Ukraine: More power outages as Russia hits infrastructures

DW (English)

As more Ukrainian power plants are rendered inoperable by Russian strikes, it is unclear how many more attacks on the country's infrastructures Ukraine can withstand.

Transcript

00:00Just another night in Kyiv. Russian drones and ballistic missiles

00:05are raining down in Ukraine's capital. These strikes took place in November,

00:09but you can find images like these from pretty much any week of 2025.

00:14Many missiles are intercepted, but some inevitably reach their targets.

00:18In recent months, that's largely been Ukraine's power and heating plants.

00:23And this is what the immediate aftermath looks and sounds like on the streets of Kyiv.

00:28A rumble of diesel generators dominating a city in darkness.

00:32Within a day or two, the situation usually stabilises.

00:35Chaotic outages give way to scheduled power cuts.

00:38Ten hours without power become five, and life feels a little more manageable.

00:43That is, until the next attack.

00:48The workers at this power station have seen it all before.

00:51Between their company's two sites, they've dealt with over 200 attacks since the war began.

00:55But the most recent strike was by far the biggest to date.

01:00Ballistic missiles followed by showerhead drones.

01:02There was no chance of downing them all.

01:05Covering an entire power station like the one behind me in its entirety in concrete

01:09just isn't realistic. And it's also not very likely to work, given that Russia has proven

01:13that it is willing to spend millions of dollars on ballistic missiles that are able to break through

01:17the best conventional defences.

01:18It's been over a week since the attack when we visit.

01:22These workers are still trying to assess the extent of the damage

01:25and save any equipment that may have survived.

01:28What makes these attacks so devastating is that most of the equipment can't readily be replaced.

01:32Most of this equipment was produced during the Soviet period.

01:38We get help from other countries that also used to be part of the Soviet Union,

01:42particularly the Baltic countries. They've sent us very valuable kit in the past.

01:47Unfortunately, that was also destroyed in the last attack.

01:50Our problem is that modern equipment doesn't match our systems,

01:54and even if it can be used here, we'd be waiting too long for delivery.

01:58Right now, we're taking apart everything we have left, and we're trying to put together

02:03a few functioning power units.

02:07That means salvaging parts from many damaged power units to build a handful of improvised

02:11working replacements. The power company's CEO tells us the only hope of preventing repeat attacks

02:17is more and better air defence systems.

02:22Many people didn't believe we'd be able to rebuild after the attacks in 2024.

02:26But we did, and we got through that winter against all the odds.

02:30Here, there are air raids that often last 12 to 18 hours,

02:34and somehow our workers still manage to do their jobs.

02:37But he and Alexei were on duty the night of the most recent attack.

02:44We can't leave the equipment unattended. We have to be there.

02:48Everyone else goes to the shelter during air raid alerts, but we can't do that.

02:53One of the missiles hit just 30 metres away from where they were working.

03:00This attack, they tell us, came just as they'd almost finished repairs on the plant

03:03from a previous strike in 2024.

03:09We usually work nights.

03:11That's why we're the ones who are always there for the attacks.

03:14We've seen so many that we can tell if it's a Shahhead drone, a cruise missile or a ballistic missile,

03:23just by the blast wave.

03:27Less than two weeks after the last strike,

03:30Serhii, Alexei and their colleagues are back at work,

03:32trying to ride people across Ukraine with at least a few hours of power a day this winter.

03:36Step that up and review.

03:48Step 4.

03:54Step 6.

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