Ukraine has begun introducing emergency power cuts in Kyiv

Vesalya Strypatma (0:00)

Blackouts are back in Ukraine.

Lillian Bivings (0:03)

This air raid alert, this last one, lasted 12 hours. We have a brief pause right now, but I imagine attacks will start again.

Sergei Petrenko (0:11)

It's not very logical, it's very chaotic attacks, so it's unpredictable.

Vesalya Strypatma (0:18)

It's World Business Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Vesalya Strypatma. On the way, the lights are going out in parts of Ukraine again. We'll be in Kyiv to see how businesses are coping. Britain's Prime Minister wants to rebuild ties with Europe, but does the feeling go both ways? And could a government-backed dating app really help reverse falling birth rates?

Well, we start in Europe, where the people of Kyiv were awoken by the sound of explosions and the smell of burning buildings on Wednesday, as the Ukrainian capital was once again the focus of Russia's attacks.

Well, Kyiv has been preparing for a renewed onslaught before winter begins by building 15 small-scale power plants in heavily fortified concrete bunkers. Lillian Bivings is business editor at the Kyiv Independent.

Lillian Bivings (1:24)

The last three hours, everyone's been pretty exhausted here in Kyiv after another sleepless night. It's been, you know, sleepless nights for the last several weeks, largely, along with constant daytime attacks. We were just actually talking in the newsroom about how this air raid alert, this last one, lasted 12 hours. So the attack continued well until late, late morning. And we have a brief pause right now, but I imagine attacks will start again. It's very challenging. You know, even as a newsroom at the organization, we've had to shift how we work, you know, where we work. It's very disruptive. It's very disruptive to daily life, of course, to businesses that rely on being able to stay open so that they have customers and things like that.

You know, I think as everyone has here for the last almost five years of war, you know, people have kind of found ways around it, found ways to continue living, to kind of, you know, as one of my colleagues put it recently, kind of stretch the limit of what we consider normal constantly and in doing so, continuing to live life, which is, you know, what we all want to do. But it has been complicated and certainly people are exhausted, certainly people are stressed and certainly you see that more and more people are making the decision to relocate temporarily out of Kyiv to safer parts of the country in the West or abroad.

Vesalya Strypatma (2:43)

So that was Lillian Bivings, a business editor at the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine has begun introducing emergency power cuts in the country's capital as energy infrastructure there is hit.

Sergey Petrenko is an AI developer and former head of Russian technology company Yandex in Ukraine. He said he wasn't too stressed about doing business during the blackouts right now, but worries about whether it might get worse.

Sergei Petrenko (3:11)

Well, still, it's not blackout, and it's not even a serious power outage. As far as I see, that's the several hours of plant disruptions for tomorrow, for like 20 or 15 percent of customers, and limited power supply for the plants and for factories and businesses during the day. It's just the lightest disruption we still can imagine, because we have four years of experience since October 2022, especially during last winter, when it was like a week without any power supply.

Vesalya Strypatma (3:48)

And how do you plan for something like this? Even if it is not as harsh as it might sound, what do you have to do?

Sergei Petrenko (3:56)

Since winter of 2022, a lot of businesses, a lot of shops, cafes, restaurants and so on, bought a lot of power generators, batteries, charging stations, and even solar stations became very popular for the last two years. So most of the malls are equipped with power generators. So it won't be a problem for people who live in private houses, for most of businesses and for most of hospitals and so on, and even for state authorities.

By the way, the internet became energy efficient, or even most of them are passive optical lines, so they didn't require a lot of power to be online.

Vesalya Strypatma (4:49)

And when you go about your day, you know, when you have to do your tasks for the day and run your business, and when you meet other people that are running businesses, how are they feeling going into the winter?

Sergei Petrenko (5:03)

Most of, let's say, worries we have for today, it's not very logical, it's very chaotic attacks, so it's like a usual terrorism. So it's unpredictable. That's what worries us most, let's say, because we have an experience of last winter. It was really heavy for us. It was really hard to survive during the winter. Now this winter maybe will be more softer than last one, but still mostly it's unpredictable for Russian attacks. That's what worries us the most, because it's like, you know, Russian rule, and Russian as well, yeah.