A Ukraine reporter’s guide to managing wartime blackouts caused by Russia

A Ukraine reporter’s guide to managing wartime blackouts caused by Russia Kyiv-based correspondent Mansur Mirovalev writes on the trials and tribulations of everyday life amid war-induced darkness. Kyiv, Ukraine - Have you been on a plane during severe turbulence, fearing that the shaking aircraft is about to fall apart and tumble down? Brief moments of weightlessness stop your breath, perhaps you whisper prayers and remember everyone you love. That’s the feeling you get during a Russian air raid in Kyiv, Ukraine, and there have been more than 1,800 of them since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Russia criticises European moves to amend US plan to end Ukraine war list 2 of 4 US says talks with Russia, Ukraine in Miami ‘constructive, productive’ list 3 of 4 Will Trump’s ‘imperfect plan’ for ending the Ukraine war work? list 4 of 4 Car bomb kills Russian general in Moscow These days, they are bigger, scarier and longer than ever, because each one involves hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles. They begin after dark and sometimes last in waves until dawn. Whooshing missiles tear up the night sky in two. Drones buzz like horror movie chainsaws or giant mosquitoes out of childhood flu nightmares. What’s really harrowing is to hear two or three drones at once - I sardonically call it “stereo” and “Dolby surround” - while the arrhythmia of bass drum-like air defence explosions coincides with your heartbeat. Each boom and thud chokes your body with adrenaline, and some shake your house, but after a couple of hours, your brain gives up, and you fall asleep processing the booms into nightmares. And in the morning, you fall awake - feeling hungover and disoriented - and read about the consequences. You’re glad when no one is killed, and still sad because several people are usually wounded, and several apartment buildings are damaged. Sometimes, I think about the people who operate the drones and launch the missiles. How they come back to their families after the night shift, what they tell their children and, most importantly, themselves. But I prefer the memory of a crowd of high school graduates who walked past my house in June, at dawn, after their prom night that coincided with an especially long and loud air raid. Their laughter and happiness about the sunrise, the clouds of blossoming trees around them, the rugs of flowers and grass under their feet, and the future ahead of them made them sound immortal. It was a sound that defied Russian President Vladimir Putin. In recent months, blackouts have been the most inevitable part of each air raid. It feels as though keeping millions awake and horrified during the raids is only part of Moscow’s strategy of terrorising Ukraine. Moscow’s logic appears simple: if you do not want to surrender, you will freeze. It methodically destroys power stations, transmission and central heating lines to keep millions without electricity, light and heat....

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