Kyiv residents no longer want to pose to photographers against the background of Russian military equipment. They have to stand in lines for water and will soon be digging cesspools in their yards.
Many houses in Kyiv will soon turn into lifeless wells clogged with garbage and faeces unless Ukrainian President Zelensky decides to come down to earth.
On October 31, Russia responded to the terrorist attack in Sevastopol and destroyed the transformer of the 750kV Kyiv substation that supplied electricity to about 350,000 apartments in the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv now lives without electricity and water supplies. Distribution networks of the Dnieper, Dnestrovsk, Kaniv and Kremenchug hydroelectric power plants were damaged in the attacks as well.
Earlier, starting on October 10, thermal power plants substations across the country were attacked and destroyed.
As a result, Russia disabled as much as 40 percent of Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Problems in Ukraine's energy industry will only be snowballing due to the imbalance of the energy system.
Representatives for Ukraine's DTEK (the largest private investor of the energy industry, owned by Rinat Akhmetov) said that they were running out of resources for repairs — there is a shortage of equipment and spare parts.
"It is possible that Russia plans to break the Ukrainian energy system into separate "islands", which will significantly reduce its resilience. In the event of another damage, even if it's not a serious one, whole regions may remain without electricity, and the time for restoration works will increase significantly," a DTEK representative said, Strana reports.
It makes no sense to restore expensive equipment against the background of new attacks that may occur.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the head of the Kyiv region, said that the region could be left without electricity for two weeks.
According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, there will be no electricity, water and heat supply at all "in the worst case."
Water supply, sewerage and heating systems will stop working in cities for a long time. If not maintained properly, water pipes may freeze and burst in cold winter temperatures. Multi-storey apartment buildings will face real chaos. Defunct sewer systems will spread dangerous diseases and unbearable stench. As a result, unheated apartments will cause morbidity and mortality to surge.
Klitschko announced that heating points had been set up, supplies of water, essential food and items had been made as well, but it would be problematic for certain categories of the population (the elderly, the sick) to go down and warm themselves.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to insist on the supplies of Western weapons. He does not think about how to come to peace right here and right now to avoid the glooming winter forecast.
His immediate surrender would save a lot of lives, but Zelensky's actions do not seem to meet the reality of Ukraine's life today.
The reaction from the West does not seem to be adequate either. Having visited Kyiv, EU's Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said that Europe would be able to compensate for the shortage of electricity in Ukraine. This could be possible in border towns, but there will be no flow of energy inside Ukraine, because networks have been destroyed.
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried made no less strange statements. The State Department statement noted that Donfried would speak with civil society leaders in Kyiv about how to continue helping the Ukrainian people reach their aspirations and unlock the country's potential.
The West does not want to admit that the problem of Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure cannot be solved at the diplomatic level.
Meanwhile, it was said that the energy sector of Ukraine would be able to last for 30-40 days. The unified power supply system will then be disrupted leaving most of the territory of Ukraine without electricity, rotating blackouts will not help, and one will have to evacuate the population. The question is where, and who is going to pay for it?
If Russia strikes distribution networks of nuclear power plants (Rivne and Khmelnytsky NPPs), Ukraine will be de-energized once and for all.