Ukraine's Electrician 'Heroes' Restoring Power Near The Front
Vitaliy Asinenko watched anxiously as his colleague sat perched on a crane, hovering over power cables in a village just a few kilometres from the frontline in east Ukraine.
The air became static as a blanket of clouds rolled toward them over the horizon, but the 46-year-old electrician had bigger worries than a possible storm.
"In weather like this, you can't see the bombs coming," he said, a helmet firmly planted on his head.
For months, Russia has been pounding Ukraine's fragile energy grid and power plants with air strikes, cutting electricity to millions of people in what Kyiv has called a blatant war crime.
Together with his team at Ukrainian energy operator DTEK, Vitaliy has been tasked with repairing the damage caused by Moscow's routine strikes near Pokrovsk, an eastern city less than 15 kilometres (nine miles) from advancing Russian troops.
"We have to make sure that the civilian refuge point and the humanitarian distribution points have power," Vitaliy explained.
Around him lay the ruins of buildings........
© International Business Times
visit website