Russia-Ukraine crisis | In eastern Ukraine, keeping the lights on is a dangerous job

Utility crews sent to repair the smashed transmission lines and pipes are finding themselves in the middle of the shelling.

As the fighting in eastern Ukraine inches forward, Russian attacks are knocking out power, water and gas to entire towns and cities — and the utility crews sent to repair the smashed transmission lines and pipes are finding themselves in the middle of the shelling.

Crews sometimes arrive at a location only to be forced to retreat because of the fighting, officials say. Some villages are impossible to reach.

“It is dangerous, because we can hear the shells whistling above us,” said Sergii Marokhin, a water systems engineer in the town of Bakhmut, which has come under increased shelling recently as Russian forces press their offensive in the Donetsk region of the Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

Shelling the day before had damaged water pipes in a nearby village and in Bakhmut itself that he and his crew had been repairing that morning. There was a sewage pipe to fix, and damage to water lines in other nearby villages.

Even on quiet days, there is still regular maintenance work to be done.

“People still go to work during the war,” he said with a shrug.

In some hard-hit places, people have been forced to rely on makeshift outdoor ovens and stoves built out of bricks and stones.