A Ukraine reporter’s guide to managing wartime blackouts caused by Russia

Kyiv, Ukraine – Have you been connected a level during terrible turbulence, fearing that the shaking craft is astir to autumn isolated and tumble down? Brief moments of weightlessness halt your breath, possibly you susurration prayers and retrieve everyone you love.

That’s the feeling you get during a Russian aerial raid successful Kyiv, Ukraine, and determination person been much than 1,800 of them since Russia’s full-scale penetration began successful 2022.

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These days, they are bigger, scarier and longer than ever, due to the fact that each 1 involves hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.

They statesman aft acheronian and sometimes past successful waves until dawn. Whooshing missiles teardrop up the nighttime entity successful two. Drones buzz similar fearfulness movie chainsaws oregon elephantine mosquitoes retired of puerility flu nightmares.

What’s truly harrowing is to perceive 2 oregon 3 drones astatine erstwhile – I sardonically telephone it “stereo” and “Dolby surround” – portion the arrhythmia of bass drum-like aerial defence explosions coincides with your heartbeat.

Each roar and thud chokes your assemblage with adrenaline, and immoderate shingle your house, but aft a mates of hours, your encephalon gives up, and you autumn dormant processing the booms into nightmares.

And successful the morning, you autumn awake – feeling hungover and disoriented – and work astir the consequences. You’re gladsome erstwhile nary 1 is killed, and inactive bittersweet due to the fact that respective radical are usually wounded, and respective flat buildings are damaged.

People locomotion adjacent a petrol-run generator, utilized to make energy for a aesculapian session during a powerfulness blackout, aft captious civilian infrastructure was deed by Russian rocket and drone attacks successful Kyiv, Ukraine, October 10, 2025 [Gleb Garanich/Reuters]

Sometimes, I deliberation astir the radical who run the drones and motorboat the missiles. How they travel backmost to their families aft the nighttime shift, what they archer their children and, astir importantly, themselves.

But I similar the representation of a assemblage of precocious schoolhouse graduates who walked past my location successful June, astatine dawn, aft their prom nighttime that coincided with an particularly agelong and large aerial raid.

Their laughter and happiness astir the sunrise, the clouds of blossoming trees astir them, the rugs of flowers and writer nether their feet, and the aboriginal up of them made them dependable immortal. It was a dependable that defied Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In caller months, blackouts person been the astir inevitable portion of each aerial raid. It feels arsenic though keeping millions awake and horrified during the raids is lone portion of Moscow’s strategy of terrorising Ukraine.

Moscow’s logic appears simple: if you bash not privation to surrender, you volition freeze. It methodically destroys powerfulness stations, transmission and cardinal heating lines to support millions without electricity, airy and heat.

And past determination are “planned outages”. There are usually 3 a day, lasting betwixt 2 and 8 hours.

You tin perceive an outage due to the fact that adjacent the sounds successful your ears hardly register, specified arsenic the fridge’s purring oregon the travel of blistery h2o successful the heating system, are gone. You tin spot an outage due to the fact that the neighbourhood lights spell out, making the stars successful the nighttime entity person and brighter.

How to past darkness

What saves you from acheronian and disconnection is gadgets.

Apart from smartphones with energy-saving modes, wi-fi hotspots and flashlights, determination are laptops, tablets, wireless speakers and vacuum cleaners moving connected batteries.

There are besides inexpensive rechargeable lamps – I person 10 of them. Three are pint-sized and agleam capable for my parent to read. Three much are motion-activated, which means she tin safely usage the bath immoderate time, and the feline is perpetually amazed.

There is simply a headdress lamp that makes maine look similar a miner and helps maine navigator oregon find thing successful the basement, and 2 tiny lamps that tin beryllium stuck into a powerfulness slope and conscionable glow successful a corner.

And determination is simply a Christmas garland successful the room that makes each outage consciousness festive.

But the astir important device, the symbolic hearth of my powerless house, is simply a $1,200, 20kg (40lbs) artillery that tin support america lukewarm and energised for up to 12 hours.

I unrecorded connected the outskirts of Kyiv successful a remodelled summertime location that has its ain pump and a earthy gas-powered heating system. Both request electricity, on with the 2 50-litre (13-gallon) h2o heaters.

But boiling h2o and microwaving meals is excessively energy-consuming, truthful we instrumentality to frying pans and an old-fashioned whistling kettle that scares the cat.

And erstwhile the powerfulness is backmost on, determination is nary country for procrastination.

You request to recharge each the lamps and devices, commencement a washing machine, lavation dishes, and spell retired for groceries without risking your beingness portion crossing the roadworthy with the postulation lights off.

The electricity’s comeback whitethorn beryllium deceptive – sometimes, it’s excessively weak. I precocious tried to microwave a vessel of soup, twice, but it remained cold.

And for utmost emergencies, I person a gasoline-fuelled generator.  It’s loud, shaky and stinky, and you request an full canister of state worthy $30 for it to support it going each night.

But specified generators support Ukraine running.

You tin spot them adjacent to shops, offices and flat buildings. Some are chained to trees oregon walls to forestall theft, and immoderate are excessively immense and dense to beryllium carried away.

During a caller euphony festival celebrating Ukrainian composers, a elephantine diesel generator powered the performance hall.

My net supplier turns them connected seconds aft an outage begins, truthful I americium online nary substance what.

You besides request to beryllium prepared erstwhile you spell out.

After covering the 2008 Russian warfare successful Georgia, I utilized to thrust everyone astir maine huffy with my I-have-to-be-ready-for-any-emergency obsession.

Now, each of Ukraine feels the aforesaid obsession.

The telephone has to beryllium afloat charged. There has to beryllium a powerfulness slope successful my backpack – on with a basal archetypal assistance kit, a lighter (I don’t smoke), other batteries for the Dictaphone, pens and a pencil to instrumentality notes successful subzero temperatures, erstwhile ballpen ink freezes.

A mates of months ago, I utilized the lighter astatine Kyiv’s Independence Square, dotted with hundreds of tiny Ukrainian flags adjacent to photos of fallen soldiers.

I helped a antheral with a toddler airy a tiny candle that helium wanted to spot adjacent to the photograph of his younger brother.

“He’s the toddler’s father,” the antheral said, and each I could utter was “God remainder his soul” arsenic I walked away, hiding tears and putting the lighter back.