No Miracles Here: How Energy Companies Duped Ukrainians

Source: Author’s Facebook page

Russia is making its third run at the same target — trying once again to plunge Ukraine into total darkness. Twice they failed. In the winter of 2022–23 and again in the summer of 2024, Ukrainian energy workers held the system together, producing what seemed like miracles. But we know there are no miracles — only relentless, disciplined work carried out at the edge of human capability.

And those “miracles” quickly became something people just expected. Many assumed this was normal — that it had to be this way and could not be otherwise. But it could. And it absolutely could have been worse. The only reason it wasn’t is the skill and relentless work of energy crews, supported on a massive scale by the civilized world.

Yet now Ukrainians demand miracles again. Real miracles.

And we keep hearing: A whole week has passed since the last shelling — why are the outages still so severe? Is someone slacking off? Has the money been stolen again? They’re probably exporting electricity abroad. Who is cutting off my line on purpose? Is this revenge because I “spoke the truth”?

Indeed, why wasn’t a thermal power plant rebuilt in a week after being hit by a barrage of ballistic missiles…

Miracles do not happen. And we need to accept this as winter begins. No matter how hard Ukrainian energy workers push themselves, the system’s safety margin is shrinking. The stock of equipment for repairs is not limitless.

The last thing we can afford is to blame the people who are working to exhaustion to restore the grid after Russia’s barbaric attacks. Few things are more ignorant than claiming that someone is being disconnected “because of a conspiracy” or due to “incompetence,” as if the entire problem could be solved by someone flipping a switch.

And no, there is something worse. The Instagram prophets have crawled out again, suddenly reinvented as energy experts with pots on their heads. The astrologers, numerologists and tarot readers have paused their “successful success” coaching and anti-vaccine crusades. Now they call for capitulation and try to pin the blackouts on Ukraine itself. Myths about electricity exports are back, although by the fourth year of full-scale war, one might expect people to grasp the link: shelling causes outages.

In winter 2022, the export conspiracy theories were almost funny. Now they make you want to turn off the sound altogether.

The last time we saw such a wave of girls throwing public tantrums and begging to “meet the Russians” was in the summer of 2024, after the attack on Ohmatdyt. For some reason, this is exactly the audience the Russians manage to inspire, trying to stir up internal pressure” against the backdrop of external aggression.

But we have no reason to play along with them or fulfill their plan.

This winter will bring many long hours of darkness. And with this darkness, the Russians will attempt to foment internal pressure. Our task is to endure, not let Putin get into our heads, and not allow ourselves to become mindless drones, incapable of understanding cause-and-effect relationships.

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