Lower Thirds:

0:03	Report by Max Zander
0:14	Max Zander | DW Correspondent | Kyiv
0:31 Vitalii Havryliak | Repair crew foreman
1:30	Vitalii Klitchko | Mayor of Kyiv

((Lead suggestion: To Ukraine, where intensified Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure have plunged millions into darkness, cold, and water shortages. With temperatures below minus ten degrees Celsius, continued strikes, and no rapid recovery in sight, the worst energy crisis since the war began is pushing parts of the population to the brink. DW’s Max Zander reports from Kyiv.))

Script: 

((Lead suggestion: To Ukraine, where intensified Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure have plunged millions into darkness, cold, and water shortages. With temperatures below minus ten degrees Celsius, continued strikes, and no rapid recovery in sight, the worst energy crisis since the war began is pushing parts of the population to the brink. DW’s Max Zander reports from Kyiv.))

((repair pictures - maintenance crew digging hole to get broken pipe out for heating system))

These pipes take hot water to the heating systems of Kyiv.

Russian attacks are damaging everything. 

((taking pipe out))

No electricity means pumps stop, leaving water to cool. 

+++PTC Max Zander, DW Correspondent+++ ((showing the pipe))
“During the blackouts the water temperature in these pipes changes, which makes the metal more corrosive, which can lead to the pipes breaking.” 

Workers here are out in the cold 24/7 trying to repair the damage.  

+++SOT Vitalii Havryliak, Repair Crew Foreman+++ 
“You don’t have to motivate anyone. The workers are determined, they understand everything themselves, and they are ready to restore things as quickly as possible so that people get their heat back.”

But they’re fighting a losing battle to keep the heat on. 

((Kyiv city cold pictures from daytime))

Many of the capital city’s 3.5 million people are stuck in the cold. 

((old people))
And blackouts are hitting nearly everyone. It’s especially difficult for the most vulnerable.

A nursing home here in the capital lost power and heating after the large attack on January 8 Best efforts could only fix it in places. 

((mobile heating device))

They’re using a mobile heating unit to warm up the remaining buildings.

((Vitalik coming))

Mayor Vitalii Klitchko has come to inspect the site.

The city deployed more than 70 like this, for  community and care centers.

A drop in the ocean given the overall situation in the capital.

+++SOT Vitalii Klitchko, Mayor of Kyiv+++
“We have an enormous lack of electricity, also heating. More than 500 buildings are without heating right now - that’s a few hundred thousand people. We’re fighting and giving it our all to restore heating, to restore services to people.” 

((Klichko with old people))

Earlier this winter Mayor Klichko suggested that people who could, should leave Kyiv for a while. 

President Zelenskyy criticised him for the comment, saying he hadn’t prepared properly for the cold.  

Meanwhile during this crisis, the national government went weeks without an energy minister.

A crisis becomes a stage for political differences.

((city shots, maybe freezing heating plant))

The Russians are putting pressure on Ukrainian politicians and people by using the winter as a weapon, hitting the same energy infrastructure again and again.

((Darnytskyi district))

The dark shows up the depth of the crisis.

The Darnytskyi district is one of the worst affected by the blackouts.

This is what they call a resilience point run by the city. It offers an opportunity to warm up and use electricity. Anastassia came here with her 20-month-old daughter Stefania who has Bronchitis.

+++SOT Anastasia
“Yesterday there was no power all day. They switched it on at around two in the morning and turned it off again sometime around four. 

Her daughter seems to take it relatively well.

+++SOT Anastasia, Darnitskiy Resident+++
“It’s good that she doesn’t panic. She’s strong with us. But it’s hard, of course it’s hard. How am I supposed to explain to her where we are? These conditions. But it has to be done.”
 
Mariya just collected her children Aliyah and Muhammad from daycare. She worries they’ve already forgotten what a normal life is like. 

+++SOT Mariya, Darnitskiy Resident+++
“It’s difficult. It’s constantly dark, you have to walk with flashlights. Sometimes there is no hot water, sometimes you can’t make tea, sometimes it’s something else. We live on the 15th floor. Just to go up and down once, you have to walk the equivalent of 30 floors, up and back. That’s how we live, somehow.”
((picture kids))

Ukrainian authorities have counted more than 250 cases of Russian attacks on energy and heating infrastructure since last October. 
More are expected in the coming days. 
+++END+++