Ukraine’s ‘heroic’ electricians risk lives to restore power supply near the front

Electrician Vitaliy Asinenko risks his life repairing power lines near the frontline in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Vitaliy Asinenko watched anxiously as his colleague sat perched on a crane, hovering over power cables in a village just a few kilometres from the frontline in east Ukraine.

The air became static as a blanket of clouds rolled toward them over the horizon, but the 46-year-old electrician had bigger worries than a possible storm.

“In weather like this, you cannot see the bombs coming,” he said, a helmet firmly planted on his head.

For months, Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s fragile energy grid and power plants with air strikes, cutting electricity to millions of people in what Kyiv has called a blatant war crime.

Together with his team at Ukrainian energy operator DTEK, Mr. Vitaliy has been tasked with repairing the damage caused by Moscow’s routine strikes near Pokrovsk, an eastern city less than 15 kilometres from advancing Russian troops.

“We have to make sure that the civilian refuge point and the humanitarian aid distribution points have power,” Mr. Vitaliy explained. Around him lay the ruins of buildings scarred by artillery, a constant reminder that Russia is closing in as its soldiers inch forward through the eastern Donbas region.

“Three months ago, it was quieter,” Mr. Vitaliy said. “Today, there is a risk of suicide drones, it is become really dangerous,” he added.