The people of Kiev put forward demands to the authorities

– In many districts of Kyiv, the power is turned off for the whole day, they say – due to the repair of transit lines, – Lesya, a resident of the Minsk massif of Kyiv, shares with us. – It happens that they only give electricity, and after a few minutes, due to overloads, it is not there. Previously published schedules of rolling blackouts. Now it doesn’t work. Often, there is light on one street, and on the next – people sit for hours in the dark. My friend lives in the suburbs, they have no electricity at all for three days.

Due to the massive outages of street lighting on the roads, accidents have become more frequent. The authorities are urging citizens to wear reflective elements on their clothes.

“In the central regions, the lights are turned off, but there is still heating,” says businessman Ilya, who used to have a business in both Moscow and Kyiv. – Water is sometimes given by the hour. For example, no matter how critical the situation is, the lights are turned on at nine in the evening. Emergency teams work around the clock. The military goes to work together with the specialists of Kyiv Electricity Networks.

Ilya says that the residents of Kyiv are sure that they will always be helped.

– There will be no problems with power equipment. Echelons are coming from abroad. Recently, for example, equipment worth 100,000 euros was brought from Lithuania for the repair of power plants and power stations. One delegation after another goes to Kyiv. US Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried recently came to talk about energy support. There was also the European Commissioner for Energy. It was said that Ukraine will receive more than 25 million euros from the EU to maintain the energy system.

According to Ilya, Kyiv now generally resembles a global hub, comparable to Dubai.

– I constantly hear foreign speech in the city. Instructors, advisers, all kinds of experts, representatives of charitable organizations come. Recently I heard Spanish speech on Khreshchatyk. Then I read that a group of Spanish policemen arrived in Kyiv – explosives and forensic experts, who will conduct investigations with Ukrainian law enforcement officers. And now it has become known that the American writer Stephen King is coming to Kyiv from Warsaw. A separate wagon was attached to the train for him.

Are the batteries hot in the houses?

– There is heat in the houses. The authorities promise not to raise electricity prices until the end of the heating season. Thank God, Kyiv is still not beyond the Arctic Circle, in recent years the air temperature in the winter in the capital has dropped to a maximum of minus 10 degrees. The authorities, of course, are pushing. The mayor of Klitschko recently announced that 1,000 heating points are being prepared in Kyiv. The West allocated money, purchased heat guns and generators. I think that these points are more intended for the homeless, who are now very numerous in the city. Those who did not want to stay in Russian-controlled territories, as well as residents of Kyiv and neighboring regions, go to the capital. It is believed that Kyiv is well protected. The capital is full of people. We have constant traffic jams on the roads.

Meanwhile, the city’s residents are creating petitions. In one of them, for example, they ask to launch a free Wi-Fi network in the metro so that in case of an air raid, you can stay in touch with your relatives. In another petition, the authors demand that the city council equip mobile cooking stations, mobile baths and laundries in the city.

The authorities, in turn, according to the stories of the people of Kiev, massively remove illegal signs that violate the electricity saving regime.

– In our house, they dismantled the light board that hung at the entrance of the currency exchange office, in the building opposite they removed the luminous sign in the flower shop.

As Lesya says, it’s more expensive to get into the elevator now. When you turn off the light, you can get stuck for several hours. They began to put chairs in the booths, leave rugs, water and … sedatives in boxes.

Our interlocutor says that in the news, experts are now and then discussing what will happen if the electricity supply disappears for a long time. They call for the use of alternative light sources: battery-powered garlands, oil lamps, battery-powered LED lamps.

“The officials are talking about a possible humanitarian crisis, evacuation plans,” the girl says. – Recently there was a story about how shelters are equipped in case of a nuclear threat. They showed two entrances and exits in bomb shelters. Now they are importing radios that run on batteries. I remember one of the officials said: “In the event of a nuclear strike, only the radio will work.” People are tired of negativity. Many people don’t even respond to explosions. True, we often have planned demining of territories in the suburbs. The human psyche is designed in such a way that he cannot be constantly afraid.

In the city, as Ilya says, policemen have increased.

— Law enforcement officers patrol the streets. And even record speeding on the roads.

Kievans say that all the basic food products are available in stores, but their prices are constantly rising.

