Winter settles into Kyiv with a particular weight. It presses against windows, creeps along stairwells, and lingers in the breath of people waiting for buses under a pale sky. In recent weeks, the cold has arrived alongside another familiar sound—the distant thud of explosions, the low hum of air defense, the sudden absence of light when power lines fall quiet.
In one apartment block, a radiator ticks faintly as it struggles to warm the room. Beneath it, a man kneels with a wrench and a small flashlight, his movements practiced, unhurried. He is a veteran plumber, long past the age when many step away from such work, yet each day he pulls on heavy boots and moves through the city, answering calls that have become more urgent as temperatures drop.
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have intensified this winter, striking power stations, heating plants, and transmission lines. Ukrainian officials say the aim is to strain civilian life during the coldest months, when heating systems are most vulnerable and outages ripple quickly through dense neighborhoods. In Kyiv, rolling blackouts and emergency repairs have become part of the daily rhythm.
For those tasked with restoring heat, the work is both technical and deeply human. A burst pipe in one building can leave dozens of families without warmth. A damaged boiler can turn entire stairwells into cold shafts of concrete. The plumber moves from site to site, often guided by handwritten notes or hurried phone calls, carrying tools worn smooth by years of use.
He has lived through earlier winters, through economic hardship and political change, but this season feels different. The danger is closer now, unpredictable. Air raid sirens interrupt repairs; sometimes he waits in basements with residents before returning to unfinished work. Still, he says little about fear. There is too much to fix.
City officials acknowledge that repairs are increasingly complex as systems are patched again and again. Temporary solutions must hold until spring, or until the next strike forces another round of improvisation. Crews work through the night, often without full power, relying on generators and headlamps to trace leaks and reconnect lines.
In apartments above, residents layer sweaters and blankets, listening for the subtle signs that heat has returned—the soft rush of water, the warmth spreading slowly through metal. When it does, there is relief, brief and quiet, before attention turns back to the news, the alerts, the long winter still ahead.
As the plumber tightens the final bolt and wipes his hands, the radiator grows warm. It is a small victory, barely noticeable beyond the room, but multiplied across the city, these acts keep Kyiv moving through the cold. While missiles arc overhead and temperatures sink, the fight continues not only at the front, but in basements and boiler rooms, where keeping the heat on has become its own form of resistance.
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Sources Ukrainian Energy Ministry Kyiv City Administration United Nations International Energy Agency Reuters