Translated material
War
One thousand four hundred thirty-eighth day. Blackout in Ukraine. Almost the entire country was left without electricity. In Kyiv and Kharkov, the metro is stopped, there is no water in houses
Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Share with us your thoughts about the war. What feelings are you experiencing? How does war affect your life and your attitude towards the world? If you have a story related to the war, tell it . The feedback form is at the end of this article. You can read the previous day's review here .
Ukraine
On January 31, a large-scale failure occurred in the Ukrainian energy system, affecting almost the entire country. “Today at 10:42 a technological violation occurred with a simultaneous shutdown of the 400 kV line between the power systems of Romania and Moldova and the 750 kV line between the western and central parts of Ukraine. This led to a cascade shutdown in Ukraine’s power grid and the activation of automatic protections at substations,” First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Denis Shmyhal wrote in his telegram channel. Power supply is planned to be restored within the next few hours, he added.
According to official data from the Ministry of Energy, cited by RBC-Ukraine, electricity was cut off in the Kiev, Zhitomir and Kharkov regions. In Kyiv and Kharkov, the metro and city electric transport stopped. Pumping stations do not work in Kyiv, the entire city is left without water, writes RBC-Ukraine. Residents also report that there is no heating in the apartments.
Update: By 19:40 Kyiv time, power engineers had restored power supply in all regions of Ukraine after a systemic failure, Denis Shmygal announced in his telegram channel. In Kyiv, he added, work continues to restore power supply and heating. “The work will not stop even in the dark in order to restore heat and light as quickly as possible,” he added.
There is no water in houses in Vinnitsa and Chernigov, as pumping stations are left without electricity. Electric transport also does not operate in Chernigov. In Poltava and Konotop (Sumy region) water is supplied according to an emergency schedule.
Emergency power outages were also applied in the Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa regions, the energy company DTEK reported. According to RBC-Ukraine, the electricity supply was urgently interrupted in the Khmelnitsky region.
President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said in his telegram channel that he heard reports from Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko and Energy Minister Denis Shmygal on the emergency situation in the Ukrainian energy system. “All the necessary response at the level of the Ukrainian energy system is in place, restoration work is underway. The task is to stabilize the situation in the near future,” he emphasized .
“Ukrzaliznytsia” has already reported that the situation with the railway’s energy supply has been “stabilized.” “Trains continue to move along their routes. The delay from the schedule is minimal and will be made up,” Ukrayinska Pravda quotes a statement from the railway company.
A large-scale failure in the Ukrainian energy system also affected Moldova. On January 31, a significant part of Chisinau was left without electricity. In the city, as Mayor Ion Ceban reported, traffic lights on many streets were turned off and trolleybuses were stopped. The Ministry of Energy of Moldova stated that “due to serious problems in the Ukrainian energy system <...> the voltage dropped on the Isaccea - Vulcanesti - MGRES line, which led to damage and shutdown of the energy system.”
The Ukrainian energy system is one of the main targets of Russian strikes. Since the beginning of 2026, Kyiv has already been left without electricity, heat and water several times. On January 29, US President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin promised him not to strike Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities until February 1 due to severe cold. On January 30, the Ukrainian authorities confirmed that there were indeed no new attacks on energy facilities. On January 31, no attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure were reported either.
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Meduza's readers live in different countries and have different attitudes towards the war. We publish your letters to see this event through your eyes. Our editors try to present all points of view, even if they do not coincide with the editorial position. However, in accordance with the Meduza code, we do not publish messages that contain “hate speech,” justify the murder of civilians, or express direct support for an aggressive war.
Ivan (Russia). I live in Russia and have never left. February 24, 2022 was not such a shock for me as many write in letters to you. It was obvious that something was planned - this was the gathering of troops to the border, and Putin’s constant appearances on television. There was hope for a bluff, some kind of political games, but overall I understood that an invasion was being prepared. And when it happened, for some reason it seemed to me that everything would go something like in Georgia in 2008: two or three days of local skirmishes, they would threaten with tanks and planes, they would put forward some demands and, having been satisfied with them, they would go home. As we know, it didn't work out. And it was this moment that became a real shock for me - how our “great and mighty” army began to take everything to its fullest on all fronts and ended up getting bogged down in a long trench war with hundreds of thousands of dead on both sides.
It just so happened that I have neither relatives nor acquaintances in Ukraine, so on a personal level this all passed me by. I may now write an unpopular thing, but it seems to me that what I feel is close to the sentiments of the majority of the population: Ukraine is not close to me. Yes, the invasion is unfair, yes, civilians are dying, bombings, this is all terrible, but... For me, this is about the same as the war in Syria. It's somewhere far away, it doesn't concern me much. But what really infuriates us are the sanctions, the departure of brands, the economic situation, and the general isolation of the country.
Putin has led Russia down the wrong path - this is what happens when you sit as tsar for more than 20 years. I, like everyone else, hope that the war will end soon, but the problems that I wrote about above will not go away. Putin will leave sooner or later - if not on his own, then for natural reasons - and what he has done will have to be sorted out by all of us, those who remain in Russia.