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Ukraine's light in the dark - 7th December 2022

As cities across the world deck the streets with lights in readiness for Christmas, Ukraine has been plunged into regular black outs. Russia, having pulled back many of its soldiers, is now launching missile attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure.

But in spite of the restrictions in the capital, Kyiv’s darkened concert halls are coming alive again by the light of LED candles.

Irina Mikolaenko is the concert administrator.

Irina Mikolaenko: "Now during the time of blackouts, during constant attacks on our power grid, we thought it was a good idea to save energy and give concerts in a good atmosphere. We want to bring inspiration, light and love to people in such a difficult situation and tell people that we are not defeated."

As work continues to reconnect the country’s energy and water supplies, there are fears that the cold winter weather could provoke a health crisis and more people fleeing from the country. For artist Yuriy Solukha, the concerts help calm people’s anxiety and bring them together.

Yuriy Solukha: "It's a good idea, there's a lot of air sirens and a lot of internal anxiety in people right now. Calm is very important now, because people have a lot of worries about the war, about their loved ones who are in the east of the country, about our military who are defending our country."

According to the country’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, electricity providers now have 70 percent coverage. However, regular power cuts continue in the various regions to conserve resources. A special app allows residents, across the country, to check which parts of their city will have planned black outs and when. In addition, 5,000 'invincibility centres' have been set up to allow people to charge their devices, connect to the internet and warm up. But this is only a fraction of what is needed for a country whose pre-war population was 40 million.

Coming together for the concerts helps people keep warm and enjoy live music when there's no power for the television, radio or data networks. And for the concert goers, they’re also a symbol of resilience.

Yuriy Solukha: "We hope there will be no air-raid sirens during the concert, but when our enemy launches rockets during our concert of course we ask the audience to take cover and we stop the concert. After the air-raid sirens have been silenced, we resume our concert, if the curfew permits."

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