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Heavy rains compound dire conditions of displaced Gazans, UN warns

Heavy rains compound dire conditions of displaced Gazans, UN warns

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Heavy rains over the past week have compounded the already dire living conditions of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, UN agencies say.

Unicef spokesman Jonathan Crickx told the BBC that the weather overnight had been “horrendous”, with the rain so intense that he had seen up to 15cm (6in) of water on the ground near his office.

He said he was extremely concerned that children living in tents and makeshift shelters in wet clothing would succumb to hypothermia and other illnesses.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said one baby has died from hypothermia and at least 11 other people have died in building collapses caused by the severe weather.

UN agencies have stepped up deliveries of tents, blankets and clothes since the Gaza ceasefire began nine weeks ago, but they have said there is still not enough aid getting in.

The UN and its partners estimate that almost 55,000 families have so far been affected by the rains, with their belongings and shelters damaged or destroyed.

More than 40 designated emergency shelters were severely flooded following downpours on Monday and Tuesday, forcing many people to relocate again.

“Last night was really horrendous for the families. The heavy rains were so intense that we could see from our office and guest house 10cm, 15cm (4-6in) of water at some point. And the winds were so strong,” Jonathan Crickx, chief of communications for Unicef State of Palestine, told the BBC’s Today programme on Wednesday.

“When I drove this morning, I could see that many, many people were trying with buckets to remove some of the water.”

He noted that most of the estimated one million people living in tents and makeshift shelters had been displaced many times during the two years of war between Israel and Hamas, and that they had no or very few changes of clothes.

“When I was seeing [children] this morning, their clothes were damp. I could see parents trying to dry some of the blankets they had. But it has been raining almost all of the time in the past four or five days, so it is extremely difficult to keep the children dry,” he said.

“With temperatures about 7C, 8C (45-46F) at night, we are extremely concerned about children getting sick or even worse, dying from hypothermia.”

Many tents were also at risk of being blown away or destroyed by the strong winds accompanying the rain because they were only made from a piece of tarpaulin or plastic sheeting nailed to a fragile wooden structure, he added.

Mr Crickx said Unicef had been able to bring in more aid during the ceasefire to help children cope with the harsh winter conditions, including 250,000 winter clothing kits, 600,000 blankets and 7,000 tents, but that it was not enough.

“We are working relentlessly to bring in that aid and to distribute it, but the scale of the needs is so immense that we still have thousands of people and children who are really suffering every night,” he warned.

Gaza’s health ministry said a two-week old boy named Mohammed Abu al-Khair had died of hypothermia on Monday, two days after he had been admitted to hospital and placed in intensive care. Another 11 people had so far died after the war-damaged buildings where they were sheltering collapsed, it added.

A spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, Mahmoud Bassal, put the death toll higher. He said in a video that a total of 17 people, including four children, had died because of building collapses and the cold.

He added that 17 residential buildings had collapsed completely because of the wind and rain and that another 90 buildings had collapsed partially.

On Tuesday, video footage showed first responders from the Civil Defence recovering the body of a man from the rubble of a building in Shati refugee camp, north-west of Gaza City. Its roof had collapsed suddenly, according to eyewitnesses.

“We call on the world to solve our problems and rebuild the territory so that people can have homes instead of being displaced and living in the streets,” said Ahmed al-Hosari, a relative of the man, told AFP news agency.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the collapse of damaged buildings due to the severe weather conditions was “deeply concerning”.

It stressed the need for “increased and sustained humanitarian assistance to respond to urgent and long-term needs, including food, shelter and equipment for the repair of critical infrastructure”.

Cogat, the Israeli military body which controls Gaza’s border crossings, has dismissed claims of deliberate aid restrictions as “inconsistent with facts on the ground, and the ongoing co-ordination taking place daily”.

It says that between 600 and 800 lorries carrying humanitarian supplies enter Gaza daily, and that almost 310,000 tents and tarpaulins have been delivered since the start of the ceasefire, along with more than 1,800 lorry loads of warm blankets and clothing.

