Ukraine concerts light up dark times

It's Christmas time in many countries. Cities are full of Christmas lights. But many Ukrainian cities often have no power or water. Russia’s trying to cut off Ukraine's electricity network.

But people aren’t leaving Kyiv. They’re going to concerts. Concert halls use LED candles. The music brings people hope.

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."

People in Ukraine are worried. Winter is coming. They’re trying to fix the power and water systems. The government doesn't want people to get ill.

Yuriy Solukha says the concerts help. People can relax.

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."

Now, 70 percent of the country has electricity. But there isn’t power all the time. Ukraine plans power cuts. These help to save electricity. There’s an app with information on power cut locations and times.

People can get power and stay warm at 5,000 special centres. They can get online too. But there aren’t enough centres for everybody.

There’s no TV or data in power cuts. Kyiv’s LED candle concerts are a symbol of normal life. But they have to be careful of Russian bombs.

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." Weniger anzeigen