Freezing and in the dark, Kyiv residents are stranded in tower blocks as Russia targets power system

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Olena Janchuk spends another day of freezing isolation in her high-rise apartment.

The former kindergarten teacher has severe rheumatoid arthritis, and has been trapped for weeks on the 19th floor of her Kyiv tower block, 650 steps from the ground.

Long daily blackouts caused by Russia’s bombardment of power plants and transmission lines have made working elevators a luxury.

With January temperatures plummeting to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), there’s a permanent line of frost on the inside of Janchuk’s windows, white patterns creeping across the glass by morning.

The 53-year-old huddles over a makeshift fireplace of candles arranged beneath stacked bricks, designed to absorb and slowly release heat. USB charging cables snake across the floor from overloaded power strips, while her electric blanket is hooked up to a power bank rationed for the coldest hours.

“When there’s no light and heat for seventeen and a half hours, you have to come up with something,” she said. “The bricks work best in a small room, so we stay in there.”

By day, the family shifts into rooms that catch the winter sun, the function of each space changing with the blackout schedule. At night, heavy clothes stay on indoors as the apartment cools rapidly without central heating.

Kyiv, a city of about 3 million people, is dominated by tower blocks, many from the Soviet era, now left without power for most of the day.

In this fourth winter of war, electricity is a rationed commodity.

Residents plan their lives around electricity schedules: when to cook, shower, charge phones and run washing machines. Food is chosen for shelf life, water filtered into bottles and stored in buckets. Small camping gas burners are used to heat soup or tea when the power is out.

Sleep is fractured by air raid sirens and the need to use electricity during off-peak hours.

Outside, across snow-covered Kyiv, diesel generators rumble on commercial streets. Shoppers navigate aisles using phone flashlights, and bars glow by candlelight.

Apps notify users of narrowing electricity windows — usually just a few hours — enough for a household reboot.

Janchuk’s 22-story building is located near a power station and residents can see the missile and drone attacks firsthand, flashes lighting up the horizon at night.

During blackouts, they climb the stairs in darkness, phone lights bouncing off concrete steps, often accompanied by the echo of children and barking dogs. People sometimes leave plastic bags with cookies or water inside elevators for those who get stuck when the power cuts midride.

Janchuk’s husband, out working most of the day, brings the groceries in the evening while her mother, 72-year-old Lyudmila Bachurina, is in charge of chores.

“It’s cold, but we manage,” the mother says, holding a square USB-charged flashlight she recently mounted on the wall. “When the lights come on, I start turning on the washing machine, fill up water bottles, cook food, charge power banks, run around the kitchen and run around the house.”

In upscale neighborhoods, residents pool funds for generators to keep elevators running. But most blocks — home to pensioners, families and people with disabilities — cannot afford them.

Disability advocates, including groups representing wounded war veterans, say staircases have become an invisible social barrier, cutting people off inside their own homes.

They are urging city officials to fund generators for residential buildings.

Until then, life bends around the electricity timetable. USB lamps, power banks and inverter batteries have become household staples. Telegram chats help neighbors check on the elderly and swap blackout updates.

From upper floors, Kyivans look out over a skyline of high rises and the city’s historic golden-domed churches. At night, flashes of explosions are visible as Russia continues its campaign against Ukraine’s energy system.

Too many power stations and transmission lines have been hit to meet demand, even with electricity imports from Europe. To prevent a grid collapse, operators impose rolling blackouts, keeping hospitals and critical services alive while homes go dark.

At one coal-fired power plant struck repeatedly, shift supervisor Yuriy walks through wreckage of charred machinery, collapsed roofs and control panels melted into useless lumps. Repairs are carried out by torchlight, giant sandbags shielding what still works. Photographs of colleagues killed on the job hang near the entrance.

“After missile and drone attacks, the consequences are terrible — large-scale,” he said.

Officials asked that the plant’s location and Yuriy’s full name not be disclosed for security reasons.

“Our energy equipment has been destroyed. It is expensive,” Yuriy said. “Right now, we’re restoring what we can.”

Ukraine’s energy sector has suffered more than $20 billion in direct war damage, according to a joint estimate by the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations.

Kyiv has repeatedly updated its austere winter power-saving schedule, dimming or cutting streetlights in low-traffic areas and investing in less centralized power generation.

In the tower blocks, restoration feels far off.

“I’m tired, really tired, to be honest. When you can’t go outside, when you don’t see the sun, when there’s no light and you can’t even go to the store on your own. … It wears you down,” Bachurina said.

“But the important thing, as all Ukrainians say now, is that we will endure anything until the war ends.”

