Vitali Klitschko, center, the mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine, during a visit to a retirement home in the city, Jan. 13, 2026. In January, residents of the capital spent half of every day without power on average. (Oksana Parafeniuk/The New York Times) By CONSTANT MÉHEUT Shortly after Russia attacked a critical substation supplying power to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Oleksiy Brecht rushed to the scene on an urgent mission. Brecht, then the head of operations at Ukrenergo, the national grid operator,…
