Since early January, Russian missiles and drones have smashed every power plant in Ukraine, cutting the grid to just 60 percent of what the country needs. Fuel reserves are down to twenty days at best. Temperatures in Kyiv and other cities have dropped to minus 19 degrees Celsius. Zelensky blamed Mayor Klitschko for botching the crisis, setting off a public fight as repair crews scrambled under fire to restore even a fraction of service. For most families, the situation is still dire: no heat, no water, no lights.
In Kyiv, 400,000 people sat through blackouts after the January 9 attacks knocked out heat in half the high-rises, shut schools until February, cut curfews short for shelter access, and stopped water pumps. Subways limped along on emergency power while people burned wood stoves or just shivered in the dark.
Blackouts hit Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, and every town near the front. Kharkiv lost a major station. Tens of thousands in Zhytomyr and Kryvyi Rih were cut off. In the east, people froze the longest because Russian strikes kill or wound energy workers every two weeks, just to keep the misery going. Zelensky declared an energy emergency on January 14.
His new minister, Denys Shmyhal, scrambled to import power and promised more generation by year’s end. Ukrenergo and Naftogaz beg Europe for supplies. Klitschko called these outages the worst since 2022. Repair teams work from dawn to midnight in minus-15 snow, fighting to give people four hours of power before the lines fail again. DTEK tries to rebuild substations under fire.
Russia hits thermal plants, substations, and nuclear lines to cut Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro off the grid. Gas and coal plants that power the capital are shut down. Replacement parts rot in shipping limbo for months.
Civilians can’t cook, can’t wash, can’t even charge a phone. The elderly sit alone in freezing apartments. Children miss school. Families abandon homes that are too cold to survive. The weakest have to pick between freezing inside or risking the streets. Ukraine begs for billions in cash, missiles, and generators. Zelensky jets to Europe and Washington every month while his people go hungry and die.
Zelensky drags this losing war into a fourth year with no battlefield victories. Donors are sick of the handouts. Russia breaks Ukraine by smashing the grid, not by winning ground. Klitschko’s crews patch what they can under bombardment, but the regime survives month to month on foreign cash while ordinary people freeze. Putin bombs at will because Europe’s weak borders let the war fester with no real defense.
Ukraine should fold now and accept every Russian demand for peace. Give up the east bank land. Drop NATO dreams. Stop the pointless meat grinder that chews men and billions with nothing gained. Zelensky drags this disaster because DC neocons pump weapons to keep the war machine fed, but ordinary Ukrainians freeze in the dark while America pays the tab. Russia poses no threat to US borders. Putin fights Islamists on his flank and secures his ground. Let Ukraine sign the deal, end the begging for our cash and arms, and turn attention back to real enemies.
Peace saves lives. America and Europe wasted trillions and achieved absolutely nothing. Time to cut losses and stop playing Zelensky’s game.