On a recent weekday at the Lila Cake café in central Kyiv, five employees milled about in the gloom waiting for a lunchtime rush they said was unlikely to materialise.
The power was out and the staff had to manually open the sliding glass doors to anyone wanting to enter. For three days in a row, the café had operated without electricity for 10 hours at a time.
Manager Iryna Mykhailuk said a wave of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure that have necessitated rolling blackouts were the latest blow to the business, which reopened recently after shutting down following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. About 20 of its 50 staff have been laid off and Mykhailuk is not sure how long the business can stay afloat.