Russia’s shifting tactics put unprecedented pressure on Ukraine’s already hobbled power system

Kateryna Serzhan says the only way to survive Ukraine’s almost daily blackout schedule is to “always have a plan B.”

Kateryna Serzhan says the only way to survive Ukraine’s almost daily blackout schedule is to “always have a plan B.” The 35-year-old has had to adapt to life in her high-rise Kyiv apartment block with her active 3-year-old daughter, Varia. Going out to play involves hiking back up 15 flights of stairs carrying her now 17 kg (37 lb) child. They tend to take a ball instead of a bicycle for those days, she jokes. Without power, there’s no water, so she has to schedule her child’s baths around the blackouts. But sometimes they occur outside of the scheduled times. Keen to provide hot meals each day to a toddler who doesn’t always eat them, she now has a gas camping stove in her kitchen, and a small battery to power the microwave. Serzhan’s resilience masks a deepening crisis in Ukraine. These are not the first rolling blackouts since Russia’s full-scale invasion, but they are the first to happen in the spring and early summer – traditionally the months with lowest electricity demand before air-conditioning season kicks in – underscoring the scale of the supply problem.