The UN says a total of 67,800 tents, 372,500 tarpaulins and 318,100 bedding items have been collected from crossings over the same period.

The second phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas includes plans for the reconstruction of Gaza, along with post-war governance, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, and the disarmament of Hamas.

Last week, Israel’s prime minister said the second phase was close, with only the body of one dead Israeli hostage in Gaza still to be returned by Hamas as part of the first phase.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 70,600 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

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US President Donald Trump told the BBC on Thursday that British King Charles’ coming state visit to the United States could “absolutely” help rebuild strained ties between the two countries.

Charles heads to the US on Monday for a four-day trip, with transatlantic tensions over the Iran war and scandals linked to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein threatening to intrude on the landmark visit.

Asked by the BBC whether Charles’s visit could help repair the relationship between the US and UK, Trump told the BBC: “Absolutely. He’s fantastic. He’s a fantastic man. Absolutely the answer is yes.”

Charles will be making his first state visit to the US as a monarch, at the request of the UK government and Trump.

He will travel to the US with Queen Camilla and then visit Bermuda alone.

Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla stand with US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the state banquet at Windsor Castle in September 2025. Photo: Reuters
Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla stand with US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the state banquet at Windsor Castle in September 2025. Photo: Reuters

Trump has harshly criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not joining the US-Israeli war on Iran, launched on February 28.

#Trump #King #Charles #visit #absolutely #repair #USUK #tiesIran, North Sea, UK, Donald Trump, Peter Mandelson, British King Charles, BBC, Keir Starmer, United States, US, Queen Camilla, Epstein, Labour, Jeffrey Epstein, Bermuda">Trump says King Charles’ visit could ‘absolutely’ repair US-UK tiesUS President Donald Trump told the BBC on Thursday that British King Charles’ coming state visit to the United States could “absolutely” help rebuild strained ties between the two countries.Charles heads to the US on Monday for a four-day trip, with transatlantic tensions over the Iran war and scandals linked to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein threatening to intrude on the landmark visit.Asked by the BBC whether Charles’s visit could help repair the relationship between the US and UK, Trump told the BBC: “Absolutely. He’s fantastic. He’s a fantastic man. Absolutely the answer is yes.”Charles will be making his first state visit to the US as a monarch, at the request of the UK government and Trump.He will travel to the US with Queen Camilla and then visit Bermuda alone.Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla stand with US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the state banquet at Windsor Castle in September 2025. Photo: ReutersTrump has harshly criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not joining the US-Israeli war on Iran, launched on February 28.#Trump #King #Charles #visit #absolutely #repair #USUK #tiesIran, North Sea, UK, Donald Trump, Peter Mandelson, British King Charles, BBC, Keir Starmer, United States, US, Queen Camilla, Epstein, Labour, Jeffrey Epstein, Bermuda

In autumn 2024, Russia launched massive aerial assaults on Ukraine, pounding its energy system and raising fears about the safety of its nuclear power plants. Several reactors disconnected from the grid. One shut down entirely.

“It wasn’t that we were scared,” says Shaun Burnie, recalling that night. “It was that we were terrified.”

For Greenpeace veteran nuclear specialist Burnie, who has worked in some of the most radioactive places on earth, the danger lay in what could have followed.

A man wearing glasses, an orange hard hat, face mask and protective gear standing inside the Chernobyl new safe confinement. He is being interviewed.
Shaun Burnie has been inside the structure protecing the Chernobyl reactor three times and says he’s not keen to have to make too many return visitsImage: Pavlo Siromenko/Greenpeace

Nuclear plants rely on a constant external power supply to run cooling systems for the reactor core and spent fuel. If the grid buckles and plants disconnect, they switch to diesel generators.

In a worst-case scenario, if they can’t reconnect, cooling systems fail and reactors overheat. Ukraine knows what that means. On April 26 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands from the area and contaminating large parts of Europe.

