Kyiv’s Tower Blocks Turn into Frozen Prisons Amid Blackouts
Residents endure freezing isolation in high-rises as Russian attacks cripple Ukraine’s power grid.
In the heart of Kyiv, Olena Janchuk, a 53-year-old former kindergarten teacher battling severe rheumatoid arthritis, remains confined to her 19th-floor apartment in a Soviet-era tower block. With elevators rendered useless by daily blackouts lasting up to 17.5 hours, the 650 steps to the ground floor are an insurmountable barrier. January’s plunging temperatures—down to -10°C—leave frost creeping across her windows, forcing her family to huddle in a small room warmed only by a makeshift candle-and-brick fireplace. USB cables, power banks, and an electric blanket rationed for the coldest hours are now lifelines in a home where central heating has become a memory.
Kyiv, home to about 3 million people and dominated by high-rise apartment buildings, faces electricity as a rationed luxury this fourth winter of war. Russia’s relentless bombardment of power plants, transmission lines, and substations has caused over $20 billion in damage, far exceeding what imports from Europe and remaining capacity can supply. Rolling blackouts keep hospitals and critical services running while homes plunge into darkness for most of the day. Residents meticulously plan around unpredictable schedules: cooking on small gas burners, storing water in buckets, charging devices during brief power windows, and sleeping fitfully amid air-raid sirens.
Life grows harsher on upper floors. Climbing dark stairwells with phone flashlights has become routine, echoing with children’s voices and barking dogs. Some leave supplies in stuck elevators for trapped neighbors. While wealthier areas pool funds for generators to keep lifts operational, most buildings—housing pensioners, families, and people with disabilities—cannot afford them. Disability advocates call staircases an invisible barrier isolating vulnerable residents, urging city authorities to install generators in residential towers.
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At damaged power facilities, workers like shift supervisor Yuriy repair charred machinery and collapsed roofs by torchlight, shielded by sandbags, under constant threat. Colleagues killed in attacks are remembered on walls near entrances. Operators impose strict conservation measures—dimming streetlights, prioritizing essential services—yet blackouts persist, leaving ordinary citizens to adapt with ingenuity: USB lamps, inverters, Telegram neighborhood chats for updates, and sunlit rooms by day.
Despite exhaustion and isolation, resilience endures. “We’re tired, really tired,” says Olena’s 72-year-old mother Lyudmila, who races to complete chores when power returns. “But the important thing, as all Ukrainians say now, is that we will endure anything until the war ends.”
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