With candles and lanterns, kyiv adapts to power cuts
Irene lights candles, Igor a lantern. It is 6:09 p.m. (4:09 p.m. GMT) in kyiv and, as planned, the electricity has just been cut off in the couple’s building, in a northern neighborhood of the Ukrainian capital. Since October 10, the Ukrainian electricity system has been affected by multiple Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. To avoid a complete blackout, the national operator Ukrenergo implements scheduled power cuts in the capital and other cities and regions of Ukraine. On the operator’s website, all you have to do is indicate your address and the cuts scheduled for the week appear, by district rotation. In the building of Irene Rozdobudko and Igor Juk there were three power outages on Saturday lasting four hours starting at midnight. “I like the gloom when it’s quiet, dark and nobody bothers me to think,” says Irene, a 60-year-old writer and artist, as she prepares “borsch,” a Ukrainian beet-based soup. “I can make borsch blind. The (gas) stove always works. I have water (although) the flow is low. There is cabbage in the fridge, carrots and other necessary products,” she adds, noting that the heating also works. Outside, the neighborhood is in darkness. Reports France Presse.