Liudmyla Shramko left Kyiv in 2024 with her young twin daughters to avoid shelling and blackouts. But a year later, 16-hour power outages caught up with her in western Ukraine.
The 40-year-old recalls a two-day unscheduled power outage in her apartment in the capital in summer 2024 when it was 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). “It was extremely difficult with children,” she told CNN. Not only was she not able to turn on air conditioning, but she couldn’t cook or use the elevator either.
When Shramko moved to a new city with her twins Oleksandra and Yelizaveta, then one year old, she looked for an apartment with the kind of blackout-proof amenities she didn’t have in Kyiv, such as a gas stove.
This past year, Shramko has again had to live with blackouts, but this time during the winter. In most Ukrainian homes, when the power is cut, heating stops working as well.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with drones and missiles in recent weeks, employing a tactic used in previous winters. The strikes have left tens of thousands of people across the country without power or heating amid freezing winter temperatures. As Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky put it, the aim of such attacks is “to create chaos and apply psychological pressure on the population.”
Huge strikes on Kyiv on December 27 left more than 40% of residential buildings in the capital without heating. On average, Kyiv residents had no electricity for 9.5 hours a day in December.
With the country’s energy system strained, energy companies have had to schedule rolling blackouts, and Ukrainians’ lives are now governed by those schedules.
Mothers of young children rush to wash large amounts of children’s laundry as soon as power returns. Older people wait for electricity supply so they can use the elevator and go outside.
Some cafes and restaurants change their menus and even prices depending on whether they are using power from the grid or diesel generators.
Kamianets-Podilskyi, the city where Shramko now lives in western Ukraine, is not lit in the evenings, she said. So, she and her husband take their children outside in the morning, before it gets dark. The twins are now so used to the roar of generators, they sleep peacefully no matter how noisy it is, she added.
For many Ukrainians, the hardest part is uncertainty, with relentless Russian attacks compounding scheduled blackouts.
“We are constantly worried,” Shramko said. “We are always thinking about what will happen next. What will happen if there is no electricity for two or three days, for example? What will happen if we cannot charge our batteries?”
The batteries power lamps that can be used during blackouts – portable power stations – as well as cell phones and laptops.
Residents stand in line to fill up bottles with drinking water after Russian attacks on critical infrastructure in Odesa, Ukraine, on December 13, 2025.Nina Liashonok/Reuters
It’s not only electricity and heating that can be cut off for days. A Russian attack on the port city of Odesa overnight into December 13 also hit the water supply.
That night felt “apocalyptic,” Odesa resident Valeriya told CNN.
“The night was just awful, with ballistic (missiles), Shaheds (Iranian drones) and air defense. I didn’t sleep all night, hiding in the hallway. After the strikes, the lights, water and heating were immediately cut off,” she said.
She went to a cafe the following morning “to charge my phone, warm up and have breakfast because I couldn’t cook anything at home.” Outside, even traffic lights weren’t working, Valeriya said.
The cafe didn’t have any running water either, so the bathrooms were out of service and tap water, usually provided for free, was not available.
The lack of running water did not stop Pavlo Smyrnov, a soloist at the Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet, from having a shower: He posted a video on social media on December 13 showing a makeshift shower fashioned out of an office water dispenser and a power bank. He called it the “invincible shower.”
He also posted a video of himself dancing with his children in the dark during a blackout.
Other activities are more dependent on power supply. But here, too, one school has found a workaround.
“My seven-year-old does fencing,” said Oksana Daniluk, a mother of three in Kyiv. “Schools have generators, but no generator can last 16 hours without power.” Power outages have become worse in December, with some lasting 16 hours.
“Part of the fencing equipment depends on electricity,” she told CNN. “It’s professional equipment that lights up when you get hit. Of course, when there’s no electricity, it’s impossible to connect these sensors… so the coach tries to count by himself.”
A woman uses a flashlight on her phone to walk along a dark street during a blackout in Kyiv on December 10, 2025.Thomas Peter/Reuters
As Daniluk and her family see it, life does not stop when the lights go out. “Nothing stops. Schools continue to train champion athletes. Music schools are preparing for academic concerts. In other words, the lack of light is no reason to stop living,” she said.
Over in western Ukraine, Shramko argues that the world should not feel sorry for Ukraine but should provide support.
“Despite all these circumstances, we are becoming stronger. Regardless of where we are, we are all fighting for our lives,” she said.
She added: “We may have already forgotten the lives we had, because four years of war is too much. But we are a smart nation. And we deserve for the world to unite around us and help us get through this time.”
CNN’s Kostya Gak and Ivana Kottasová contributed to this report.
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