Blackout roulette in Ukraine’s elevators

The simplest things, like elevators, become vitally important when they disappear. Elevator mechanic Oleksandr ensures Ukrainians can always reach tall heights despite regular blackouts.

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“It is absolutely vital to know what the Ukrainian people are experiencing day in and day out. Tim is a treasure.”

By: Aaron Hallquist

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“Sashko… Sashko… Are you okay?” Tim yelled into a closed elevator door in a completely dark hall of our office building. “We haven’t forgotten about you.”

When we step out for lunch, each second matters.

Being off by even a minute can mean spending the next few hours locked in a metal box somewhere between floors, as blackouts wait for no one.

This past month, our colleague Sashko miscalculated — and as he waited in the elevator for the operator to come and free him, he fell asleep.

Tim went to find out which floor Sashko got stuck on.

Power outages have become a usual part of life for Ukrainians due to Russian shelling of energy facilities. We adjust our daily routines to the blackout schedules, planning showers, cooking, and leaving the house around the timetable that energy companies publish the night before or that morning.

Schedule of power outages at my home: I had power for only 8 hours that day. White hours are those when you have power, and dark are those when you don’t.

As of December 5, six regions have experienced emergency power outages, and four remain without electricity, indicating that Ukraine’s energy system has once again become unstable from the latest attacks. In large cities, where buildings rarely have alternative power sources and high-rises stretch up to 20 floors, the most vulnerable groups are hit hardest.

Blackouts, as is the case with many other wartime symptoms, are a test of how prepared Ukrainian society is to care for those who rely on electricity the most.

Oleksandr Karan has been repairing elevators for more than 20 years. He got this job thanks to his mother, who worked as an elevator dispatcher — she took calls reporting breakdowns and sent mechanics to the addresses. Inspired by her, Oleksandr studied to become a mechanic and began to work in the early 2000s.

It was never an easy job, as it requires patience, physical strength, and knowledge of the intricacies of elevator mechanisms. Even still, he remembers his early years at work with a touch of nostalgia.

“It used to be interesting to find something broken and fix it,” he recalled.

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-Tim

After the power outages began in 2022, his work exploded. People getting stuck in elevators was rare before. Now, Oleksandr runs marathons through Kyiv’s stairwells, releasing those who are trapped between the floors.

According to the health app on Oleksandr’s phone, he often climbs 150–300 floors per day as part of his job.

With many of his colleagues being mobilized to the military, the workload is increasing even more. For example, in Pryluky, a city of about 50,000 people, all 50 elevators were shut down for a week because the only elevator technician was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As of now, elevator service in Pryluky has resumed after a new technician was hired.

Photo of Oleksandr Karan fishing on the weekend, provided by him.

His work gets more complicated after dusk. Elevator operators like Oleksandr are not allowed to move around the city during the curfew, just like any other ordinary citizen, because they are not considered critical infrastructure workers. So, if someone gets stuck in the elevator right before curfew starts, they could remain there all night or until the power is back.

“People don’t care [about power outrages]. They go out to walk their dogs and call us. One boy was lucky because he was 14. In that case, the emergency rescue service [which has a curfew pass] came to pick me up and escorted me so we could free the boy,” he said.

Blackouts have become a sheer nightmare for more than just elevator specialists. Some people rely heavily on lifts whether that is someone with a health condition or a pregnant woman.

20 years ago my mother experienced these difficulties herself. In the building where she lived, the elevator was out of service for 6 months due to major repairs just when her child had learned to walk.

“Every day we woke up early, had breakfast, and went down ten floors on foot. And my little child, who was one year and four to five months old, slowly toddled down by herself. She learned to count quickly. We counted every step,” my mother said.

Many mothers in the building carried their children in their arms, but my mother couldn’t do that because she was already pregnant with her second child. She told me:

“Sweetheart, you’re already very grown-up and independent, and I have another little baby living inside me, and carrying two is very hard. Grown-up children walk by themselves.”

Senior people often need to deal with health problems and joint issues, and also rely on the elevators.

“Sometimes, there’s a 70-year-old woman, and she can’t climb out through the gap [when the elevator stops between floors] that we open,” Oleksandr explained.

