Restart the machines after each power cut, protect the barely repaired installations before a new attack or the arrival of the cold weather. Repeat every day. Ukrainian technicians are doing a Sisyphean job to counter the Russian infrastructure war.
In Kramatorsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine, three companies are working to maintain and repair an already dilapidated energy network, now damaged by Russian strikes. “We fix it. And if they destroy, we will repair again. That’s our job,” shrugs Oleksander, an employee of the municipal company, as he welds a pipe. A few meters away, an excavator, the only one available to the municipality, obliged to rent a second one from a private company, is digging a trench.
Outdated system
The municipal company employs 40 technicians (twice as many before the Russian invasion) and manages the network for half of the buildings in Kramatorsk, which had more than 150,000 inhabitants before the Moscow offensive. In a trench surrounded by tape, two large pipes that heat dozens of buildings are waiting to be covered. Damaged by a strike at the end of September, they were quickly repaired, but the company has not yet had time to rebury them underground.
“In normal circumstances, this would have been done long ago. But we lack time and equipment, we have to deal with both repairs and maintenance” of an outdated system, sighs the technical manager of the company, Rinat Milushov.
Located in the Donetsk region, partly occupied by Russian forces and the scene of violent fighting, Kramatorsk is breathing a little better since a Ukrainian counter-offensive that allowed the recapture of localities in September and October. But fierce fighting is still going on in the area, especially in Bakhmout, about 50 km to the southeast. And like the whole country, the city is suffering from power cuts following the systematic strikes by Russian forces against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Launched in October, this targeted campaign, supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin, deprives millions of Ukrainians of water, electricity and heating every day. In Kramatorsk, daytime temperatures are currently around – 2 degrees, but in the depths of winter the thermometer can drop to – 15, even – 20.
“Workers work day and night to ensure heating for the population, but every time the power goes out we have to start again,” says Milushov. Praised as “heroes” in the country since the beginning of the invasion for their tireless and often dangerous work, his men are paid only between 150 and 200 euros per month (the average salary in Ukraine is about 350 euros per month). “We have to manually restart the system every time the power goes out, which is several times a day,” says the director, pointing out the stress on his staff.
Getting used to it
Not to mention the damage caused to the network by these successive and impossible to plan restarts. “I’ve been working for 20 years, I’ve seen some complicated situations, but what we’re going through right now is beyond comparison,” admits the manager. Before adding, after a brief silence: “We must get used to this new rhythm”.
Get used to it. The word comes back like a leitmotif. “We can get used to all the disasters, deal with the water or electricity cuts… But especially not the bombings!” cries Ioulia, behind the counter of her grocery store without power.
“If the situation doesn’t get worse, we’ll make it through the winter,” says Anna Prokopenko, a woman in her 70s dressed in blue. Same smiling phlegm at Isabella and Vassyl Maslyvets, a retired couple walking under the winter sun. “The last time we didn’t have heat, it was 12 degrees in the house, it wasn’t a total disaster, we just put on more jackets,” Isabella says.
“We are receiving humanitarian aid, our pensions have been paid, the stores are open, we have enough food. We have enough to cope,” Vassyl adds. But Andriy Bessonny, the deputy mayor of Kramatorsk, while praising the “extraordinary work” of his officials, remains concerned. “The biggest problem ahead is the cold, and the risk of the pipes freezing. Normally, we prepare for the cold season months before, but that was impossible this summer because of the bombing,” he says.
