On October 24, rolling stabilization blackouts were introduced in Kyiv. The lights in many houses are turned off for about four hours in the morning and evening to avoid possible accidents in the city's power system, which suffered from Russian missile strikes.
You can find a tentative schedule of blackouts for specific buildings here. But many people, whom the hromadske correspondent spoke to, complain that this timeline does not correspond to the real schedule of outages.
A man walks through an underpass on European Square, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
Evening traffic jam on Druzhby Narodiv Boulevard in the Pecherskyi district, October 25, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
On October 25, the electricity transmission system operator Ukrenergo announced the cancellation of stabilization blackouts, but the city is still in unusual darkness in some places. To some extent, this is also due to the need for light masking of the center of the capital and strategic facilities.
But despite this, people walk the streets, relax and communicate as usual.
A musician plays on the observation deck on the Artists' Alley in Podil, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
A man sits on an observation deck on the Artists' Alley in Podil, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
People listen to a busker on Peizazhna Alley, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
A man and a woman walk along the dark Artists' Alley near St. Andrew's Church in Podil, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
Coffee shop visitors sit on an unlit summer terrace on Kontraktova Square in Podil, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
A tram travels along the unlit Mezhyhirska street in Podil, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
People rest at the McDonald's restaurant on Leo Tolstoy Square, the area near which is also not illuminated, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
Earlier, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian military had struck Ukrainian electricity facilities 85 times, 51 of them in October. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was hit the most - 8 times, Lviv - 6, Vinnytsia - 5, Sumy, Kharkiv and Kyiv - 4 times each.
Therefore, problems with electricity in the capital are quite common for residents of settlements located closer to the front line, especially where power lines are destroyed.
The intersection at the corner of Volodymyrska and Taras Shevchenko streets, October 24, 2022. New asphalt is visible at the site where a missile landed on October 10, killing six people, and all the windows of the building nearby are boarded up with plywoodOleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
A cash register with a screen that reads "Sorry, the cash desk is temporarily closed" in an unlit dairy store in the Shevchenkivskyi district, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv is also not illuminated, but candles can be seen near all the photos at an exhibition dedicated to the defenders of Azovstal, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
A woman sits in a coffee shop near Maidan Nezalezhnosti, October 24, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
Unlit Khreschatyk, view from the European Square, October 25, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
Evening traffic jam in the center of Kyiv, Shevchenkivskyi and Podilskyi districts, October 25, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
Evening traffic jam in the center of Kyiv, on Naberezhno-Khreshchatytska Street, Podilskyi District, October 25, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
People chat near the unlit The Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian people in European Square on October 25, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
Rolling blackouts
Ukrenergo dispatchers decide on temporary blackouts if they see that consumption is growing in a certain region and it is impossible to deliver more electricity there in the near future due to the damage caused by Russia.
Temporary outages are needed to reduce the load on the networks and avoid repeated accidents after the power grids were damaged by missile strikes.
Ukrenergo calls on Ukrainians to reduce electricity consumption as much as possible, in particular to turn off energy-intensive appliances during peak hours: from 6 to 11 AM and from 5 to 11 PM.
Two neighboring buildings on Stryiska Street in Sviatoshynskyi district, one of them with the lights off, October 23, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
A car drives onto Chystyakivska Street in Sviatoshynskyi district, where the lights have been completely turned off, on October 23, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
A woman and a child walk along an evening street near the Darnytsia metro station in the Dniprovskyi district, October 25, 2022Oleksandr Khomenko / hromadske
