Kyiv residents are used to 12 hours a day without power, but the situation has gone from bad to worse recently as the Russian missile campaign puts the Ukrainian grid under further pressure, causing even more outages.
On Monday night, in a normally bustling neighborhood on the east bank of the Dnipro River, almost everything was dark. A cafe was open thanks to a generator, but other shops, including a supermarket, and apartment buildings were without power.
Without electricity, everything takes a lot longer – just as the temperatures start to drop. There are lines for cash registers, which only work when the power is on, and in stores and welfare centers that provide basic grocery supplies to those most in need.
Power outages have led to the emergence of spontaneous street markets, even though they are unlicensed.
Kyiv residents are improvising and adapting as they have for much of this year, but without some relief from the rocket attacks, many may choose to leave the city and spend the winter months around a wood stove.
On Sunday, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said the city was preparing for worst-case scenarios in the event of further Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, which could leave it without electricity or water. He said: “Our enemies are doing everything to keep the city without heat, electricity and water, and generally want us all to die.”
CNN spoke to some of the city’s residents about the harsh realities that await, including the cafe’s 21-year-old barista, Anna Ermantraut.
When she arrived for work at 8.30 on Monday morning, she had no power. He said he finally started work two hours later – but at 12 p.m. the power went out again.
Ermantraut said the cafe’s profits dropped by more than half, and she could no longer sell many cakes because the refrigerators were closed so often.
Life isn’t much better at home, he told CNN. When the power goes there, it also loses the water supply.
Ermantraut said she was beginning to think about what to do if the power situation worsens further and Kyiv is evacuated. He said he planned to move to a house in a nearby village where there is a wood-burning stove and a water well.
When CNN caught up with 70-year-old retiree Lubov Mironenko, he had been waiting in line for five hours at a welfare center for grocery supplies. Persistent shutdowns have made survival difficult, he said.
Marya Litvinchuk, 29, a hairdresser, said the additional power outages, in addition to the three planned daily, have worsened an already difficult situation.
When the power went out according to a schedule, “you could plan to work, but still, the work time was cut in half.” Of course, that meant “profits were also cut in half.”
In an effort to keep it going, he ordered special battery-operated lights and bought a generator for $1,000 — even though the average price of a haircut is just $6. There was then more bad news as she discovered she had been scammed and the generator was not working. Now he has to take electric clippers home to recharge at night.
Like Ermantraut, she plans to move to the countryside to stay with relatives if Kyiv is evacuated.
Yuriy Pogulay, 39, is also suffering financially. Not long ago, the small cafe jointly owned by Pogulay operated between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. – now struggling to stay open for more than three hours.
He told CNN that income has dropped significantly and that they cannot store food for long as they have tried to minimize the use of the refrigerator.
“I ordered a generator, but I don’t know when it will arrive,” he said.
Pogulay said the business was financially strapped. “With the generator my costs will go up, but I can’t raise prices because people’s financial situation has worsened.”
The World Bank has predicted that the Ukrainian economy could shrink by 40% or more this year because of the conflict.
One man who has suffered less than most is Anton Kargatov, a 36-year-old musician.
“I play music outdoors, so I don’t need electricity,” said Kargatov, who told CNN he has a sleeping bag and a powerbank at home. “If Kyiv is evacuated, I’m not going anywhere. There is a water well not far from my house. And in the backyard I can cook food over the fire. I have nowhere else to go.”
Victoria Storozh works in a pizzeria in the center of Kyiv. the business experiences fewer power outages than some as it is located in an area close to government buildings. Even so, she said: “My husband and I are ready in case we all need to evacuate, we have a stockpile of firewood and water at our dacha in the Kiev region. There we will experience the difficult times”.
Serhey Kizilov, 23, is a rehabilitation coach who works out of an underground gym. Lighting is just one of the issues he faces, he told CNN.
“Our entire sewage system depends on pumps that run on electricity. Also our ventilation system,” he said. “Even if we can make rooms bright when there is no power, we can’t do anything about sewage and ventilation.
“My income also suffers because there are fewer people in the room – not everyone wants to practice in such conditions.”
