KYIV, Ukraine — As night fell, a lone street performer in a pool of lantern light raised her voice in song. In an inky pedestrian underpass, the only illumination was a flower seller’s display of blooms, backlit by LED lights. Dog-walkers carefully affixed glowsticks to their pets’ collars. Passersby picked their way over rough cobblestones, wielding cellphone flashlights as they went.
With winter’s gloom beginning to settle over the country, Ukraine’s capital is plunged nightly into near-darkness by rolling power cuts meant to help preserve an energy infrastructure devastated in recent weeks by Russian drone and missile strikes.
As the war nears its nine-month mark, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of “energy terrorism” — trying to break his compatriots’ spirits by plunging them into cold and darkness.
