Massive blackouts in Ukraine: What it means for women and girls
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Since autumn 2025, prolonged power outages have become part of everyday life in many Ukrainian cities and rural communities. Photo: UN Women / Anatoliy Petchenko.
Since autumn 2025, prolonged power outages have become part of everyday life in many Ukrainian cities and rural communities. Photo: UN Women/Anatoliy Petchenko.
Art-therapy psycho-emotional support session for residents of the Rehabilitation Centre for Temporary Stay “Contribution to the Future.” Photos: Romani Zbora/Volodymyr Makukha.
Since autumn 2025, prolonged power outages have once again become part of everyday life in many Ukrainian cities and rural communities. In early 2026, the situation deteriorated further. January began with extreme cold and the Russian Armed Forces’ largest attacks on critical energy infrastructure, resulting in nationwide blackouts.
Across the Dnipropetrovsk region, including Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih, more than 800,000 households were left without electricity. In neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, in southeastern Ukraine near the frontline, outages were also widespread. Entire communities were left without electricity for 14-16 hours a day, along with water supply, heating, and communications. Massive strikes on energy facilities in the Odesa region caused significant infrastructure damage as well.
For women from vulnerable groups, including women with disabilities, single mothers, Roma women, and women living with HIV, a blackout is not only an inconvenience. Darkness and the loss of electricity can quickly turn into direct threats to safety, health, and dignity. We spoke with four women from different vulnerable groups to understand how blackouts impact their daily lives, and how UN Women is supporting them during these challenging and uncertain times.
Darkness is not only about the lack of light
Olena Osadcha, Head of the NGO "I Know You Can" from Dnipro, Ukraine. July 2025. Photo credit: UN Women/ Sofia Patricia Munoz Gonzalez
“It’s scary right now. But you are not alone. We are here,” says Olena Osadcha, addressing all women with disabilities in Dnipro, a frontline city that experienced a total blackout on 7 January. “We have almost gotten used to power outages, but there had never been anything like what happened that day,” says Osadcha, a woman with disabilities herself who also runs the I Know You Can non-governmental organization. “There was no communication, no internet, no heating, no water. I had no electricity for a day and a half,” she continues.
What frightened her most was not the darkness itself, but the complete silence. Without mobile service or internet, it was impossible to read the news or receive air raid alerts. “For the first two hours, there was still a connection, and everyone was calling each other. Then it disappeared. Panic spread quickly. People rushed to buy water, ATMs stopped working, and rumours about how long the outage would last circulated, with no way to verify anything,” she said.
Olena Osadcha could use a gas stove to cook or heat food. However, when the electricity went out, she was left without heating. Also, charging her wheelchair became a critical problem: its batteries require far more power than ordinary power banks can provide.
"For women with disabilities who live alone, especially in multi-story apartment buildings, the blackout was a difficult experience,” she says. “We have no electricity for 17–18 hours a day. We’ve had to adapt."
Olena Osadcha
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Together with UN Women and the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), Olena Osadcha supports women and girls with disabilities, as well as mothers of children with disabilities, through her organization. The support includes psychological assistance, humanitarian aid, leadership trainings, and legal consultations.
Without light, but with solidarity
Zhuzhuna Duduchava, 55, an honored artist of Ukraine from Odesa, describes herself as resilient in the face of crisis. A singer with Georgian roots, she experienced war before - losing her home in Sukhumi during the conflict in Abkhazia in the 1990s. “I always believe in the best. I’m an optimist,” she says.
As Odesa also faces massive blackouts alongside the ongoing trials of war, Duduchava continues to help others. In July 2024, motivated by the needs of Romani families displaced by war, Zhuzhuna Duduchava established the Rehabilitation Centre for Temporary Stay Contribution to the Future in the heart of Odesa. The centre operates under the Romani Zbora and offers temporary accommodation to Roma and other internally displaced people.
“I wanted to create something unique - a comfortable place in the city centre, not a depressing shelter. People need normal conditions to begin healing,” she argues.
With support from UN Women and funding from WPHF, the centre provided essential services between July 2024 and May 2025, including safe accommodation, meals, hygiene kits, legal and psychological counselling, individual case management, and informational sessions. WPHF continues to support the organization’s institutional development, including rental of the office, procurement of basic equipment, and insurance coverage for key staff members, among others.
Located in a former hotel, the centre offers bright rooms, meals, and a range of activities – from language and computer courses to arts and crafts, and safety sessions. An important principle is equality.