“Chernobyl is part of our collective memory. Everyone has family or community stories about it,” says Lena Kondratiuk, a 25-year-old from Rivne in western Ukraine. “And now, during the war, this meaning has become even more real.”

The lasting legacy of Chernobyl

A system under pressure

Though Ukraine still depends on nuclear energy for more than half of its electricity and plans to build more reactors, the worst-case scenario hasn’t happened. But the threat remains as Russia continues to target energy infrastructure.

More than half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity has been damaged or destroyed. UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has called the situation “the world’s biggest threat to nuclear safety.” 

Because large, centralized plants — nuclear, coal, or gas — that generate huge amounts of electricity in one place are such easy targets, decentralization is an attractive idea.

And that also means more renewable energy, which is harder to target, cheaper to fix, and faster to deploy.

Chris Alyett, an energy specialist at UK think tank Chatham House said that while a single missile can take out a 250-megawatt coal plant, it would require 40 to destroy the same capacity in wind generation. Solar parks are also more resistant.

“If there is damage to that, it doesn’t necessarily need to take everything out — you could swap new panels in,” Aylett said.

A man in an orange hard hat repairing a damaged electricity substation
Engineers repairing the grid have helped avert disaster, but some have been killed in Russian “double tap” strikes in the course of their workImage: Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/REUTERS

These benefits are driving Ukrainian energy companies and NGOs to push renewables. Rooftop solar now covers hospitals, schools, and public buildings. In 2025, the country installed enough to power over a million homes, all while under fire.

Keeping the lights on with renewables

Lena Kondratiuk is part of that effort. She joined the NGO Ecoclub as a volunteer at 18, before taking on a job as renewables analyst there in 2020. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, the organization shifted from advocacy worked and launched the Solar Aid for Ukraine campaign, as power outages became a part of daily life.

At 21, she began managing projects. At first, she was daunted by the responsibility but agreed to it “because of the war, because I understand that, for example, I can die tomorrow.”

A woman smiling and standing in front of solar panels
Lena Kondratiuk travels around the country bringing solar power to communities with NGO Ecoclub Image: Ecoclub

Like many Ukrainians she has learned to adapt. Her work now takes her all over the country, including south to Mykolaiv, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the front line. On her first trip to the city, it was being shelled and running on diesel generators.

“I didn’t want to come back to the city because I’m scared,” she says.

Now Kondraktiuk makes the 13-hour trip around once a month, even as Russia targets passenger trains. She loves it there because of the people. “They teach that even during such a war time it’s still possible to find happy moments in your life and continue it.”

Renewable energy as survival

Despite the risks, Kondratiuk has helped bring nearly 90 solar systems online. In places like Mykolaiv, these systems are more than green energy, they are lifelines.

“Renewable energy in Ukraine is not about the climate and sustainability; it’s about surviving now,” says Kondratiuk. “It’s about the access to basic needs.”

These solar and battery systems keep water utilities running during blackouts. They also enable hospitals to operate and children to charge their phones during outages so they can keep in touch with their parents.

Three men installing solar panels on a rooftop
Hybrid solar and battery systems have proven to be a lifeline for Ukrainians during blackoutsImage: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP

One project she worked on installed solar panels at a care home for women with mental health and neurological conditions. Before the installation, staff woke at 4am to try and prepare meals ahead of power cuts, but the patients often went without warm food.

“And after that they were happy because they have like access to everything,” she says.

Lessons learned from Ukraine

The priority for Ukrainians is to keep power flowing. Nuclear has been essential to that, and without it, experts say Ukraine would be in a far worse position given how much fossil fuel capacity has been destroyed during the war. The country still needs baseload power.

Chris Aylett has been looking at what other countries in Europe can learn from Ukraine’s experience of running an energy grid under constant attack.

