Endless cycle of destruction and repair for Ukraine's energy workers

It has become a daily struggle for Ukrainian technicians: mending pipes damaged by Russian airstrikes in a desperate bid to keep the energy grid working in freezing temperatures, even as attacks continue.
"We repair. And if they destroy, we will repair it again. That's the job," Oleksandr, who declined to give his full time, told AFP while completing a welding task for a municipal company in the eastern industrial city of Kramatorsk.
His firm is responsible for heating and electricity in half the buildings in the city, which had a pre-war population of more than 150,000.
To keep up with the escalating workload, it now employs 40 technicians - double the number it needed before Russia invaded in February.
A few metres from where Oleksandr worked, a yellow excavator dug a trench for pipes.
The company used to have only one such machine and has been forced to rent a second from a private company.
Even with the extra resources, it can seem impossible to keep up with urgent tasks.
In a nearby trench marked off by tape, two large pipes needed for heating dozens of buildings were waiting to be covered.
They were hastily repaired after sustaining damage in late September, but the company hasn't yet found time to finish the job.
"In normal times, this would have been done a long time ago. But we are short of time and equipment," the company's deputy director, Rinat Milushov, told AFP.