Families in front of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.Image: keystone
From Kiev to Isium: Drone attacks and power outages do not prevent Ukrainians from having a peaceful Christmas.
December 21, 2025, 5:08 p.mDecember 21, 2025, 5:08 p.m
Kurt Pelda, Eastern Ukraine
“The Ukraine is facing the fourth winter of war – badly damaged,” SRF’s Tagesschau recently claimed. In fact, wintry conditions are already prevailing, with some snow and ice on the roads. But is Ukraine really as badly damaged as the journalists at Leutschenbach think?
In the last two weeks I have driven around 1,500 kilometers across Ukraine, from west to east, with stops in five large cities and two small towns near the front. While it is true that Russian drone and missile strikes have disabled or damaged some energy infrastructure; but life goes on in a somewhat orderly manner. Despite the lack of electricity, authorities and private individuals are trying to fill the Advent season with light.
In Kiev and other large cities, the authorities publish supply plans on the Internet showing which districts can expect electricity at what time of day and night. The planned outages total approximately 12 to 13 hours per day, divided into blocks of three to six hours each. It is estimated that 70 percent of the production capacity of coal, oil or gas power plants is damaged.
For hydroelectric power plants it should be around 50 percent. The three nuclear power plants that remain under Ukrainian control, on the other hand, provide stable electricity. It is now almost two thirds of total production. Without nuclear power and without electricity imports from the EU, the situation would be truly desolate.
Christmas lights despite power outages
Added to this are the Russian attacks on Ukrainian natural gas production sites. Until recently, the country was self-sufficient in natural gas and could even export. Because of the air strikes, the state-owned company Naftogas now has to import gas to save the population a cold winter. The apartments remained warm far to the east – apart from the towns in the immediate vicinity of the front.
The power outages have so far turned out to be a greater burden on the population and the economy. Night falls at 4:30 p.m. and many cities – especially in the west – remain largely dark. However, the electricity suppliers usually manage to keep the traffic lights, trams and subways running. Many companies place generators on sidewalks. The Christmas lights in shops and restaurants powered by electricity generators look like bright, friendly islands in the middle of the darkness.
The authorities also ensure that huge Christmas trees – for example in front of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev or the Opera House in Lviv – shine with light. This is probably also intended to boost morale.
In the center of Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, craftsmen are busy decorating trees at the monument to Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko with battery-operated fairy lights. However, the official Christmas lights that remain hung on the streets of the city center all year round do not work.
Kharkiv is only about 30 kilometers from the Russian border. However, there was not a single power outage in the city center during my stay. I’ve been traveling in Ukraine for seven days now, and it’s only in Kharkiv that I hear the first air alarm of this trip. However, there are no audible explosions. In front of the ugly Opera and Ballet Theater, a local synagogue has set up a huge Hanukkiah, a nine-armed candlestick, for the Jewish Festival of Lights. Two women have their photos taken in front of it – as if there was no war and no air alarm.
Ukraine is running out of men
While you don’t have to look far to find damage from Russian air strikes in Kharkiv, it’s much more difficult in Kiev or Lviv. The impression spread by some media in the West that there are one ruin after another in the big cities is completely wrong.
In Kiev, for example, you can marvel at a single heavily damaged and partially burnt-out high-rise building near the main train station, but other than that there is hardly any destruction to be seen. The department stores in the city center are brightly lit and well stocked, and many restaurants require reservations if you want to get a table.
The nightlife areas, lit by noisy and smelly generators, are populated primarily by young people. Anyone who looks around here won’t get the impression that Ukraine is running out of men.
Electricity tapped from hospital
How are people reacting to the power outages? The Ukrainians now have extensive experience with such shortage situations. Juri, for example, is the proud owner of a Tesla and freely admits that it is sometimes difficult to charge the battery. “I usually only connect the car to the network late at night, which means it costs less.”
At home, Juri made a device out of car batteries and an inverter. When there is power, the batteries are charged, and during outages the inverter converts the direct current from the batteries into alternating current, which then powers a few lamps as well as the computer and Internet modem.
A homeowner who lives right next to a hospital has found a very elegant solution. Hospitals rarely have their electricity turned off, so the resourceful man tapped into the hospital’s power supply network. But he doesn’t want to reveal exactly how he managed to do that. The losses are terrible for old people who live on the top floors of high-rise buildings. If you don’t want to or can’t climb endless stairs, you often have to wait hours until the lift works again.
A supermarket chain, all of whose stores are equipped with giant generators, has set up corners where people can warm up, charge their phones or work on their laptops while sitting at tables. It also has microwaves where you can have your food warmed up. In this way, the chain not only attracts customers, but also sends a signal of solidarity in difficult times. By the way, supermarkets across the country are well stocked and have everything people need.
Christmas magic and net tunnels
Even in the partially destroyed Isium, around 30 kilometers from the nearest Russian positions, shops, restaurants and cafés are open and busy. The small town with an estimated 25,000 inhabitants has changed hands twice since the start of the Russian invasion. It is already dark, and the city has installed vibrant Christmas lights on the central square in front of the town hall, including an artificial palm tree with fairy lights. Next to it is a father and a toddler who is standing next to his stroller and admiring the lights.
The next morning, soldiers and construction workers are busy protecting parts of the spacious square with anti-drone nets. Russia’s Rubikon drone unit is making the important road between Isium and the large city of Kramatorsk in Donbass unsafe with its attacks. That’s why a network tunnel now runs from the city center south for many kilometers to protect this supply line from drone attacks. Such tunnels are also covering more and more road sections in other frontline areas.
Sometimes the Russians respond by using their drones to drop burning thermite onto the tunnels, scorching the nets. The weather or falling branches also affect the protective devices. Maintaining them is a Sisyphean task. On the other side of the front, the Russians are also building network tunnels along their supply routes. There is nothing to suggest that either warring party is ready to give up.