Ukrainian Small Businesses Fighting To Survive Winter Blackouts During War

(small.news) — Small business owners in Ukraine have been fighting to keep their businesses alive as Russian drones and missiles keep hitting the country’s energy infrastructure.

According to NBC News, this is causing many neighborhoods in Ukraine to go into darkness as winter gets colder. Igor Nazarenko, the owner of an escape room in Dnipro, is one of the small business owners who has to find new ways to keep everything running.

He told the news outlet that his escape room, which has horror-themed rooms, can be used whether the power is on or not. The 38-year-old claimed that these escape rooms are “booming in popularity” in his country.

Escape Room Visitors in Ukraine ‘Want More Pain’: Small Business Owner

In November, his escape room chain, XRoom, allegedly had its highest number of visitors, even at times when they didn’t have electricity. XRoom relies on interactive escape rooms, where actors will engage physically with customers, whether that means helping them or scaring them.

Nazarenko told NBC News that, with stress revolving around the war, visitors are wanting “more pain” and are more open to the thrill-seeking escape rooms that let them “switch from everyday worries and feel strong emotions in controlled conditions.”

“Conveniently, this can be done in the dark and doesn’t require centralized electricity,” he explained.

Small Business Owners, Residents Left Without Heat For Hours

Winters in Ukraine are typically very cold and snowy, according to the World Health Organization. This year, the Ministry of Energy and the Ukrainian government are enacting emergency power cuts, claiming that this is needed to help stabilize the grid.

However, this is leaving many small business owners and residents around the country without heat or electricity for anywhere between eight and 16 hours each day. Larger businesses have been able to invest in generators and other energy sources, but this is too expensive for most of the country’s small businesses.

Iryna Golotina, the co-owner of Under Wonder in Kyiv, told NBC News, “We wanted to buy a large generator, but they have now doubled or tripled in price.” The 48-year-old explained how she and her co-owner are getting creative to keep customers coming in: “Black Menus.”

These menus only include items that can be prepared and served with no electricity. Initially, the restaurant used candles for lighting until “we made lanterns from string lights and placed them in large vases, creating glowing decorative pieces that our guests loved.” One night, when the power came back on, guests even asked Golotina and her staff to turn the lights back off because they loved the “magical” atmosphere the lanterns created.

Ukraine Economy Resilient But ‘Being Deeply Tested’: Former Managing Director of FrontierView

Analysts believe that Russian officials want to lower morale in Ukraine, and tighten the pressure on the country’s economy, which is already weakened, according to NBC News. Mark McNamee, the former managing director of FrontierView in London, said that even though Ukraine’s economy is resilient, it is “being deeply tested.”

McNamee claimed that, while all economic sectors are being hit by these power outages, the manufacturing sectors have been “the hardest hit.” McNamee moved to Kyiv in 2023, and he said that manufacturers have had “more severe and frequent attacks.”

He also said that many retail stores and other businesses have closed during these blackouts, which has affected the mood of consumers. Fewer people are wanting to leave their homes and spend money, which is affecting the small businesses that are already struggling.

Evgen Primachok opened Khoryv Coffee in September 2022, and when the country started experiencing its first power outages from the war about a week or two later, customers would crowd his store because of his generator. But then, later that year, his customers had adapted at home, with no need to visit his shop.

“It was extremely difficult. For two months, people barely left their homes. Everyone just stayed inside,” he explained. That’s when he decided to rebrand as a community haven, not just a coffee shop. “Right now, you cannot just sell coffee and earn from it. We have to practically bend over backwards to make more people interested and come to us. We had chess-playing nights, music nights, old Ukrainian moving screenings, and more.”

Despite the success 25-year-old Primachok has seen, he is still just has worried as other small business owners in Ukraine. “It’s very unsettling to dream about something while knowing that tomorrow or the next day you could die in the war. Then, I might never get the chance to fulfill my dream as an entrepreneur.”