Lower thirds:

0:03  Report by / Nick Connolly  
1:07  Nick Connolly  / DW correspondent
1:36  Yevhenii Harkavyi / CEO Centrenergo
2:44  Serhiy Alikperov/ Power plant engineer

Script:

0.00 - 0.23 

Just another night in Kyiv. 

Russian drones and ballistic missiles raining down on Ukraine's capital. These strikes took place in November, but you can find images like these from pretty much any week of 2025. 

Many missiles are intercepted but some, inevitably, reach their targets. 

In recent months that's largely been Ukraine's power and heating plants.

0.23 - 0.47 

And this is what the immediate aftermath looks - and sounds - like on the streets of Kyiv. 

The rumble of diesel generators dominating a city in darkness.

Within a day or two the situation usually stabilises. 

Chaotic outages give way to scheduled power cuts. 

Ten hours without power become five and life feels a little more manageable.  

That is, until the next attack.

0.47 - 1.06 

The workers at this power station have seen it all before. 

Between their company's two sites they've dealt with over 200 attacks since the war began.  

But the most recent strike was by far the biggest to date.  

Ballistic missiles followed by Shahed drones. 

There was no chance of downing them all.+++

1.06 - 1.20 
Covering an entire power station like the one behind me in its entirety in concrete just isn't realistic. And it's also not very likely to work, given that Russia has proven that it's willing to spend millions of dollars on ballistic missiles that are
able to break through the best conventional defences. 

1.20 - 1.35 

It's been over a week since the attack when we visit. 

These workers are still trying to assess the extent of the damage and save any equipment that may have survived. 
What makes these attacks so devastating is that most of the equipment can't readily be replaced. 

1.35 - 2.06 SOT YEVHENII HARKAVYI, CEO CENTRENERGO

Most of this equipment was produced during the Soviet period. We get help from other countries that also used to be part of the Soviet Union [and still have old stocks], particularly the Baltic countries. They've sent us very valuable kit in the past. Unfortunately that was also destroyed in the last attack. 

Our problem is that modern [Western] equipment doesn't match our systems. And even if it can be used here we'd be waiting too long for delivery. 

Right now we're taking apart everything we have left and are trying to put together a few functioning power units.  

2.06 - 2.21 

That means salvaging parts from many damaged power units to build a handful of improvised working replacements.

The power company's CEO tells us the only hope of preventing repeat attacks is more and better air defense systems.  

2.21 - 2.38 SOT SOT YEVHENII HARKAVYI, CEO CENTRENERGO

Many people didn't believe [we'd be able to rebuild] after the attacks in 2024. But we managed against the odds. We got through the 2024-25 winter.

In this part of the country the daily air raid alerts are often 12, 18 hours long. And somehow our workers still manage to do their jobs.

2.38 - 2.43 
Serhiy and Oleksiy were on duty the night of the most recent attack. 

2.43 - 2.57 SOT SERHIY ALIKPEROV/POWER PLANT ENGINEER
We can't leave the equipment unattended, we have to be there. Everyone else goes to the shelter during air raid alerts. We can't do that. 

2.57 - 3.08 CUTAWAYS

One of the missiles hit just 30m away from where they were working. This attack, they tell us, came just as they'd almost finished repairs on the plant from a previous strike in 2024.
 
3.08 - 3.27 SOT SERHIY ALIKPEROV/POWER PLANT ENGINEER
We usually work nights, that's why we're the ones who are always there for the attacks. [We've seen so many] that we can tell if it's a Shahed drone, a cruise missile or a ballistic missile just by the blast wave. 

3.27 - 3.38 CUTAWAYS

Less than two weeks after the last strike, Serhiy, Oleksiy and their colleagues are back at work, trying to provide people across Ukraine with at least a few hours of power a day this winter.