“They’ve gone through this terrible experience, they’re continuing to go through it, they’ve shown amazing sort of ingenuity at rebuilding fast and it’s told us a lot about what’s vulnerable and what you need to consider,” he says.

The hidden cost of nuclear power

The main lesson is the geographical spread of infrastructure — and that applies regardless of energy source. Diversifying the mix, with more renewables and storage, is another. As is stockpiling the right components that keep a system running — and standardizing them, so restoration takes weeks rather than months.

Alyett says the war, and the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, have further made the case for rapid decarbonization and renewables in “fossil-fuel poor” Europe, alongside “tackling climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

On nuclear’s future, he is pragmatic, saying that in countries such as France, where it is a major energy source, he sees no reason for that to stop. “Ultimately you just want to build out as much low carbon as you can, and make it as secure as you can while you’re doing it.”

Kondratiuk says she’s glad she was born long after Chernobyl — even as she lives through a different kind of disaster in Ukraine, one she doesn’t expect to end soon. But she’s still looking to a time when the war is over.

“I still want to help my country, still want to continue my work at the Ecoclub and I still think that even after the war and after our victory there would be even more work compared to now because we have to rebuild the country and rebuild it in greener and better way,” she says.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker

This story was adapted from an episode of DW’s Living Planet podcast. 

