This week’s strikes on Ukrainian cities were the heaviest in weeks.
- Author, Paul Kirby & Paul Adams
- Role, BBC News
Ukrainians enjoy the arrival of spring. The nights are still cold, but they are emerging from a winter marked by Russian missile strikes which cut off electricity, heating and water.
The winter was very harsh, but it is now over, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Ukraine still has heat and the country is unshakeable, was the message.
Until Thursday, Ukraine had just gone more than three consecutive weeks without power cuts and even had a surplus in the system.
There had been no Russian attacks for three weeks either, and it looked like Vladimir Putin’s battle to cut supplies to Ukraine was over.
“In December he said, ‘Yeah, we’re doing it, but who started doing it?
History was much more hopeless then. No less than half of the energy infrastructure had been damaged and a Ukrainian nuclear security expert had warned that the situation was close to the critical threshold.
But during these weeks of calm, Russia has been stockpiling weapons. In the early hours of Thursday, it fired 81 missiles and left four regions struggling with emergency power cuts.
On Friday, half a million people still had no electricity in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city.
“It’s totally cold now. We have food, but only some has been cooked,” Oleksii said as his cell phone battery life dropped to 14%.
“Invincibility centers” like this one in Kharkiv have become a lifeline during winter power cuts.
Five hundred people live in his building, and when he went to his neighborhood “invincibility center” to hook up his phone, there were too many people with the same idea.
kyiv was also affected and a hospital with 700 people was deprived of heating and hot water for several hours.
In Zhytomyr, a two-hour drive south of the Belarusian border, 150,000 people were left without electricity. The mayor said the next few weeks would be critical and roving power cuts threatened in this city west of Kyiv.
But Eugene Herasymchuk, a resident of Zhytomyr, ended his working day on a sunny spring day and was confident about the future.
“We had three weeks without attacks and we had electricity. And the current in the system allowed local authorities to put trolleybuses and trams into operation. This is a big step forward, because before that , public transport was on hiatus”.
For many Ukrainians, the return to the network did not take long.
“You could say that Ukraine has won on the energy front,” said Tetyana Boyko of civic network Opora, hailing the fleet of energy workers and international aid. “Let’s pray, but I think the worst case scenario is over.
Ukrainians have found various ways to cope with power cuts and generators are very popular.
Winter may be over, but Oleksii in Kharkiv believes the battle to save Ukraine’s electricity supply from Vladimir Putin’s missiles will continue as long as Russia has the ability to strike it.
All of Ukraine’s thermal and hydropower plants have been damaged since Russia launched its assault on energy infrastructure last October. kyiv had already lost the use of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, in Zaporizhzhia, which is in the hands of Russia.
Substations have been reduced to twisted pieces of metal, unable to turn electricity into power for homes and businesses.
For two weeks in the dead of winter, the BBC followed teams of engineers and technicians as they raced to repair the damage caused by the missiles.
A substation has been hit six times by missiles or drones and replacing damaged transformers will take time.
More from Paul Adams: On the front line with engineers in Ukraine
Transformers quickly became Ukraine’s number one need. He needs more than the world can produce in a year, and so far only one high-voltage transformer has been sent, although dozens of lesser-powered machines have arrived.
Russian missiles have also targeted turbine halls in an effort to cripple electricity supplies.
As the winter progressed, the Ukrainian Armed Forces became more adept at shooting down Russian missiles and drones.
But this week, only 34 missiles were destroyed, as Russia used other high-velocity weapons. These include Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles as well as anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.
“These missiles can cause enormous destruction,” an industry official said.
Until the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, there were 15 nuclear reactors in operation at four power plants. Six of these reactors were in Zaporizhzhia, which the occupying army seized in the first days of the invasion.
For months, this plant has been at the center of a nuclear dispute with considerable stakes, Moscow accusing it of wanting to connect it to the Russian electricity network.
The other three plants are in southern Ukraine, as well as Rivne and Khmelnytskyi in the west. Between them, they now produce half of Ukraine’s electricity.
It may sound bleak, but the combination of an unusually mild winter and hard work has pulled Ukraine back from the brink and the sense of optimism is palpable.
Power stations have been restored and repaired. An industry source told the BBC that as the days got sunnier and warmer, it would become increasingly difficult for Russia’s military might to terrorize its country.
The city of Dnipro, in the center-east of the country, suffered several deadly missile strikes over the winter, and this week was no exception.
On the other hand, the energy supply has not experienced any problems for weeks.
“The city has transformed. Street lighting is finally restored and it is no longer scary to walk the streets of the city,” said Inna Shtanko, a young mother whose son is under two. years.
Photo credit, Getty Images
Trams run in Dnipro and public lighting is restored, life resumes its normal course.
Cooking and taking a hot shower are once again part of her family’s daily routine. “Our psychological state has improved significantly, as our family and other mothers can easily plan our day.”
The story is similar to Kherson, occupied by Russian forces until they retreated across the Dnipro River last November.
Life was difficult for several weeks after the Russians left the southern city without basic public services.
“We had no electricity for about a month and a week, then two hours a day, and gradually the electricity stopped failing,” says Alexei Sandakov, a local entrepreneur.
Today it can boast of a steady power supply, although the strain on the system is far less than before the war, as the population of 55,000 is only a fraction of what it was before the invasion of the Russians.
Population numbers have plummeted across Ukraine, with more than eight million refugees beyond its borders, which has also reduced pressure on energy infrastructure. Consumption is down and the refugees have not yet returned, as one official pointed out.
Photo credit, Getty Images
Russian missile attacks are hitting kyiv’s electricity supply hardest.
The general impression is that the damage caused by this latest wave of missiles will be repaired quickly.
The damage is extensive, but engineers have become very skilled at restoring power within days, even after a major attack.
“It’s like a competition: how quickly can they damage us and how quickly can we repair them. And we are winning this competition,” said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the research center of Kyiv’s energy industry.
In Zhytomyr, Eugene Herasymchuk thinks things are looking up. “Many Ukrainians say that it is better to have a cold winter and a black winter than 100 years with Russia.
According to Mr. Kharchenko, Ukrainians now hold all the cards, be it climate improvement, support from international donors or professional personnel in the energy industry. But he is more reserved about the future.
“I’m not saying we won the energy war, but I can say we won the energy battle this winter.