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UKRAINE, KHARKIV — On Nov. 23,  Russians conducted another massive attack on Kharkiv , killing five people and injuring 17. Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said the airstrike damaged one of the substations and the heating supply network. With the first explosions, locals reported interruptions in the supply of electricity, water, and heating. A few days later, on Nov. 25, Russia struck energy infrastructure in the Kharkiv region again, causing region-wide outages once more.  Critical infrastructure in Ukraine once again became one of Russia’s top targets in the autumn. During these three months in Kharkiv, we've been observing how people and the city were preparing for the difficult winter ahead. “We wrap ourselves in blankets”  “It’s cold. We’re really waiting for the heating to be turned on,” said Oleksii, an internally displaced person (IDP), whom Gwara Media journalists met near one of Kharkiv’s dormitories, where internally displaced people live. It was Oct. 28.  That day, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said that Ukraine has officially started the heating season — two weeks later than usual in the country. Svyrydenko also said that the decision to start heating in the regions is made by local authorities, taking into account the temperature conditions.  On Oct. 29, Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of Kharkiv oblast, announced the start of the heating season in the region. He added that there will be no heating in Kupiansk, Vovchansk, and the nearest settlements because of the ongoing combat there. The Office of Ombudsman of Ukraine responded to Gwara Media’s official inquiry that 78 dormitories where 7,700 internally displaced persons live are operating in the Kharkiv region (55 of them located in Kharkiv itself). We then went to several dorms in the city.  Oleksii, a resident in one of them, is from Kupiansk. He has been living in Kharkiv for a year, as has his friend from Dvorichna, a settlement north of Kupiansk, who asked not to be named. Both men said they do not complain about living in the dormitory, but each prepares for winter on their own. “You can find warm clothes or blankets in the humanitarian aid, but my daughter still helps me the most,” Oleksii’s friend said. “We have changed everything, including the pipes. Our bomb shelters are ready for the winter. Here, we are changing the radiators in the rooms, and all the windows have been replaced,” said Valentina, the supervisor of another dorm. 200 people live there, according to her, and this number grows as people keep moving in: every sixth person in Kharkiv is displaced by the Russia’s war, according to local authorities. The dorm has a generator for blackouts and even its own garden, Valentyna said, which has allowed residents to stock up on preserved food. Not all of the places where IDPs live are prepared for winter. The Office of Ombudsman of Ukraine visited 21 places in the Kharkiv region, including the city, and found that four of them have problems with alternative sources of electricity, heat, and energy. “Until the heating is turned on, we wrap ourselves in blankets. I asked for an electric heater, but I don’t know yet if they will give it to me,” says Tetiana, a resident of another dormitory.  Tetiana moved to Kharkiv a year ago from Kozacha Lopan, a settlement in the northern Kharkiv region, after a Russian bomb hit near her house and the blast wave destroyed its roof. Her dorm neighbours, Olha and Natalia, moved to Kharkiv from the Derhachi community with their children at the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion.  They said they have electric heaters, so, as long as they have electricity, they are not cold. Their dorm doesn't have a generator, but there is a charging station where residents can charge their phones during power outages.  Apart from attacks on energy infrastructure that make the winter worse for the Kharkiv residents, Russians could attack the dormitory directly. On Oct. 13, a Russian first-person view (FPV) drone did just that , hitting a dorm for IDPs in the center of the city and blasting out its windows. Municipal workers covered them with plywood. People still live there, and such protection isn’t helpful against strong colds. Classified information Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure complicate the winter for everyone directly, too: on Oct. 21, Russia attacked Kharkiv with glide bombs, damaging Marharyta’s and her neighbours' houses.  “My windows seem to be okay, but the blast wave made it so that the frames no longer fit snugly. This could cause gaps. There are also several holes in the roof. They are small, but it’s still a problem,” said Marharyta. Natalia, one of Marharyta’s neighbors, said that her family planned to fix the window frames with spray foam, as the wind is blowing through them inside the house. On Nov. 3, Oleh Syniehubov said that heating was already supplied to 258 residential apartment buildings in Kharkiv and Kharkiv region.  Gwara has been asking Ihor Terekhov and “Kharkiv heating networks,” a company that supplies heating and hot water in the city, for a percentage of the residents who have heating in their homes throughout November.  They refused to answer, citing security reasons: the information on the progression of the heating season was withheld not to be used by Russia. On Nov. 26, a Russian attack on the Kharkiv region left nearly 100,000 people in the city without heating, though it is unknown how many people had heating in the first place. On the day this article is published, the temperature outside is 9°C (48 °F), though, during this week, the temperature has been dropping to -1°C (~30 °F).  In the absence of centralized heating, people would turn to ACs, boilers, and electric heaters, putting pressure on already battered energy infrastructure.  Power outages  On Nov. 8, Kharkiv fell into a blackout. Russians conducted a massive attack on critical infrastructure in Ukraine, including the Kharkiv region. Centrenergo, one of the energy companies that provides electricity to consumers across the country, reported that the Zmiivska thermal power station, one of the largest plants in Ukraine and the biggest in the Kharkiv region, was damaged again. Our journalists went on the city’s streets to ask locals about their preparations for future possible blackouts in winter.  