‘Energy war’: Ukraine tries to protect electricity supply before winter

DTEK workers checking the energy infrastructure before the winter in Hostomel. Photograph: Emre Çaylak/The Guardian

On 25 February 2022, Oleksandr Danyliuk woke up to see Russian soldiers. “I went to bed. The next morning I peered outside my window. It was 6.30am. There were four Russian armoured vehicles opposite my house,” he recalled. Danyliuk, an engineer with Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, DTEK, said Moscow’s invasion took him by surprise.

Over the next four weeks a battle raged in his home city of Hostomel, a short drive from the capital, Kyiv. The fighting destroyed the neighbouring market. It also brought down numerous electricity cables and pylons, leaving civilians cold and in the dark. “For the first two days after the Russians left I wandered around in a daze. Then we got to work,” Danyliuk said.