“KYIV: “Ukrainians Grapple with Heat Amid Power Crisis”, Margaryta Zakharchuk, a Ukrainian mother, navigates her neighborhood in sweltering heat, often waiting for electricity to return so she can access her 12th-floor apartment using the lift.”
“We walk around outside until 10 o’clock so we don’t need to climb up with two kids,” she said.
Zakharchuk, 43, is among the millions of Ukrainians struggling amid a record heat wave compounded by regular power cuts that make household appliances like air conditioning units and refrigerators useless.
Regular Russian air strikes have ravaged the country’s energy system, leading to hours-long rolling blackouts that have forced residents and businesses to adapt in the extreme heat.
Zakharchuk, for instance, is limited in what she can cook for her family of four because food spoils quicker, she said.
Like many other Ukrainians, her daily life is divided into blocks of time when electricity is available.
“The light comes on and you begin doing everything: washing, ironing, cooking, charging all your devices,” Margaryta Zakharchuk said, multitasking while bathing her one-year-old daughter Vasilisa in the sink amidst power outages in Kyiv.
Zakharchuk added that her family had considered leaving town, but that options to do so were unavailable.
At a nearby corner store, shopkeeper Vika said she has begun ordering fewer dairy products like milk and butter. Prices have also gone up to cover the cost of running the generator.
The extreme heat is also taking a broader toll on Ukraine’s economy, with state weather forecasters saying on Tuesday the harvest of late crops could decline by up to 30 per cent in central, southern and eastern regions.
