(Kyiv) Several cities in Ukraine reported record-breaking heat on Wednesday, with temperatures becoming more bearable since devastating Russian attacks on the energy grid led to power cuts.
A state weather station covering the Kyiv region reported that the temperature reached over 36C on Tuesday, surpassing the record for July 16 set in 1931.
The Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center announced that records were also broken in Vinnytsia, Chernivtsi and Mikolaiv, cities in central and southern Ukraine.
In Kyiv, residents came to cool off by swimming in the Dnieper River that runs through the city. “This is the hottest summer of my life,” said Dmytro, 22, who says he has no electricity at home for 20 hours a day.
PHOTO BRENDAN HOFFMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Residents came to cool off by swimming in the Dnieper River in Kyiv.
Diana, 18, says the heat is unbearable at her workplace. “The air conditioners don’t work at work when there’s no power,” she laments.
Ukrainian power plants have been targeted by waves of Russian strikes that have destroyed half of the country’s energy capacity, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Kyiv is calling on its allies to help it rebuild its power grid, a project that requires significant investment, and to provide it with more air defense equipment to counter Russian bombing.
In the meantime, the Ukrainian Energy Ministry has stepped up electricity imports and introduced strict rationing.
In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said that consumption, due to the high temperatures, is expected to reach a level that “far exceeds” the remaining capacities of Ukrainian power plants.
In June, Kyiv had asked to turn off air conditioning in public buildings and called on regional authorities to limit public lighting to reduce pressure on the network.