#Ukraine #rebuilding #energy #system #fire">How Ukraine is rebuilding its energy system under fireIn autumn 2024, Russia launched massive aerial assaults on Ukraine, pounding its energy system and raising fears about the safety of its nuclear power plants. Several reactors disconnected from the grid. One shut down entirely. “It wasn’t that we were scared,” says Shaun Burnie, recalling that night. “It was that we were terrified.” For Greenpeace veteran nuclear specialist Burnie, who has worked in some of the most radioactive places on earth, the danger lay in what could have followed.Shaun Burnie has been inside the structure protecing the Chernobyl reactor three times and says he’s not keen to have to make too many return visitsImage: Pavlo Siromenko/Greenpeace Nuclear plants rely on a constant external power supply to run cooling systems for the reactor core and spent fuel. If the grid buckles and plants disconnect, they switch to diesel generators. In a worst-case scenario, if they can’t reconnect, cooling systems fail and reactors overheat. Ukraine knows what that means. On April 26 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands from the area and contaminating large parts of Europe. “Chernobyl is part of our collective memory. Everyone has family or community stories about it,” says Lena Kondratiuk, a 25-year-old from Rivne in western Ukraine. “And now, during the war, this meaning has become even more real.”The lasting legacy of ChernobylTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A system under pressure Though Ukraine still depends on nuclear energy for more than half of its electricity and plans to build more reactors, the worst-case scenario hasn’t happened. But the threat remains as Russia continues to target energy infrastructure. More than half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity has been damaged or destroyed. UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has called the situation “the world’s biggest threat to nuclear safety.”  Because large, centralized plants — nuclear, coal, or gas — that generate huge amounts of electricity in one place are such easy targets, decentralization is an attractive idea. And that also means more renewable energy, which is harder to target, cheaper to fix, and faster to deploy. Chris Alyett, an energy specialist at UK think tank Chatham House said that while a single missile can take out a 250-megawatt coal plant, it would require 40 to destroy the same capacity in wind generation. Solar parks are also more resistant. “If there is damage to that, it doesn’t necessarily need to take everything out — you could swap new panels in,” Aylett said. Engineers repairing the grid have helped avert disaster, but some have been killed in Russian “double tap” strikes in the course of their workImage: Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/REUTERSThese benefits are driving Ukrainian energy companies and NGOs to push renewables. Rooftop solar now covers hospitals, schools, and public buildings. In 2025, the country installed enough to power over a million homes, all while under fire. Keeping the lights on with renewables Lena Kondratiuk is part of that effort. She joined the NGO Ecoclub as a volunteer at 18, before taking on a job as renewables analyst there in 2020. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, the organization shifted from advocacy worked and launched the Solar Aid for Ukraine campaign, as power outages became a part of daily life. At 21, she began managing projects. At first, she was daunted by the responsibility but agreed to it “because of the war, because I understand that, for example, I can die tomorrow.”Lena Kondratiuk travels around the country bringing solar power to communities with NGO Ecoclub Image: Ecoclub Like many Ukrainians she has learned to adapt. Her work now takes her all over the country, including south to Mykolaiv, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the front line. On her first trip to the city, it was being shelled and running on diesel generators. “I didn’t want to come back to the city because I’m scared,” she says. Now Kondraktiuk makes the 13-hour trip around once a month, even as Russia targets passenger trains. She loves it there because of the people. “They teach that even during such a war time it’s still possible to find happy moments in your life and continue it.” Renewable energy as survival Despite the risks, Kondratiuk has helped bring nearly 90 solar systems online. In places like Mykolaiv, these systems are more than green energy, they are lifelines. “Renewable energy in Ukraine is not about the climate and sustainability; it’s about surviving now,” says Kondratiuk. “It’s about the access to basic needs.” These solar and battery systems keep water utilities running during blackouts. They also enable hospitals to operate and children to charge their phones during outages so they can keep in touch with their parents.Hybrid solar and battery systems have proven to be a lifeline for Ukrainians during blackoutsImage: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP One project she worked on installed solar panels at a care home for women with mental health and neurological conditions. Before the installation, staff woke at 4am to try and prepare meals ahead of power cuts, but the patients often went without warm food. “And after that they were happy because they have like access to everything,” she says. Lessons learned from Ukraine The priority for Ukrainians is to keep power flowing. Nuclear has been essential to that, and without it, experts say Ukraine would be in a far worse position given how much fossil fuel capacity has been destroyed during the war. The country still needs baseload power. Chris Aylett has been looking at what other countries in Europe can learn from Ukraine’s experience of running an energy grid under constant attack. “They’ve gone through this terrible experience, they’re continuing to go through it, they’ve shown amazing sort of ingenuity at rebuilding fast and it’s told us a lot about what’s vulnerable and what you need to consider,” he says.The hidden cost of nuclear powerTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The main lesson is the geographical spread of infrastructure — and that applies regardless of energy source. Diversifying the mix, with more renewables and storage, is another. As is stockpiling the right components that keep a system running — and standardizing them, so restoration takes weeks rather than months. Alyett says the war, and the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, have further made the case for rapid decarbonization and renewables in “fossil-fuel poor” Europe, alongside “tackling climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” On nuclear’s future, he is pragmatic, saying that in countries such as France, where it is a major energy source, he sees no reason for that to stop. “Ultimately you just want to build out as much low carbon as you can, and make it as secure as you can while you’re doing it.” Kondratiuk says she’s glad she was born long after Chernobyl — even as she lives through a different kind of disaster in Ukraine, one she doesn’t expect to end soon. But she’s still looking to a time when the war is over. “I still want to help my country, still want to continue my work at the Ecoclub and I still think that even after the war and after our victory there would be even more work compared to now because we have to rebuild the country and rebuild it in greener and better way,” she says. Edited by: Tamsin Walker This story was adapted from an episode of DW’s Living Planet podcast.  #Ukraine #rebuilding #energy #system #fire

safety of its nuclear power plants. Several reactors disconnected from the grid. One shut down entirely.

“It wasn’t that we were scared,” says Shaun Burnie, recalling that night. “It was that we were terrified.”

For Greenpeace veteran nuclear specialist Burnie, who has worked in some of the most radioactive places on earth, the danger lay in what could have followed.

A man wearing glasses, an orange hard hat, face mask and protective gear standing inside the Chernobyl new safe confinement. He is being interviewed.
Shaun Burnie has been inside the structure protecing the Chernobyl reactor three times and says he’s not keen to have to make too many return visitsImage: Pavlo Siromenko/Greenpeace

Nuclear plants rely on a constant external power supply to run cooling systems for the reactor core and spent fuel. If the grid buckles and plants disconnect, they switch to diesel generators.