Associated Press writers Susie Blann and Dan Bashakov contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Residential multistory buildings are seen in the dark during large-scale power outages following Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

Olena Janchuk's mother cooks food on a gas burner by lantern light during a blackout in Kyiv following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

Olena Janchuk, 53, chats online on her phone charged from a power bank during prolonged power outages following Russian attacks on energy objects in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

Kyiv resident Olena Janchuk, 53, who can no longer walk due to illness, endures a blackout in her apartment with her mother, keeping warm with candles and heated bricks after Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

Kyiv resident Olena Janchuk, 53, who can no longer walk due to illness, endures a blackout in her apartment with her mother, keeping warm with candles and heated bricks after Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Victor Wembanyama brought the energy from opening tip of the NBA All-Star Game, and it proved infectious.

Some were crediting the 7-foot-5 San Antonio Spurs star for doing more to save the midseason showcase in mere minutes than anything the league has done in years.

“It was a pretty good display of basketball,” Wembanyama said. “Better than last year, in my opinion. It was fun.”

Wembanyama had been confident going in that setting the tone with competitive fire would make a difference in the league's 75th annual showcase on Sunday at Intuit Dome, the Los Angeles Clippers' year-old arena.

“If you share that energy," he said, "people feel like they have a responsibility to share it back to you.”

This year featured yet another new format. Two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players competed in a round-robin tournament consisting of three 12-minute games, all of which had exciting finishes. The top two teams by record advanced to the title game.

“I liked it,” Wembanyama said. “I wouldn’t be against this format in the future, and I wouldn’t be against the regular East versus West either.”

The U.S. Stars team beat the U.S. Stripes 47-21 for the championship, with Anthony Edwards earning MVP honors.

Retired Spurs player Manu Ginobili on X called it the “most fun NBA All-Star Game in a loooong time!”

World team player Karl-Anthony Towns said, “I feel that after today I think you all can see the competition is there, and I think that we all brought it today and a sense of effort. I hope that the fans and all of you appreciate it.”

The first All-Star Game in 1951 debuted an East vs. West format that continued until 2018, when it was replaced with a player draft, where that year’s top vote-getters acted as captains and selected their teams from the pool of available starters, regardless of conference.

That lasted until 2024, when East vs. West returned for one year.

Last year, in San Francisco, the game was played tournament-style, with three eight-player teams and a fourth team of rising stars. Games were played to 40 points to decide a winner.

Next year a U.S. vs the rest of the world format is on tap for the game in Phoenix.

Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, who is from Israel and played on the World team, called the latest change a fun format.

“People are about to understand that it’s fun watching the All-Star Game,” he said. “It’s going to be a little more competitive, try to bring it back.”

Boston Celtics fan Siddakk Chatrah was initially skeptical of a new format that wasn't easily explainable.

“The first game Wemby and some other international stars brought the energy, and Anthony Edwards matched them,” said Chatrah, who was at his first All-Star Game. “Then these young dudes brought the energy to LeBron, KD, they stepped up. It's a better watching experience at a way better level than I could have imagined. Yeah, it’s a little confusing, but I think they might have found something they can tweak a little more."

Even Kawhi Leonard was a bit unsure of how things worked. Cheered by his home fans, the Los Angeles Clippers superstar scored 31 points and shot 84% from the floor.

“Even as the game’s going on, trying to figure out the records for being 2-1 and how you play that out as well. Is it like by points? How many? Point spread or what?” he said. “I thought it was good, but I still think going back to East-West will be great. I think guys will compete still.”

Instead of being played in the evening, the event was held in mid-afternoon — ideal in attracting younger viewers — so NBC could feature the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in prime time.

Jaylen Brown likes the idea of adding a 1-on-1 competition to All-Star weekend.

“It reminds me of the purity of the game. Like, it’s just mano y mano,” the Boston Celtics guard said. “You got people on the court talking trash. You got to be an offensive and a defensive player.”

Brown took the idea further, suggesting players could challenge each other to 1-on-1 games.

“There are some people I would love to challenge," he said. "We could donate to whatever charity. Let's set it up.”

Detroit's Cade Cunningham has played under different formats in each of his first two years as an All-Star. He'd like to try the traditional East vs. West format.

“I want to be able to experience what all the greats played in and everything,” he said. “But I’m just playing the cards I was dealt. I’m sure it will come back eventually.”

Count LeBron James among its fans, even if the 41-year-old isn't around to see a potential return.

“I like the East and West format,” he said. “It’s been really good.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Barack Obama talks to Julius Erving during the NBA All-Star basketball game Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

USA Stars guard Tyrese Maxey, left, is defended by World center Victor Wembanyama, of France, during the NBA All-Star basketball game Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

World center Victor Wembanyama, of France, reacts next to USA Stripes forward LeBron James (23) during the NBA All-Star basketball game Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

USA Stripes forward Kawhi Leonard, left, celebrates with forward Kevin Durant after scoring against World during the NBA All-Star basketball game Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)