the perilous work of Ukrainian electricians in Donbass

Installed in his car, Vitaliy obtained, by telephone, the green light from the military to move forward. The chief electrician is reassured: “The sky is low todayhe philosophizes, there will be fewer Russian drones”. The front is less than three kilometers from the town of Avdiivka, which the Russians are trying to bring down. Vitaliy’s team rushes to the downed electrical wires. Suddenly, explosions throw them to their knees. Silence returns, they resume repairs. “We work as quickly as possible”, encourages Vitaliy. The gestures are mechanical, the attentive ear, spotting the Russian shots. “Departure !”he shouts.

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If in the rest of the country the network has held up despite intensive attacks by the Russians who thus hoped to deprive the civilians of heating and the soldiers of energy, in the Donbass, where fighting is still raging, the relief is not yet bet. The main gas pipeline is cut and electricity consumption has increased. You have to constantly repair the damage caused by the strikes, sometimes at the risk of your life. Vitaliy and his colleagues therefore now work with bulletproof vests. “It’s heavy. We have pain in the back and in the arms”, one of them testifies.

Endless and dangerous work

But the hard work paid off: 50 households were once again connected to the network and the team set off again for another village. Endless work, says Vitaliy.

“Sometimes we have just finished the work but the Russians saw that we had repaired it. We leave and there they strike again at the same place.”

Vitaliy, with a team of electricians in the Donbass

at franceinfo

“We can come back like this several times a day”, concludes Vitaliy fatalistic. The pole wobbles. His colleague Max climbs on it with claws on his feet, under the eyes of his boss. “Before we arrived, we deployed the ladder. Hop! Two guys in a basket. In a jiffy, it was fixed. Now it’s more difficult in these conditions. Russians see the guys and target them.”

“It bombs every day”

The commotion drove Alexei out of his house. The power went out the day before, plunging them into darkness. “We had to heat the stove, we have nothing else. We have no more gas. Without electricity to cook, there is only the stove to make a fire outside”he testifies.

The Russian Army advances. Here, it stumbles to take the town of Avdiïvka in a pincer movement. So she tries to circumvent through her villages. “Lately, it’s been bombarding every daycontinues Alexei. I have nowhere to go, I have no means. What can I do ? We will stay here until we win.” That evening, a neighbor will be killed in a bombardment.