You have mentally prepared yourself to accomplish a specific task, and then the air raid alarm goes off and you have to leave as quickly as possible.”
The 39-year-old, who has spent half his life working here, looks small in front of the disfigured rubble as he faces the enormous challenge of rebuilding the station.
He adds: "It is psychologically difficult, because we fixed all this before and got it back to work, and then here it is being destroyed again. It is painful, but we continue to work and accomplish what needs to be accomplished."
While we were talking, a new alert went off, warning of a Banderol cruise missile on its way to the area.
Workers rushed through a maze of corridors and pipe networks, but there was not enough time to reach cover, so they were forced to take cover behind one of the station's thickest walls. Ultimately, the missile was intercepted just five kilometers away.
Those working in the energy sector face serious risks. Since August, energy facilities have been subjected to almost daily attacks, claiming a number of lives every week. The situation is also getting more dangerous all the time.
On the outskirts of the site, after the last threat had passed, the work team returned to rehabilitating the power lines that feed the national grid. However, these lines will not transmit electricity from the destroyed station before at least the end of this winter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Ukraine still has sufficient capabilities to generate electricity to meet demand, but the problem lies in delivering it to homes and businesses after a large number of power lines and substations were bombed.
Russia uses what are known as “lurking drones,” which are drones that attach to electricity transmission towers and cables and remain undetected until Russia decides to detonate them.
For his part, Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, the largest private energy company in Ukraine, says that Russia is already placing much greater pressure on the damaged electricity grid compared to last year, and that the cumbersome air defense systems are no longer able to protect all of Ukraine's vital infrastructure.
He added: "What is different this time is the size of the attacks and the variety of weapons used in them. This is the real difference; the attacks have doubled in terms of strength and size."
He explains that the rebuilding of the damaged power station is expected to take until at least next summer, because workers who work under the weight of continuous attacks only have one or two hours of work per day.
He continued: "We are fighting to survive, not only for the whole country, but for ordinary people as well, especially during the winter."
Kovalenko believes that his mission goes beyond just work, as many share his sense of responsibility for keeping the lights on. He says: "Energy is the basis of everything; people's lives and the state. Nothing can work without it. I have dedicated my whole life to this work."
Many choose to leave the capital, or even leave Ukraine entirely, to escape the bitter cold months ahead. As for Darina, Kirill, and Olena, they realize that winter has not actually begun until now.
"It's the worst feeling," says Kirill. "When I come home from school I'm tired. I lie down on my bed. Then suddenly: air raid alarm! Then suddenly: no electricity! Then suddenly: lots of schoolwork! Then suddenly... something else!"
After the children go to sleep, Darina reveals her thoughts about moving to a safer or warmer place. She is torn between her desire to stay in her homeland, close to her friends and relatives, and her worry that life will become unbearable.
She tells me that stress negatively affects her mental health, and that she fears the repercussions of this on Kirill and Olena, who suffer from recurring nightmares. However, Darina remains united and defiant despite all this darkness.
She says: "I don't want to live without electricity. But the Ukrainians say: It's okay to live without electricity, as long as we don't live under the rule of the Russians. Yes, we are very afraid, but we prefer the absence of electricity to the presence of the Russians."
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