Letters from Yuri
This article shares personal correspondence from a Ukrainian physicist describing the harsh reality of living through power outages and infrastructure destruction during the war. It contrasts these harrowing conditions with the academic collaboration between the physicist and his colleague.
Why it matters
It provides a human-centric perspective on the civilian impact of infrastructure warfare, grounding abstract geopolitical conflicts in individual suffering.
“These days we have severe blackouts, sometimes with only 3+3 hours of electricity during daytime with long breaks [in] between. When there is no electricity, there is also no heat or water at home. I am lucky to have only heating and hot water absent during blackouts, but my sister is suffering full scale. The cities have become accustomed to these blackouts. Such is the life we are leading these days,” wrote Yuri Shtanov, a 63-year-old Ukrainian physicist, in November last year. He was writing to his colleague and dear friend, Varun Sahni. “This night was a heavy attack on our district again. Another neighbouring house, some 50 metres away, was hit again on the 16th floor, with a number of flats destroyed and people reportedly killed. Power plants were hit again, so there is no water, no heating, and no electricity in the houses.
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