MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Four thousand five hundred times, that is how often Russia has attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure in 2025 alone, according to Ukraine's top private energy provider. As the Kremlin attempts to plunge Ukraine into despair, or at the very least into darkness, Ukraine's energy workers work around the clock to keep the power on. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
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ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Ukrainians are facing their fourth winter at war. The country's power grid is now heavily damaged, and generators hum along the sidewalks of Kyiv. People plan their lives around the rolling blackouts. Twenty-seven-year-old Victoria Moskaluk says she recently moved to a smaller building to keep her sanity.
VICTORIA MOSKALUK: I was living on the 25th floor, you know, like in a big multi-apartment building. And when you don't have any electricity, you don't have, like, no heating, no water, nothing, no elevator, of course. Like, that was very complicated, and I was feeling like I'm living in the cave, so I got sick.
BEARDSLEY: Seventy percent of Ukraine's energy comes from nuclear power. Russia is not bombing nuclear plants, but it is targeting the thermal power plants that provide 25% of Ukraine's electricity and the thousands of substations that link Ukraine's power plants to its cities and regions. Pavlo Bilodid is a spokesman for DTEK, Ukraine's top private energy provider.
PAVLO BILODID: So they are trying to destroy the substations. They're trying to isolate some regions and make impossible to supply electricity from one part to another.
BEARDSLEY: He says Ukraine has a very developed power grid that was built during the Soviet era and exported electricity to neighbors, Romania and Poland. It has four nuclear power plants. One has been captured by Russia. Of its 10 thermal plants, two have been captured and one destroyed.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
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BEARDSLEY: The last harrowing weeks of that plant are captured in the documentary, "The Last Prometheus Of Donbas." Anton Shtuka is the filmmaker.
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ANTON SHTUKA: I understood that it's really, really important to capture these moments.
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BEARDSLEY: Shtuka says the workers in the Donetsk region town of Kurakhove fought around the clock to repair after each strike, with a mission to bring light and heat to the Ukrainian people for as long as possible. He says for the Russians, the smoke coming out of the plant's smokestack was like a red flag to a bull.
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SHTUKA: And we even bring one more cameraman and placed him opposite side of the river just to capture how, basically, shells will hit us and will hit power plant while we are there.
BEARDSLEY: The final missile strike on the plant at Kurakhove was February 22, 2024. Soon after, the town was occupied by the Russians.
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BEARDSLEY: "The Last Prometheus Of Donbas" premiered to a full house in Kyiv in November. Power workers from the film, like Heorhii Chupeev, got a standing ovation.
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HEORHII CHUPEEV: (Through interpreter) Watching it brought it all back. It was a very scary, very sad time. It was not only the death of the power plant but of the entire city where we were born and grew up.
BEARDSLEY: In the audience, 35-year-old Daria Orlova is deeply moved.
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DARIA ORLOVA: I understand how these energy workers - what they're doing for Ukrainians, for Ukrainian power system. They all are heroes.
BEARDSLEY: Power provider DTEK says its workers are on the frontlines of an energy war. The company released a Christmas video, a full orchestra and choir performing Ukrainian classic, "Shchedryk," amidst the smoldering wreckage in a thermal plant freshly struck by a Russian missile. Endure, be strong - reads the message - light will prevail over dark.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Kyiv.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in Ukrainian). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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