‘Someone has to stay’: how Ukrainian power plant workers keep the country running

Thermal power plants are an important part of the country’s energy mix. Photograph: Simona Supino/The Guardian

In the cavernous turbine hall of a coal-fired thermal power plant, deputy chief engineer Oleksandr runs through the extensive damage, pointing out various consequences of numerous Russian strikes over the past two years.

Machinery is covered in thick dark streaks of grime, the residue of heating insulation that burned and rained down on the equipment. A roof girder, 10 metres long, is impaled in the floor. Oil tanks and machines are strafed with shrapnel marks.