If you look at satellite images of Europe at night, Kyiv resembles a black hole. The enormous metropolis, which glowed with lights just five years ago, is barely noticeable today. Successive Russian shelling has halted the operation of facilities responsible for generating electricity and distributing heat to homes. This (certainly not by accident) coincided with the arrival of a cold front: the air temperature dropped to -17°C (1.4°F). Thus, the concept of “comfort,” typical of life in the capital, has been replaced by the term “survival.”
This is the chronicle of a city facing the most formidable challenge in modern history: preserving the lives of millions of people without light, heat, or water under constant shelling.
January 2026: Days of Terror
The new year’s January began with several days of terror in Kyiv: on the nights of January 5 and January 9, using a combination of dozens of missiles and hundreds of attack drones, the Russians struck high-rise buildings, hospitals, embassy structures, as well as critical infrastructure—CHP-4, CHP-5, CHP-6 (Combined Heat and Power Plants), and district boiler houses.
On January 13, night missile strikes inflicted critical damage on CHP-5, leading to severe problems with power supply in the capital.
One of the nights when Kyiv was attacked by Russian missiles and drones.
On January 20, a combined attack on Kyiv and the region caused massive disruptions to heat, electricity, and water, as well as new destruction in residential areas. During the same period, Russian attacks also covered other regions of Ukraine, and they were likewise aimed at critical infrastructure. Localized “blackouts” and power outages lasting up to 20 hours a day have become commonplace for residents in various regions.
As this material is being written (January 23), analysts and government officials are warning of a possible new massive strike on Ukraine. Russia is likely to attempt to re-destroy what energy workers have managed to restore by this hour.
The Energy Math of Catastrophe
For readers accustomed to uninterrupted power supply, the numbers of the Kyiv crisis sound abstract. In reality, they demonstrate a physical collapse of infrastructure.
Kyiv is a city with a population of about 3.6 million people (comparable to Berlin or Madrid). To maintain critical life support, the city needs at least 1,700 megawatts of electricity. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the system is generating less than 50% of this requirement.
This deficit cannot be covered by anything: it is impossible even to redirect electricity from the general system due to a chronic shortage and partially destroyed logistics. As a result, the capital lives under emergency power shutdown protocols: in many buildings, there is no electricity for up to 20 hours a day. The energy system can no longer cope. The Ministry of Energy has officially admitted that planned schedules (where you know exactly when the power will disappear or reappear) are no longer in effect.
Frozen Waterfalls in Apartments
The lack of electricity, upon which life-support systems depend, is a huge problem. But it becomes a catastrophe when there is severe frost outside. An epidemic of man-made accidents has begun in Kyiv. In the stairwells of residential buildings, one can see a surreal picture: frozen waterfalls. Pipes burst from the cold, and the water gushing out freezes, turning staircases into icy caves.
Residents tried to warm the pipes with heating pads to prevent the water from freezing
According to expert estimates, several hundred thousand residents are at risk. If a building’s heating system freezes and pipes rupture, repairs can take up to 10 months. This means that for these people, their housing is lost: at least until the end of winter.
Mayor Klitschko made an unprecedented statement that Western media dubbed a “dramatic SOS”: he urged everyone who has the opportunity to leave the city. This sparked a wave of painful discussions among Kyiv residents, as the Mayor’s political statement lacked any practical context. Most Kyiv residents do not have the option to leave due to job ties and the high cost of renting housing in safer regions of Ukraine.
However, according to the city administration, 600,000 people have already left the capital. Nevertheless, specialists are critical of this figure, as the counting methodology is unknown.
Closed Schools and Kindergartens
The war has been going on for the fifth year, and a generation is growing up in Ukraine for whom school is a gadget screen, not a classroom with a blackboard. In Kyiv, education was adapted back in 2023: most schools operate normally and have equipped shelters. Learning can continue there during an air raid (or one can safely wait it out). But in January 2026, even this became impossible.
Authorities announced the closure of all schools in Kyiv until February. Cold and darkness make learning in classrooms physically dangerous. Education is once again remote: this practice was already developed during the pandemic and the first year of the full-scale war. However, remote learning is also collapsing now: how can a child connect to a lesson if there is no electricity for the router or charge in the tablet?
The situation in kindergartens is even more dramatic. Parents report cases where children have to be taken home because there is no food in the kindergarten. The reason is that electric stoves in the kitchens do not work, and generators often sit as “dead weight”—either no one can connect them, or there is no fuel for them. And one more factor: toddlers are forced to sit in dark shelters during air raids, which deals a devastating blow to their psyche.
The Political Front in the Dark
The Western world is accustomed to seeing a united Ukraine, but the prolonged crisis has exposed internal fractures. The blackout in Kyiv became a catalyst for an open conflict between the central government (President Zelenskyy) and the municipality (Mayor Klitschko):
- Klitschko hints that the government is engaged in PR and “war communication management,” ignoring the real needs of the city dwellers. His call for evacuation is a political maneuver. In his opinion, the central government is incapable of protecting the capital.
