Ukrainians face brutal cold without heat after Russian attacks on energy grid
PBS News Hour - Segments
PBS NewsHour
4.1 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Russia launched nearly 400 drones and 29 missiles at Ukraine overnight. |
| 0:06.0 | The full-scale invasion and war will enter its fifth year next week. |
| 0:10.8 | Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, |
| 0:14.2 | leaving millions there without heat or electricity for weeks at a time. |
| 0:18.4 | Producer and videographer Amanda Bailey in Kiev and Nick Schifrin report now |
| 0:22.7 | on residents of Ukraine's capital under fire in record-setting cold. |
| 0:28.7 | In Kiev, this is a dark, bitter winter. |
| 0:32.6 | A once bustling European capital, now the night's streets lie mostly desolate and cold. |
| 0:38.5 | A city whose homes look as Russia wants them, empty, its residents living in shadows. |
| 0:45.5 | 73-year-old Lutmila Baccarina cooks in her 19th floor apartment by flashlight and gas burner. |
| 0:52.8 | This winter, the temperatures has dropped to minus 14 degrees |
| 0:56.4 | Fahrenheit. The windows are lined with ice. She helps her daughter stay warm. The power |
| 1:02.9 | plants here provide both light and heat. They've had neither for up to 17 hours a day. |
| 1:13.6 | I'm tired. It's really tiring, to be honest. When you don't go outside and you don't see the sun, when there's no light and you can't just go down to the store. |
| 1:19.6 | When my husband is at work, my mother and I are dealing with all this together. |
| 1:25.6 | My mother and I, we support each other. |
| 1:29.3 | There is no limit to the support that 63-year-old Vasa Levanovich will give to his 40-year-old son, Taras. |
| 1:38.3 | But in blackouts, the burden is heavier. |
| 1:42.3 | Tarras is disabled and can't walk, and no electricity means no elevator. |
| 1:49.0 | Vassel says he feels like the war has set them back hundreds of years. |
| 1:55.0 | Inside, no power or heat, so the warmth comes from Vassel, caring for his son and from the Orthodox Christmas |
| 2:02.7 | trimmings. |
... |
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