Walk around Kyiv’s city center during a blackout evening in the holiday season, and sooner or later, you’ll come across Tsum — a multistory high-end department store, complete with its doorman in a caped overcoat and top hat. In scheduled blackouts that now last from four to eight hours each day, one-quarter of Kyiv’s population and millions more across Ukraine are left in darkness and many also without heating. Yet, Tsum’s facade shines with thousands of golden lights, above lavish Christmas displays of luxury fashion brands.
We might be tempted to interpret the spectacle as a display of brazen corruption or stark inequality. This seems especially true if we know that those lights are not powered by the mall’s own private generator — which operates only during emergency blackouts — and that Tsum is owned by Rinat Akhmetov, one of Ukraine’s wealthiest oligarchs, who also controls DTEK, the country’s largest private energy provider. But keep walking, and you’ll discover that many other shops are also brightly lit. Tsum is one of many exceptions to the supposedly egalitarian rules of energy rationing.
Many in Ukraine — ranging from economists to politicians and ordinary citizens — believe there is more behind those shiny Christmas decorations than mere state capture by wealthy interests. They argue that there are rational economic reasons to keep the lights on, even when millions are plunged into darkness. By staying open and attractive, with festive lights and luxurious Christmas displays, the high-end stores on Kyiv’s main street generate precious revenue and pay taxes — funds that directly support the country’s defense.
After living for more than one year in Ukraine — and having visited many regions and…
Auteur: Davide Maria De Luca
