Outages in Kyiv Augur a Winter of Discontent

They’ll bring back salted fatback with preservatives from Lithuania, and off they go: it’s Maidan all over again. 

 

The reference to salted fatback (salo in Ukraine, lašiniai in Lithuania) highlights its historical status as an iconic, high-energy survival food. Because cured pork fatback keeps for long periods without refrigeration, it is heavily associated with periods of extreme scarcity, resilience, and civil mobilization.

The invoking of Maidan—the historic protest movements in Kyiv's central square—suggests a historical parallel: when basic infrastructure fails or political conditions become unbearable, the local population draws on deep-seated traditions of self-reliance and street-level resistance to survive and push back.

  

“KYIV -- The lights in Ukraine's capital city are failing as Russian missiles pound its power plants. The mood is darkening, too.

 

Power cuts are becoming common. The water supply falters at times. Kyiv's three million residents are bracing for the worst winter of the nearly five-year-old conflict. Some are thinking of leaving the city.

 

Since a stillborn energy ceasefire President Trump announced on Oct. 11, Russia has carried out over 170 attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.

 

For months, Ukraine has been chronically short of Patriot interceptors, the most effective defense against Russia's ballistic missiles, amid a global shortage amid the U.S.-Iran war. "Russia is clearly taking advantage of the slowdown in air-defense supplies from our partners," Zelensky said.

 

In Kyiv, generators hum in the light-starved streets. Water pressure in homes periodically drops. The city's subway trains sometimes halt in tunnels when power goes out.

 

"We're making ourselves as comfortable as possible," said Olha Soloviova, a mother of two boys in Kyiv. The family is determined to stay in the city as long as they can.

 

The only dairy products they buy are those they can eat in a day, because electricity for refrigerators is uncertain.

 

They own power banks, bought during Russia's previous winter bombing campaigns, as well as small hand-held lights for moving around a dark apartment.

 

Soloviova is also thinking of buying a Starlink terminal to ensure connectivity. Like many Ukrainians, she is upset about the limits imposed on the Ukrainian military's use of the terminals, which The Wall Street Journal reported came on the orders of SpaceX founder Elon Musk. But Ukraine continues to rely on the company for civilian connections.

 

"If we had a choice, we wouldn't buy Starlink, because I find the company's and its owner's behavior completely unacceptable," Soloviova said. "But staying in touch with my family is a higher priority."

 

Kyiv is reeling more from Russia's attacks this year because its energy infrastructure has suffered enormous cumulative damage over years of conflict, said Oleksandr Kharchenko, the director of the Energy Industry Research Center. Last year, Russia did lasting damage to the city's power-generation capacity, he said.

 

"This winter will be a cycle of power outages, emergency repairs, restoration," and more outages, he said.

But suffering is rising.

 

More people are moving to western Ukraine, in hope of finding greater safety.

 

The decision to move to the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk was difficult, said Ilona Shemrai, a mother of two young children. "The main factor was the children's psychological and mental well-being."

 

Her children were becoming scared of sleeping in their beds amid Russia's nonstop drone attacks on Kyiv.” [1]

 

1. World News: Outages in Kyiv Augur a Winter of Discontent. Malenko, Anastasiia.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 26 Oct 2026: A8.