The moment when power returned to Zhytomyr in Ukraine

• Jeroen de Jager

  Journalist

• Wessel de Jong

  Economics journalist

A high voltage substation is visible a few hundred meters away, the concrete slabs are inclined. A few hours earlier, an Iranian Shahed 136 drone was hit. Police officers keep the press and other curious people at bay.

Imaging is prohibited, which would only make Russian military planners wiser. They are expected to meet this electricity supply to Zhytomyr again. Withdrawals would make it easier.

Zhytomyr is a two hour drive west of Kiev. This is the second time the Russians have turned off the electricity here. “It goes as usual,” says the officer in charge of traffic, because the traffic lights don’t work anywhere.

“At 8:40 we were attacked by the Rashists,” said Vitaliy Bunechko, the governor of Zhytomyr province. He uses the popular portmanteau of “Russians” and “fascists”. “Immediately 150,000 of our residents were without electricity.” The city has more than 250,000 inhabitants.

“The Russian president probably wants us to freeze and run out of lights in the coldest time of the year. But we are prepared. And we repeat: we have spare capacities,” said the combative governor, bearded and in camouflage just like his president Zelensky, who he reported that 30 percent of power in his country was cut.

This shortage is mainly compensated for by the cutting of public structures, such as street lighting. Families are spared as much as possible, just like in Zhytomyr, where power was restored in most places during the day. But at night it is pitch black on the street. Dark trolley buses line the side of the road, their two pantographs facing down, blocked as the drones hit their target.

On Pokrovskastraat there is an old shopping area with dilapidated buildings. Electricity was cut throughout the surrounding area. Here and there you can hear the generators blaring. Because the butcher and fishmonger can throw their products away if they have been in the freezer for too long, not refrigerated.

The butcher’s wife is not worried for the moment. “Last Monday the distribution station was also bombed, then the power returned at 5pm. We only have a problem if we run out of electricity for a long time.”

He is at home preparing for a cold winter without electricity. “For example, I’m storing meat in storage jars. And we’ve built up a large supply of wood. I live in the countryside and don’t depend on district heating. So I’m going to get through the winter this way,” he says optimistically. The moment I want to leave the store, the cooling lights come on again. “See,” he says.

Further on in the park, two elderly ladies are sitting on a bench. On this hot day already packed, hat on, thick coat. What will it be like in winter? “I’ve already bought some new boots with a thick wool lining just to be safe and if it’s very cold it’s a matter of several layers of clothes. In the worst case, I can go to a country cousin who has the stove of him.” She smiles as she reveals three golden front teeth.

Governor Bunechko places himself among the painted Czech curls. The antitank crosses made of normally rusted metal are enlivened here by floral motifs typical of Ukraine.

He is not fooled by the attack: “At the beginning of the war, the Russians stood at the gates of the city and we had to collect more than a hundred bombs. We endured it and we repelled the Russians. This new one too. We will survive.”

If district heating fails in the winter, people can go to the tent camps he plans to build. They will then be heated with burzhuiki, small separate wood and gas stoves.

They will then be placed in the center of the center, where a young entrepreneur has his café. He is furious about the attack: “At the front, the Russians are doing nothing. That is why they commit such lowly and terrorist acts to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure.”

It is now 5:30 pm, his seat is still dark and the coffee machine is cold. She made tea over a primus fire for a single customer. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a wasted day. “People don’t want tea, they want coffee.”