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 were disconnected from the grid. One shut down entirely.
“It wasn’t that we were scared,” said Shaun Burnie, a Greenpeace veteran nuclear specialist recalling that night. “It was that we were terrified.” Burnie, who has worked in some of the most radioactive places on Earth, feared the consequences if reactors lost access to power for cooling systems.
Nuclear plants depend on a constant external supply to run cooling for reactor cores and spent fuel. If the grid buckles and plants disconnect, they switch to diesel generators; if those fail or can’t reconnect, cooling systems can fail and reactors can overheat. Ukraine knows that risk intimately: the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl explosion forced mass evacuations and left a lasting collective memory. “Chernobyl is part of our collective memory. Everyone has family or community stories about it,” said Lena Kondratiuk, 25, from Rivne. “And now, during the war, this meaning has become even more real.”
More than half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity has been damaged or destroyed in the conflict. The International Atomic Energy Agency called the situation “the world’s biggest threat to nuclear safety.” Because large, centralized plants — nuclear, coal or gas — generate huge amounts of power in one place, they are tempting and vulnerable targets. That vulnerability has made decentralization and renewable energy more attractive: renewables are harder to target, cheaper to repair and faster to deploy.
Chris Aylett, an energy specialist at Chatham House, points out the scale advantage of decentralization: while a single missile can take out a 250-megawatt coal plant, it would take dozens to destroy the equivalent capacity in wind. Solar parks are similarly more resilient. “If there is damage to that, it doesn’t necessarily need to take everything out — you could swap new panels in,” he said.
These practical benefits have driven Ukrainian energy companies, NGOs and communities to expand renewables. Rooftop solar now supplies hospitals, schools and public buildings. In 2025, Ukraine installed enough solar capacity to power over a million homes, all while under fire.
Kondratiuk joined the NGO Ecoclub at 18 and became a renewables analyst in 2020. After Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ecoclub shifted from advocacy to direct action, launching the Solar Aid for Ukraine campaign as power outages became routine. By 21 she was managing projects — a responsibility she took on partly because of the war. “I can die tomorrow,” she said, but that urgency also fuels action.
Her work takes her across the country, including to Mykolaiv, about 60 kilometers from the front line. On her first trip the city was being shelled and running on diesel generators. Now she makes the long trip about once a month despite ongoing risks, drawn by the resilience and spirit of the people there. “They teach that even during wartime, it’s still possible to find happy moments in your life and continue it,” she said.
Kondratiuk has helped bring nearly 90 solar systems online. In places like Mykolaiv these systems are lifelines rather than climate projects. Hybrid solar-and-battery setups keep water utilities running during blackouts, enable hospitals to function, and let children charge phones to contact family during outages. One project installed panels at a care home for women with mental health and neurological conditions; before, staff had to wake at 4 a.m. to prepare meals ahead of power cuts, and patients often went without warm food. After the installation, access improved and residents were happier.
Ukraine’s experience offers clear lessons. Keeping power flowing is the immediate priority; nuclear has been essential in meeting baseload needs, and without it the situation would be worse given how much fossil-fuel generation has been lost. But decentralizing infrastructure, diversifying the energy mix toward renewables plus storage, and stockpiling and standardizing critical components can make restoration faster and systems more resilient under attack.
Aylett says Europe’s recent crises — from the Ukraine war to tensions in the Strait of Hormuz — strengthen the case for rapid decarbonization and a faster rollout of renewables, especially in parts of Europe reliant on imported fossil fuels. He is pragmatic about nuclear, noting that in countries where it already provides a large share of electricity, like France, it will likely remain part of the mix while low-carbon capacity is expanded and security improved.
Kondratiuk, who was born long after Chernobyl, lives through a different catastrophe now but looks ahead. She wants to keep helping her country and believes that after the war there will be even more work to rebuild — and to rebuild greener and better. She plans to continue with Ecoclub to help shape that future.
Edited by: Tamsin Walker
This story was adapted from an episode of DW’s Living Planet podcast. Listen to the episode here.