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As the lights went out in her hometown, Zinaida Kot, 40, couldn’t help but think about her next dialysis treatment for kidney disease. Without electricity, the machines that keep him alive stop working.
Kot is among millions of Ukrainians bracing for another winter of power outages and possibly blackouts Russia Resumed its campaign of attacks on the country’s energy grid. Analysts and executives say that this year moscow The strategy has changed, targeting specific sectors and gas infrastructure.
In some areas – mostly those close to the front lines in the east – the season has begun with generators roaring, accompanied by prolonged periods of darkness without electricity or water. People Once again ditching the mini power plants, charging countless power banks, and stocking up on water bottles in their bathrooms.
The attacks have become more effective as Russia has launched hundreds of drones, some equipped with cameras that improve targeting, strengthening air defenses – especially in areas where security is weak.
The consequences are already reshaping daily life – especially for those whose survival depends on electricity. For Zinaida Kot, who has been on dialysis for seven years, it’s worse than mere inconvenience.
“It’s bad. We really worry when there’s no electricity,” she said from her hospital bed, connected to a dialysis machine powered by a generator that staff say is “not reliable enough.”
“If I don’t get treatment, I will die. I will cease to exist.”
Blackout in Shostka
In early October, a Russian attack left the small northern town of Shostka – which had a pre-war population of about 72,000 – without electricity, water or gas. The city is located only 50 kilometers (31 mi) from the front line in the northern Sumy region. Gas service was later restored, and power returned for only a few hours each day.
“The situation is challenging,” said Mykola Noah, mayor of Shostka. Electricity And now water is supplied on a scheduled schedule, available for a few hours every day. “And this really worries residents because we cannot predict power cuts. We fix something and it gets destroyed again. This is our situation.”
Shostka hums along with the low hum of the generator on the rain-dark asphalt covered with yellow leaves. They provide power to cafes, shops, residential buildings and hospitals. Throughout the city, so-called “Invincibility Points” offer residents a place to charge devices, warm up, and even relax on a provided cot.
Locals say the hardest days were those when there was no gas – no heat or way to cook – and people cooked food over open fires in the streets.
At the local hospital, where all the stoves run on electricity, staff built a simple wood-burning oven during the early days of the Russian invasion in 2022, when the city came close to being captured. And now it helps feed at least 180 patients, said Svitlana Zakoti, a 57-year-old nurse who oversees patients’ meals.
Oleh Shtohrin, head of the hospital, said the hospital had spent three weeks on generators — an expensive lifeline that burns half a ton of fuel per day, about 250,000 hryvnia ($5,973). This is almost equal to his normal monthly electricity bill.
Electricity has been rationed. In dialysis wards, lights are dimmed to power the machines that keep patients alive. The blackout caused one of the eight units to burn—a costly loss that the hospital could not soon recover. Still, 23 patients come for treatment every day for hours.
Russia has a new strategy to bomb energy sites
The crisis at Shostka reflects Russia’s changing strategy. In 2022–2023, Moscow launches waves of missiles and drones across the country to destabilize Ukraine’s national grid. This year, it is being affected area by area.
Recent patterns show heavy attacks on the Chernihiv, Sumy and Poltava regions, while Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Dnipro face less frequent but still regular attacks.
“They have had no success attacking the national infrastructure because it is now much better protected and operators know how to respond,” said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Center for Energy Research. “So they have decided to refocus and change strategy.”
The frontline areas within a radius of about 120 kilometers of the battlefield are the most vulnerable, he said. “These are attacks on civilians that have nothing to do with the war.”
And for Ukrainian energy workers, that means repairing the same lines and stations over and over again – from transmission towers to thermal plants – while enduring power outages at home.
“But this is our job. Who else will do it? No one else will,” said Bohdan Bilous, an electrical technician. “I want to stay optimistic and be prepared for any situation, but the reality right now is extremely cruel.”
Svitlana Kalish, spokeswoman for the regional energy company in the Sumy region, said the proximity to the front line makes every repair team a target. “They are getting better at knowing how to attack,” he said of the Russians. “The real challenge (of the loss) is the complexity – no source to draw (electricity), no way to transmit, no ability to distribute,” he said.
Preparing for the upcoming winter
At a switchyard in the Chernihiv region, everything seems calm – a woman tends her cabbage farm nearby – but residents have become used to explosions that intensify every year as winter approaches.
The switchyard almost looks like a museum of four years of strikes. Along a main road lined with high pylons, a crater in the asphalt is one of the first to strike in 2022.
The latest attack on October 4 was much more precise and devastating. In the roof of the transformer building, near the center, there is a neat hole, and another in the wall – a mark left by the martyred drone.
Sandbags placed around the building absorbed some of the shock waves, but could not stop the direct hit. Inside, the station is cool and dark but still operating at half capacity. Thousands of homes in Chernihiv are without stable electricity.
Crews are already trying to repair the damage, but even under ideal circumstances – few airstrikes, no new attacks – it will take several weeks. Every time an alert comes, employees have to leave their posts.
“If you look at this year, it is one of the most difficult years,” said Serhiy Pereverza, deputy director of Chernihivoblenergo. “We hope for the best and think about alternative ways to supply our customers.”
Kharchenko said that last year Russia did not have the ability to launch 500 or 600 drones at once, and the smaller strikes it could launch were largely ineffective.
But this year even when multiple air-defense points and mobile units surround a facility, the Russians dominate them – sending about six drones to each defensive position and another 10 directly at the target.
“This year they have almost tripled the scale,” he said. “They’re just breaking into different sites based on volume and power.”
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Associated Press journalists Dmytro Zihinas and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kiev, Ukraine, contributed to this report.