How you help power our work: Life in Kyiv during severe blackouts (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members, 

Thank you for your continued support. 

This is Brooke, the community manager here at the Kyiv Independent. We want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at how we bring you the news and why the support of our members – members like you – is so crucial.

We want to share with you the reality of living with Russia as your neighbor – and how the brutality of the ongoing, full-scale invasion seeps into every aspect of our day-to-day lives. 

Kyiv is now experiencing severe, continuous power outages. Because these blackouts are the result of Russia’s air attacks that have decimated Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, there is no clear date we can expect the situation to get better, even as energy companies scramble to restore generation capacity before winter. 

We’re fortunate to have a generator for our office, as well as power banks, portable lights and batteries. Pictured above is the Kyiv Independent team working in our office, during a blackout, last week. We turn off the generator after 7 p.m. to save fuel, as there are fewer people in the office. 

One of the things your contribution goes towards as our member is critical equipment like this, which keeps our operations running. 

We want to underscore the fact that your contribution makes a huge difference for us. To put it into context, $5 is the cost of about two hours of fuel for our generator. With a community of nearly 12,000 members, we have a solid source of funding to continue our work, despite the chaos and unpredictability of living through war.

Here’s what our lives are currently like: 

Rolling blackouts returned to Ukraine in mid-May, as Russia launched a wave of large-scale air strikes on Ukrainian power plants and energy infrastructure. Since then, the energy situation has grown worse: Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK has lost 90% of its power generating capacity as a result of Russia’s attacks. 

Right now in Kyiv, official energy schedules predict between four and six guaranteed hours of electricity a day – with addresses broken up into different groups, based on which power line you’re located on. 

Below is the blackout schedule for Kyiv addresses in “Group 4” last week. The white boxes indicate there will be power, the light gray boxes mean power might be available, and the dark gray means no power is scheduled for this time. You can enter an address and check the schedule yourself on DTEK’s website. 

In some cities, the situation is even worse. Chernivtsi’s blackout schedule from earlier this month allotted each group only four hours of electricity (green boxes), and an additional four hours when the power might be on (blue boxes) each day.  

Frequently though, these schedules do not accurately reflect the rolling blackouts. Some of my colleagues report a better energy situation than the forecasts, but some have electricity available in even smaller increments and are almost continuously without power. 

Without stable power or an accurate blackout schedule, it’s nearly impossible to predict when you’ll be able to complete a load of laundry or how long your groceries will last in the refrigerator. If you don’t have power in the morning, you won’t be able to plug in a kettle, an iron, a blow dryer, or any of the things you might routinely use before heading out. 

If you live on the upper floor of a high-rise apartment building, you’ll often be walking all 15 flights of stairs.

You’ll typically lose Wi-Fi. If power isn’t supplied to cell phone towers, mobile internet speeds plummet. If you’re far from the closest air raid sirens, being offline means you may miss the time when you’re supposed to take shelter, because your mobile app won’t go off. 

It also impacts life outside your house. In a blackout, traffic signals don’t work and Kyiv remains pitch black at night without street lights.  

Kyiv streets remain dark during a blackout last week. Photo by our videographer Olena Zashko. 

Kyiv streets remain dark during a blackout earlier in July. Photo by our news editor Elsa Court.

Earlier this month, we experienced a record-breaking heat wave in Kyiv, with temperatures rising to the high (and humid) 90s, or over 35 degrees for our non-American readers, pushing electricity demands to a maximum. 

Office small talk included strategies on how to cope with the extreme, inescapable heat: how to keep cats and other pets cool, which cafes have generators, stable Wi-Fi, and air conditioning, and strategies on how to fall asleep while lying in a pool of your own sweat – one of my coworkers slept on her balcony to get out of the hot apartment.

A cafe operates during the heatwave this month, in 95-degree weather (35 degrees Celsius) with only Wi-Fi switched on, in order to save on electricity. Photo by Elsa Court.

Movie-goers wait for cinema staff to turn on the generator during a blackout. Photo by Olena Zashko. 

The good thing about summer is the long daylight hours. Right now, sunrise is at 5:15 a.m. and the sun sets just before 9 p.m, giving us about 16 hours of light. The power shortages are expected to continue into winter though, and then we’ll be facing a different set of problems, like how to keep our homes properly heated and lit. 

Energy companies are racing to repair the power grid and hoping to restore as much as 70% of their power generation capacity by spring, but we’re still preparing for a cold winter – and your support goes a long way in helping us. 

Though the future looks uncertain at best – it’s hard to predict a date when we’ll live with consistent power again in Kyiv – there is no other choice but to keep going. As inspiring as it is to see both the resilience and ingenuity that comes from navigating life without power, it’s disturbing how quickly the violence of Russia’s war becomes a normalized aspect of day-to-day life. 

Relying on generators, power banks, and even candles isn’t a perfect solution – a perfect solution would be a clear, decisive victory for Ukraine – but it’s the solution we have for now. 

Your contribution helps us stock equipment critical for keeping our office powered, like fuel for our generator, and fund our journalism as we fight for a better future. We’re incredibly grateful for your choice to stand with us. 

Thank you for your support as we bring locally-produced journalism from Ukraine to the rest of the world. We wouldn’t be here without you. 

Best, Brooke Community Manager The Kyiv Independent