In a worst-case scenario, if they can’t reconnect, cooling systems fail and reactors overheat. Ukraine knows what that means. On April 26 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands from the area and contaminating large parts of Europe.

“Chernobyl is part of our collective memory. Everyone has family or community stories about it,” says Lena Kondratiuk, a 25-year-old from Rivne in western Ukraine. “And now, during the war, this meaning has become even more real.”

The lasting legacy of Chernobyl

A system under pressure

Though Ukraine still depends on nuclear energy for more than half of its electricity and plans to build more reactors, the worst-case scenario hasn’t happened. But the threat remains as Russia continues to target energy infrastructure.

More than half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity has been damaged or destroyed. UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has called the situation “the world’s biggest threat to nuclear safety.” 

Because large, centralized plants — nuclear, coal, or gas — that generate huge amounts of electricity in one place are such easy targets, decentralization is an attractive idea.

And that also means more renewable energy, which is harder to target, cheaper to fix, and faster to deploy.

Chris Alyett, an energy specialist at UK think tank Chatham House said that while a single missile can take out a 250-megawatt coal plant, it would require 40 to destroy the same capacity in wind generation. Solar parks are also more resistant.

“If there is damage to that, it doesn’t necessarily need to take everything out — you could swap new panels in,” Aylett said.

A man in an orange hard hat repairing a damaged electricity substation
Engineers repairing the grid have helped avert disaster, but some have been killed in Russian “double tap” strikes in the course of their workImage: Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/REUTERS

These benefits are driving Ukrainian energy companies and NGOs to push renewables. Rooftop solar now covers hospitals, schools, and public buildings. In 2025, the country installed enough to power over a million homes, all while under fire.

Keeping the lights on with renewables

Lena Kondratiuk is part of that effort. She joined the NGO Ecoclub as a volunteer at 18, before taking on a job as renewables analyst there in 2020. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, the organization shifted from advocacy worked and launched the Solar Aid for Ukraine campaign, as power outages became a part of daily life.

At 21, she began managing projects. At first, she was daunted by the responsibility but agreed to it “because of the war, because I understand that, for example, I can die tomorrow.”

A woman smiling and standing in front of solar panels
Lena Kondratiuk travels around the country bringing solar power to communities with NGO Ecoclub Image: Ecoclub

Like many Ukrainians she has learned to adapt. Her work now takes her all over the country, including south to Mykolaiv, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the front line. On her first trip to the city, it was being shelled and running on diesel generators.

“I didn’t want to come back to the city because I’m scared,” she says.

Now Kondraktiuk makes the 13-hour trip around once a month, even as Russia targets passenger trains. She loves it there because of the people. “They teach that even during such a war time it’s still possible to find happy moments in your life and continue it.”

Renewable energy as survival

Despite the risks, Kondratiuk has helped bring nearly 90 solar systems online. In places like Mykolaiv, these systems are more than green energy, they are lifelines.

“Renewable energy in Ukraine is not about the climate and sustainability; it’s about surviving now,” says Kondratiuk. “It’s about the access to basic needs.”

These solar and battery systems keep water utilities running during blackouts. They also enable hospitals to operate and children to charge their phones during outages so they can keep in touch with their parents.

Three men installing solar panels on a rooftop
Hybrid solar and battery systems have proven to be a lifeline for Ukrainians during blackoutsImage: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP

One project she worked on installed solar panels at a care home for women with mental health and neurological conditions. Before the installation, staff woke at 4am to try and prepare meals ahead of power cuts, but the patients often went without warm food.

“And after that they were happy because they have like access to everything,” she says.

Lessons learned from Ukraine

The priority for Ukrainians is to keep power flowing. Nuclear has been essential to that, and without it, experts say Ukraine would be in a far worse position given how much fossil fuel capacity has been destroyed during the war. The country still needs baseload power.