- Zelenskyy’s Office accuses the local authorities of inefficiency. They had all the necessary resources and time to prepare for such a scenario, but in fact, nothing was done.
While politicians blame each other, ordinary Kyiv residents’ apartments remain cold. Restoration relies on the heroic work of energy workers and rescuers. Top specialists from other regions of Ukraine have joined the efforts. And frontline communities in Ukraine have transferred power generation equipment to the capital: it will be used to supply critical infrastructure.
The Economy to the Roar of Generators
During the blackout, there is no… silence on the streets of Kyiv. The monotonous roar of thousands of generators, placed outside cafes, pharmacies, and small shops, is the true soundtrack of the capital these days.
Ukrainian business has achieved the impossible—it has become autonomous. When the lights go out, the cafe does not close. It turns into a “point of life.” Here, for the price of a cup of coffee (which has inevitably risen due to the cost of fuel), people buy the opportunity to work, charge a laptop, or simply warm up.
But the price of this resilience is high. Business owners say that the cost of electricity from a generator is 3–5 times higher than from the grid. So they have to adapt. For example, restaurants shorten their menus to dishes that can be cooked on gas or an open grill. Perishable goods are not purchased.
Offices have turned into fortresses with industrial batteries and Starlink satellite internet terminals. Companies spend huge budgets to maintain communication with Western clients.
In the dark halls of supermarkets, shoppers walk with headlamps, like miners. Occasionally, they are accompanied by store security guards, helping them find the necessary groups of goods. Cash registers run on batteries, and payment terminals work via mobile internet.
Supermarkets in Kyiv continue operating during power outages.
There are many such examples, but the conclusion is one: business in Kyiv is currently selling not goods or services—it is selling normalcy in abnormal conditions.
How Do People Live in the Capital?
Despite the apocalyptic headlines in the Western media, life in Kyiv has not stopped. Once again, Ukrainians are demonstrating a unique phenomenon of self-organization and adaptation that is difficult to understand without context.
Punkyty Neznamnosti (Invincibility/Resilience Points): This is a unique Ukrainian invention. About 1,300 such points have been opened in the city—in schools, State Emergency Service tents, and administrative buildings. People come here to warm up, get hot drinks, and charge their gadgets.
At “Points of Invincibility,” people can warm up, charge their phones, and access communication services.
When the internet disappears and mobile communication becomes unstable, people return to “old” technologies. Battery-powered radios become the only source of news. Paper books replace Netflix. Live communication returns to the courtyards, where neighbors cook food together on tourist gas burners and call these gatherings “invincibility picnics.”
The national trait of Ukrainians—humor as a defense mechanism—also works well. Yelyzaveta Lazarenko, who spent 55 hours without light, formulates a survival strategy with the words of the poetess Lesia Ukrainka: “To keep from crying, I smile.” People play cards by candlelight, work from their phones, and find joy in simple things. This stoicism is an active form of resistance.
The Light Within. Stories of Mutual Aid
When the electric light goes out, people begin to shine the brightest. The crisis has created a unique ecosystem of mutual support, where strangers become rescuers. Here are a few stories illustrating this new reality.
A user under the nickname Such-Assignment on Reddit tells about their routine. Instead of saving the charge for themselves in the dark, they are engaged in volunteer electronics repair. Their apartment has turned into a workshop: while a large battery is charging, they solder and fix devices for the military or neighbors.
In high-rise buildings, elevators are a zone of increased risk. But Kyiv residents have turned this into a system of care. “Survival boxes,” collected by residents, have appeared in many elevators: water, cookies, sedatives, sometimes even folding chairs and garbage bags. A well-known story is when neighbors who hadn’t greeted each other for years sat in a stuck elevator for 4 hours. During this time, they not only ate all the supplies but also became friends, agreeing to take turns guarding the entrance to meet couriers when the intercom doesn’t work.
User ratybor7499 on Reddit shares their recipe for survival, which has become typical for many: as soon as the lights go out, the mode of self-education and family assistance is turned on. A laptop holds a charge for a long time—time for work. The charge is finished—time for foreign languages (paper notebooks) or cleaning with a cordless vacuum cleaner. Mutual aid chats are created in buildings: “Who can boil water for baby formula?” Five minutes later, the door opens, and a neighbor brings a thermos of boiling water.
The situation in Kyiv in January 2026 is a warning. The energy infrastructure of a modern European country proved fragile in the face of total war. The problem faced by Ukrainians teaches a lesson: one cannot rely on centralized networks for the supply of heat and electricity. One of the vectors for the post-war recovery of Ukraine is a focus on autonomy and energy independence for both communities and individual residential areas.
What is happening now in the capital of Ukraine cannot be called a “humanitarian crisis.” It is a test of the endurance of an entire nation. When the temperature drops to -17°C, and the enemy continues to methodically destroy energy generation, Ukrainians do not surrender. They are cold, they criticize politicians, they rescue neighbors, but they continue to live. Putin’s strategy of cold is shattered by human warmth. Most Kyiv residents were not left alone: new connections and opportunities for mutual aid emerged among them. In the darkness, you may not see faces, but you can definitely feel a neighbor’s shoulder.
