As Russia Targets Ukraine's Power Grids, Volunteers Build Stoves

Volunteer workers test out a newly made stove in Ukraine's Mykolayiv region on October 24. 

A worker cuts steel used for the wood-burning stoves.

The stoves are an initiative led by charities OperationAid and 4UA to counter the impact on civilians of the massive Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. 

The aftermath of a Russian missile strike on an electric substation in Ukraine's Rivne region on October 22.

Since early October, the Kremlin has begun intensively targeting Ukraine's energy network with missile and kamikaze drone strikes. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 30 percent of the country's power stations have been destroyed, resulting in blackouts across the country. 
 

A volunteer from OperationAid hands out wood-burning stoves to residents at an undisclosed village in the Mykolayiv region on October 25. 

Ludvig Ramestam, one of the founders of the Swedish OperationAid charity, told RFE/RL that stoves are seen as increasingly crucial across Ukraine as Russia targets energy infrastructure. "The winter is coming and I'd say that only now in October we are beginning to see what will be waiting for us in Ukraine," he says. 

 

A local man in Prybuzke after receiving a stove.

Slava, a Ukrainian volunteer for OperationAid, told RFE/RL that, while residents are happy to receive food and water, the stoves elicit a much stronger response. "People... maybe cry, it's very necessary for survival now," he says.  

Ukrainian men weld the stoves in the Mykolayiv Region.

Ramestam says money for material used in the stoves comes from foreign donations, while the Ukrainian workers building the appliances "do it voluntarily, just to help their country." 

Residents of a village in the Mykolayiv region with stoves, water, and food delivered by volunteers.

The stoves can be used for cooking, but people Reuters spoke to said they would be vital as sources of heat in underground bunkers. One local resident told Reuters: "We are hiding from the shelling in the basement. And we need this stove to keep warm during winter.”

The head of a local council explains how the stoves function to a resident of Prybuzke, near the front lines of the fighting.

The engineering of the stoves is based on existing designs, "just improved a little bit to make it easy to use and cheaper to produce," Ramestam says. 

A residential building in Mykolayiv that suffered a direct hit from a Russian missile attack on October 23. 

The Mykolayiv region has been hammered with long-range attacks since the Kremlin launched its invasion in February. A Russian attempt to advance west through Mykolayiv and toward Odesa was blocked by Ukrainian forces early in the invasion. 

Five hundred stoves have been produced and handed out so far. Ramestam says there are plans to "push the tempo" and scale up production as Ukraine's harsh winter draws closer.