Russian attacks plunged my city into darkness

Ukrainians did not expect such a severe blackout this summer. After all, the winter of 2023-24 was quite calm.

- JULIA MARICH

We put our generators away with the hope that we would never need them again.

In recent months, Russia has been purposefully striking thermal generation facilities. The Ukrainian energy system is experiencing the largest missile attacks. More than 90 per cent of thermal generation is not working now. The situation is more difficult now than in the winter of 2022-23.

The government of Ukraine was forced to introduce electricity blackout schedules. Our city is conventionally divided into parts. During the day, the light is turned off in a certain sequence. We receive outage schedules every evening. As a rule, there is no electricity three times for three hours during a day. We plan our lives according to these schedules. Twelve hours a day without electricity is a lot. In winter we need to warm up, then in summer we need to cool down.