Chris Aylett has been looking at what other countries in Europe can learn from Ukraine’s experience of running an energy grid under constant attack.

“They’ve gone through this terrible experience, they’re continuing to go through it, they’ve shown amazing sort of ingenuity at rebuilding fast and it’s told us a lot about what’s vulnerable and what you need to consider,” he says.

The hidden cost of nuclear power

The main lesson is the geographical spread of infrastructure — and that applies regardless of energy source. Diversifying the mix, with more renewables and storage, is another. As is stockpiling the right components that keep a system running — and standardizing them, so restoration takes weeks rather than months.

Alyett says the war, and the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, have further made the case for rapid decarbonization and renewables in “fossil-fuel poor” Europe, alongside “tackling climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

On nuclear’s future, he is pragmatic, saying that in countries such as France, where it is a major energy source, he sees no reason for that to stop. “Ultimately you just want to build out as much low carbon as you can, and make it as secure as you can while you’re doing it.”

Kondratiuk says she’s glad she was born long after Chernobyl — even as she lives through a different kind of disaster in Ukraine, one she doesn’t expect to end soon. But she’s still looking to a time when the war is over.

“I still want to help my country, still want to continue my work at the Ecoclub and I still think that even after the war and after our victory there would be even more work compared to now because we have to rebuild the country and rebuild it in greener and better way,” she says.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker

This story was adapted from an episode of DW’s Living Planet podcast. 

#Ukraine #rebuilding #energy #system #fire">How Ukraine is rebuilding its energy system under fire

In autumn 2024, Russia launched massive aerial assaults on Ukraine, pounding its energy system and raising fears about the safety of its nuclear power plants. Several reactors disconnected from the grid. One shut down entirely.

“It wasn’t that we were scared,” says Shaun Burnie, recalling that night. “It was that we were terrified.”

For Greenpeace veteran nuclear specialist Burnie, who has worked in some of the most radioactive places on earth, the danger lay in what could have followed.

A man wearing glasses, an orange hard hat, face mask and protective gear standing inside the Chernobyl new safe confinement. He is being interviewed.
Shaun Burnie has been inside the structure protecing the Chernobyl reactor three times and says he’s not keen to have to make too many return visitsImage: Pavlo Siromenko/Greenpeace

Nuclear plants rely on a constant external power supply to run cooling systems for the reactor core and spent fuel. If the grid buckles and plants disconnect, they switch to diesel generators.

In a worst-case scenario, if they can’t reconnect, cooling systems fail and reactors overheat. Ukraine knows what that means. On April 26 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands from the area and contaminating large parts of Europe.

“Chernobyl is part of our collective memory. Everyone has family or community stories about it,” says Lena Kondratiuk, a 25-year-old from Rivne in western Ukraine. “And now, during the war, this meaning has become even more real.”

The lasting legacy of Chernobyl

A system under pressure

Though Ukraine still depends on nuclear energy for more than half of its electricity and plans to build more reactors, the worst-case scenario hasn’t happened. But the threat remains as Russia continues to target energy infrastructure.

More than half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity has been damaged or destroyed. UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has called the situation “the world’s biggest threat to nuclear safety.” 

Because large, centralized plants — nuclear, coal, or gas — that generate huge amounts of electricity in one place are such easy targets, decentralization is an attractive idea.

And that also means more renewable energy, which is harder to target, cheaper to fix, and faster to deploy.

Chris Alyett, an energy specialist at UK think tank Chatham House said that while a single missile can take out a 250-megawatt coal plant, it would require 40 to destroy the same capacity in wind generation. Solar parks are also more resistant.

“If there is damage to that, it doesn’t necessarily need to take everything out — you could swap new panels in,” Aylett said.