Most of them said that power cuts weren’t unexpected. They prepared well because of previous years’ experience, using power banks, lanterns, wearing warm clothes, and playing tabletop games. Local businesses, though, struggle in blackouts — especially those who can’t work online. Walking down one of Kharkiv’s main streets, you can see that almost every shop, cafe, or restaurant has a generator placed near the building. Asiya, the worker at the coffee shop on this street, said that they use a generator and have a reserve of gasoline to deal with power cuts. She also said that it is hard to launch the generator by herself when she works alone during the shift. She hopes that there will be no power cuts in their neighbourhood. Indeed, there have been no electricity cuts on the street yet, said Svitlana, manager of the anti-café “Mistse” (meaning “place” in Ukrainian), to Gwara Media. Before winter, they did a complete check-up of the equipment and generators, and trained employees on how to use them. “When we turn on the generators, we cannot use all electrical appliances at the same time, so we ask visitors to pick one thing to use, the consoles or the coffee machine. But we are always happy to help everyone recharge their devices,” said Svitlana. The recent Russian attack on Nov. 24 destroyed the power substation that supplied the water to Kharkiv, cutting off water for the city for almost a day. To recover from outages, the city had switched to its own power generation. Protection of critical infrastructure After a major Russian attack on power substations in Kharkiv at the beginning of October, Gwara Media sent an official inquiry to the Kharkiv City Council about the state of protection of the critical objects in the city.  The Сity Council redirected the request to the national energy company Ukrenergo, which responded that it did not have any information on the protection of damaged facilities because they weren’t a part of the company. “We continue to install anti-drone protection at our power transmission systems. As of today, second-level protective structures have already been built at the majority of them,” said Ukrenergo instead. The Kharkiv City Council itself did not provide any information about the protection of critical infrastructure in the city because that information “could not be disclosed during martial law.” “I don’t want to comment on these questions because they are related to certain plans that we have in case of blackouts. We will see how the situation develops,” said Terekhov during the national telethon. While local officials claim that the region has been preparing for another winter under Russian attacks since spring, the community organization Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center said , referring to the public procurement platform Prozorro, that the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration had ordered protective constructions for substations worth almost $20 million just this October. The Kharkiv oblast governor, Syniehubov, also refused to comment on the situation with the protection of critical energy infrastructure in the region. He only added that all relevant services expect Russia to continue attacking objects and are preparing for this. Shift in rhetoric  On Aug. 14, Kharkiv mayor Terekhov said on the national telethon that preparations for the heating season in Kharkiv began immediately after the previous one ended in April. Russian forces almost immediately resumed attacks on the city’s critical infrastructure. For example, in summer, they completely destroyed a heating plant that supplies one of the city’s districts. During the broadcast of the national telethon in August, Terekhov said, “We are always united, always determined, we have the fighting spirit, we endured the previous winter and continue to work today.” But in October, when the Russians intensified their attacks on the city’s and region’s energy infrastructure, Terekhov predicted that this winter would be “the hardest for Kharkiv in all the years of the war.”  Later, during the telethon, Syniehubov reminded that Kharkiv and the region continue to implement the “energy island” project, which began last y ear .  It’s a project designed to decentralize the energy system of the city and region. Local authorities decided to create it after Russian attacks destroyed most of the region’s critical infrastructure. Back then, Kharkiv didn’t generate electricity and received power from other regions. Terekhov said that they already installed some equipment in the city with the help of international partners because “Ukraine didn’t produce such devices.” Current state of things In March 2024, when Russia destroyed the Zmiivska power station for the first time,  Herman Halushchenko, who was the Minister of Energy at the time, said that it will be repaired via energy support funds from international partners. In November 2025, Ukrainian anti-graft bodies, NABU and SAPO, published materials on exposing an alleged large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector. According to the investigation, figures implicated in the scheme received kickbacks from energy funds and laundered the money, including money for defensive structures for power stations. Halushchenko is one of those figures.  The extent to which corruption in the energy sector has impacted the protection of critical infrastructure is currently unknown.  On Nov. 21, Syniehubov and Viacheslav Kravtsov, director of Kharkivoblenergo, updated journalists on the current situation in the city and region’s power grid, noting once again that they would not comment on the extent of the damage to the critical infrastructure or security situation.  Kravtsov also said that the company hadn't been affected by the recent corruption scandals. During the autumn, Kharkiv didn’t experience as many power outages as the rest of its region. Oleh Syniehubov said that the reason is Kharkiv’s distance from the frontline — about a 20-kilometer zone — which is farther than settlements that are struggling with electricity supply.  “It’s exclusively a technical issue. 12-hour outages are not planned; they are emergency outages,” said Synuehybov. The authorities have been implementing emergency outages to preserve energy during repairs after power stations or heating plants are damaged by Russian attacks. Syniehubov added that they’re still working on increasing protection for energy infrastructure, building up reserves, and making sure all facilities have generators and alternative power sources. The governor also said that all “points of invincibility” (safe places equipped with heat, water, electricity, mobile communications, etc.) are ready for winter. Local authorities are also negotiating with mobile operators to keep communications functioning in case of blackouts. He also advised people to buy generators and charge batteries.  All in all, Russia attacks Kharkiv oblast’s critical infrastructure at least once per three days.  Read more After Russian missile strike on Balakliia , locals focus on recovery — “We will not give up, not stop” Hi, my name is Elza, and I wrote this article in Kharkiv, during constant Russian attacks on the city's critical infrastructure. The power, water, and heating supply were cut off at my home several times during this autumn. We also had to plug in charging stations at the office so that we could continue writing about life here for you. Thank you for caring what's happening in Kharkiv. Please, consider supporting our newsroom by  buying us a coffee  or  subscribing to our Patreon . The post How Kharkiv and its locals prepare for fourth winter under constant Russian attacks appeared first on Gwara Media .

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