In such cases, he has to go up to the machine room on the top floor, slightly lift the elevator car, go back down, open the elevator, and help the person out. Many younger people can jump out of elevator when the cabin door is just half open.

Oleksandr often gets irritated because some people get stuck in elevators for fun, creating unnecessary work.

“They film TikToks: ‘Let’s see if I go up or not, if I make it or not,’” Oleksandr said.

The job of an elevator operator is unpopular due to low pay and irregular hours. Few people want to study to become mechanics, so most specialists are middle-aged or close to retirement. It’s a challenging job, where people show little gratitude, and elevator mechanics are not exempt from being recruited to serve.

Oleksandr himself is exhausted from the constant stress throughout the workday. Relatives or friends of the person stuck may be rude, yell, and even threaten him.

In the fall of 2022, when the first power outages began and people started getting stuck in elevators, there were still no clear blackout schedules. It happens this year too, especially during or after strikes, when energy infrastructure is damaged and power plants are operating at less than full capacity to prevent more damage or when the temperature changes abruptly and the needs of an already weakened power system are growing.

In such cases, emergency blackouts are introduced, and Oleksandr’s work depends on the time and day of the week. If it’s rush hour, when people are going to work or, on the contrary, coming back home, his phone is going crazy with calls.

On the busiest days, Oleksandr can rescue up to 20-25 people. Sometimes, there are so many calls about people stuck in elevators that mechanics are forced to cut short their weekends and go to work.

Usually, they do not wait until the end of the air alarm. They do their job despite danger.

“My wife can stand in the doorway and say, ‘I won’t let you go out there,’” Oleksandr said. It doesn’t stop him.

In some high-rise buildings, residents come up with solutions to avoid dependence on outages. They install generators, inverters, or solar panels so that the elevator can operate even during blackouts.

For example, the university elevator, where 19-year-old Victoria studies, is powered by a generator during the power cuts. Due to cerebral palsy, she has been using a wheelchair since childhood.

“I am annoyed by people who use elevators powered by generators when they can easily walk,” she said.

Because of them, the elevators stop working at some point during long cut-offs, and then Victoria has to ask for help from her friends or professors just to get to her classes.

A tweet from fall 2022 shows a chair in an elevator, with snacks and bottled water left inside.

In other buildings, residents started leaving chairs, water, and snacks inside elevators.

That way, everybody can stay safe and satiated while they wait for Oleksandr.

Featured Subscriber’s Comment:

“It is absolutely vital to know what the Ukrainian people are experiencing day in and day out. Tim is a treasure.”

By: Aaron Hallquist

If you find our work valuable, follow and consider supporting us. Independent reporting on Ukraine depends on readers like you.

NEWS OF THE DAY:

By Tim Mak

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‘ZOOM’ DIPLOMACY: ZELENSKYY, 30 COUNTRIES TALK PEACE PROCESS: The Ukrainian president will hold new talks as the Trump administration pressed him to accept onerous terms that would see Ukraine ceding land. Meanwhile Russia claimed to shoot down hundreds of drones across the country, as Ukraine launched a wave of strikes overnight that halted flights at Moscow’s airports.

See the bias distribution, ownership and sources behind the news at Ground.News.’

POKROVSK FALL IMMINENT: The eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk looks like it will fall soon to Russian occupation, a development that puts Ukraine under pressure as it negotiates an end to the war. The city had 60K residents before the invasion. Russia controls approximately 19.2 percent of Ukraine, just over 1 percentage point more now than in December 2022, Reuters reports.

TRUMP’S PLAN TO REINTEGRATE RUSSIA TO WORLD: European officials are reacting with alarm to secret appendices to peace proposals now circulating, the Wall Street Journal reports. The proposals include a plan to use frozen Russian assets to create a massive new data center powered by the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant now occupied by Russian troops. It would also see America playing a role in the resumption of Russian energy sales to Western Europe. European officials largely do not want to resume energy transactions with a country it sees as a security threat.

DOG OF WAR:

Nastia saw this stylish pup in a cafe while working. He was so friendly and approached every customer. He asked Nastia for pets several times.

Stay safe out there.

Best,
Tania