A man in an orange hard hat repairing a damaged electricity substation
Engineers repairing the grid have helped avert disaster, but some have been killed in Russian “double tap” strikes in the course of their workImage: Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/REUTERS

These benefits are driving Ukrainian energy companies and NGOs to push renewables. Rooftop solar now covers hospitals, schools, and public buildings. In 2025, the country installed enough to power over a million homes, all while under fire.

Keeping the lights on with renewables

Lena Kondratiuk is part of that effort. She joined the NGO Ecoclub as a volunteer at 18, before taking on a job as renewables analyst there in 2020. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, the organization shifted from advocacy worked and launched the Solar Aid for Ukraine campaign, as power outages became a part of daily life.

At 21, she began managing projects. At first, she was daunted by the responsibility but agreed to it “because of the war, because I understand that, for example, I can die tomorrow.”

A woman smiling and standing in front of solar panels
Lena Kondratiuk travels around the country bringing solar power to communities with NGO Ecoclub Image: Ecoclub

Like many Ukrainians she has learned to adapt. Her work now takes her all over the country, including south to Mykolaiv, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the front line. On her first trip to the city, it was being shelled and running on diesel generators.

“I didn’t want to come back to the city because I’m scared,” she says.

Now Kondraktiuk makes the 13-hour trip around once a month, even as Russia targets passenger trains. She loves it there because of the people. “They teach that even during such a war time it’s still possible to find happy moments in your life and continue it.”

Renewable energy as survival

Despite the risks, Kondratiuk has helped bring nearly 90 solar systems online. In places like Mykolaiv, these systems are more than green energy, they are lifelines.

“Renewable energy in Ukraine is not about the climate and sustainability; it’s about surviving now,” says Kondratiuk. “It’s about the access to basic needs.”

These solar and battery systems keep water utilities running during blackouts. They also enable hospitals to operate and children to charge their phones during outages so they can keep in touch with their parents.

Three men installing solar panels on a rooftop
Hybrid solar and battery systems have proven to be a lifeline for Ukrainians during blackoutsImage: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP

One project she worked on installed solar panels at a care home for women with mental health and neurological conditions. Before the installation, staff woke at 4am to try and prepare meals ahead of power cuts, but the patients often went without warm food.

“And after that they were happy because they have like access to everything,” she says.

Lessons learned from Ukraine

The priority for Ukrainians is to keep power flowing. Nuclear has been essential to that, and without it, experts say Ukraine would be in a far worse position given how much fossil fuel capacity has been destroyed during the war. The country still needs baseload power.

Chris Aylett has been looking at what other countries in Europe can learn from Ukraine’s experience of running an energy grid under constant attack.

“They’ve gone through this terrible experience, they’re continuing to go through it, they’ve shown amazing sort of ingenuity at rebuilding fast and it’s told us a lot about what’s vulnerable and what you need to consider,” he says.

The hidden cost of nuclear power

The main lesson is the geographical spread of infrastructure — and that applies regardless of energy source. Diversifying the mix, with more renewables and storage, is another. As is stockpiling the right components that keep a system running — and standardizing them, so restoration takes weeks rather than months.

Alyett says the war, and the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, have further made the case for rapid decarbonization and renewables in “fossil-fuel poor” Europe, alongside “tackling climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

On nuclear’s future, he is pragmatic, saying that in countries such as France, where it is a major energy source, he sees no reason for that to stop. “Ultimately you just want to build out as much low carbon as you can, and make it as secure as you can while you’re doing it.”

Kondratiuk says she’s glad she was born long after Chernobyl — even as she lives through a different kind of disaster in Ukraine, one she doesn’t expect to end soon. But she’s still looking to a time when the war is over.

“I still want to help my country, still want to continue my work at the Ecoclub and I still think that even after the war and after our victory there would be even more work compared to now because we have to rebuild the country and rebuild it in greener and better way,” she says.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker

This story was adapted from an episode of DW’s Living Planet podcast. 

#Ukraine #rebuilding #energy #system #fire

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