“Now you have to pay 65-70 hryvnias (110-117 rubles) for a dozen eggs,” says Lesya. – A liter of the cheapest milk in a chain store costs 50 hryvnia (84 rubles), a loaf of bread – 25 hryvnia (42 rubles), bananas – 80 hryvnia, and somewhere 90 (135 and 150 rubles). Previously, onions were brought from the Kherson region, now they are brought from Poland, a kilogram costs 45 hryvnias (75 rubles). Mom recently had a birthday. We bought a kilogram of beef, gave 470 hryvnia (795 rubles).

The people of Kiev admit that they began to follow the promotions that are announced in stores. For a chicken drumstick at a price of 70 hryvnia (117 rubles) per kilogram, they can go to the other end of the city.

Ilya says that he is used to having breakfast in a cafe.

“In the coffee shop, however, now they can turn off the light,” says the businessman. – It’s okay, I’m going to where the generator works. There is no panic in the city. Queues only stand for humanitarian aid.

Lesya, in turn, says that people still make stocks. Her grandmother, for example, has already dried a bag of crackers, bought powdered milk, cereals and stew.

– And now young people have begun to drag boxes of food home. They stock up mainly on instant noodles, soda, cookies and gas burners. Everyone at home now has several power banks – portable batteries. Some of my friends got ordinary mechanical meat grinders from the mezzanines.

The people of Kiev say that trams and trolleybuses in the city are now being replaced by buses.

“Trams and trolleybuses are really being removed from the streets, and it’s not just about saving electricity,” says Ilya. “Citizens are now afraid to use public land transport because of the shelling, they prefer to travel by metro. So safer. While the intervals between trains in the subway have increased to 10 minutes or more. The platforms are constantly crowded. But the lighting works, the lights are on. Kyiv generally lives its own life, today, for example, I read that the townspeople are invited to the zoo to see how the Himalayan bears are fed fish.

— What about gasoline and diesel fuel?

– Sometimes there are interruptions with diesel, because it is needed for military equipment. And there are no problems with gasoline in Kyiv. True, prices have gone up. A liter of A-95 gasoline costs 47-49 hryvnias (78-81 rubles), diesel fuel – 55-57 hryvnias (91-95 rubles). There are practically no oil refineries left, all fuel is now coming from abroad.

Ilya says that there are now many unemployed people in Kyiv who receive benefits.

– I have a friend, a former student who came from the Crimea. He is paid 2,000 hryvnias of aid (3,340 rubles) every month, last month he received 6,000 hryvnias (10,000 rubles). And, I repeat, you can always stand in line for humanitarian aid, which goes to Kyiv in wagons.

As for mobilization, according to Ilya, it is practically not noticeable in Kyiv.

– Let’s just say – it is sluggish with us. Nobody is missing on the streets, as, for example, in Odessa. At least, I am not aware of such cases. Of my employees, no summons was handed over at all. I myself am from Crimea. People like me have a reservation.

– No one in Kyiv comes out with posters on the square?

– I once saw women whose husbands and sons have been in captivity for several months. They demanded that their loved ones be paid attention. It turns out that the authorities and the military change those who are beneficial to them. For example, “Azov” (the organization is recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in Russia) or officers who have only recently been captured, and ordinary warriors are still in the dungeons. How to treat it? When the chosen ones are released.

– How did the residents of Kyiv react to the last renaming of streets and squares, when Pushkinskaya became Yevgeny Chikalenko Street, Heroes of Brest Square – Chernobaevskaya Square, Alexander Matrosov Street – General Kulchitsky Street?

– Among the inhabitants of Kyiv there are ardent nationalists and sane people. Some are for getting rid of everything connected with Russia and the Soviet past in the names. Others believe that this is our common history. The first are very active, so you can hear them everywhere. They bawl about de-Russification and de-communization. They are convinced that the capital is oversaturated with pro-Moscow names, and most of the heroes of Ukraine remain unimmortalized. I don’t understand, will they live better with new names?

Another pensioner from Kiev, a former teacher, told us that she recently conducted a survey. Standing on Pushkinskaya Street, she asked passers-by what they knew about Yevgeny Chikalenko, in whose honor it was decided to rename the street.

– Many shrugged their shoulders, shrugged, said that Chikalenko was an opera singer, poet, Olympic champion, – says our interlocutor. – And only two of the respondents said that he was a landowner and a public figure. And besides this, Yevgeny Chykalenko was a statesman, an outstanding philanthropist, who published newspapers and books at his own expense, financially supported Ukrainian writers.