"We do not separate people by ethnicity, everyone lives together.”
Zhuzhuna Duduchava
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Energy blackouts became a major challenge for the centre and Duduchava herself. During prolonged outages, the building quickly cools, turning into what she describes as a “stone bag.” The lack of electricity also affected heating, water supply, cooking, and sanitation.
They managed with help from a nearby restaurant, which provided water and food heating, as well as through city support points. People boiled soup, used lamps and candles, and tried to keep warm.
Even under these conditions, Duduchava refuses to close the center. “If blackouts continue, we will find a way. We will not give up.”
She has no plans to leave Ukraine. “We already left Abkhazia once,” she says. “Odesa is my home.”
When the power goes out, health risks increase
Iryna Pozhar is from Kryvyi Rih and works as a case manager and paralegal with the NGO “Positive Women.” Photo: NGO “Positive Women”/Vladyslav Durnev
For women living with HIV, blackouts create serious health risks. Power outages disrupt treatment routines, access to medical services, and can force women to take their medication in public places with electricity, increasing the risk of unwanted questions or inadvertent disclosure of their status.
Iryna Pozhar, a 38-year-old woman living with HIV from Kryvyi Rih, works as a case manager and paralegal with the Positive Women non-governmental organization within a joint UN Women and WPHF project. She lives with her husband and two sons, who study online.
On average, the family has electricity for only three to five hours a day. These short windows must be shared between work, study, and household responsibilities.
The organization Iryna Pozhar works with provides counselling, accompanies women living with HIV to healthcare facilities, and helps them access the services, from restoring lost documents and receiving free legal aid to psychological support.
The organization where Iryna Pozhar works provides counselling and free legal aid to women living with HIV. Photo: NGO “Positive Women”/Vladyslav Durnev
Even though the office has a charging station, work remains unstable. “We may schedule a consultation, but a woman may not be able to charge her phone,” Pozhar explains.
Power outages also affect adherence to HIV treatment. Antiretroviral therapy must be taken every day at the same time, but during blackouts, routines are disrupted when phones run out of battery and reminders stop working. “A one-off disruption may not have immediate consequences, but repeated breaks can lead to drug resistance,” Pozhar explains. “Then the treatment stops being effective and switching to another regimen becomes necessary – and there aren’t many options available in Ukraine.”
Without electricity or internet, it also becomes harder to book consultations or access laboratory testing. “In Kryvyi Rih, labs operate twice a week. If there is no electricity that day and refrigerators aren’t running, tests simply cannot be done,” she explains.
Pozhar’s message to women living with HIV who are navigating the blackouts and attacks is simple: “Positive women move the whole world. We are women, we can do anything, and we cannot stop.”
Raising children when there is no electricity
In 2025, Hanna Horbach from Zaporizhzhia opened a small kindergarten, focused on a child’s natural development, but the activity of the kindergarten was threatened by the daily blackouts. Photo NGO “Ukrprostir”/Olha Kalinchuk
When prolonged outages began in Zaporizhzhia, Hanna Horbach, 43, had just opened a small kindergarten, focused on a child’s natural development and daily rhythm. Children learn through play, move a lot, create a lot, and rest in a quiet room after lunch.
But once blackouts began, it became clear how dependent the kindergarten was on electricity – for light, heating, and basic activities.
With support from the Forsage project, implemented by the Ukrprostir non-governmental organization and UN Women, and funding from WPHF, Horbach received grants for training, business development, and, later, a portable power station. This allowed the kindergarten to continue operating during outages and enabled her son to keep studying online.
The kindergarten continues its activity thanks to the UN Women WPHF funding and support. Photo NGO “Ukrprostir”/Olha Kalinchuk
For Horbach, staying open during blackouts was the difference between moving forward and closing down. “In October 2025, just two months after opening, we had to plan everything around outage timetables. We couldn’t even make tea for the children without electricity,” she recalls.
“It is emotionally exhausting. At night, you don’t sleep because of strikes. During the day, you try to live, work, and care for children – without electricity,” Horbach continues.
The situation changed when she received a portable power station. “Now we have heating, water, and light. We can even hold evening workshops for mothers on the second floor.”
She dreams of expanding the kindergarten into a school, guided by the same principles. Asked what she would say to women starting something new during wartime, Hanna Horbach answers: “Don’t stand still. Take steps, and things will open up.”
The views and opinions expressed in this text are those of the individuals featured and do not necessarily reflect the views of UN Women, the organizations, or the donors supporting the project.
