"Power engineers can quit, but they choose a different path," director Anton Shtuka

Who are power engineers and how did Kurakhivska TPP in Donetsk Oblast go through the war? Why did these people go to work under direct fire and continue to "resuscitate" the plant? And why we need this story today, we talked to Anton Shtuka, director and producer of the documentary film The Last Prometheus of Donbas, which was presented in Odesa. Read the shortened version on Intent and watch the interview about courage, the "beauty" of war and the sense of purpose on our video channel.

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Today we are going to talk about the film The Last Prometheus of Donbas, which tells the story of the Kurakhivska thermal power plant. Can we tell our viewers a basic history of the plant, what kind of enterprise it is? The TPP was commissioned in 1941, unfortunately, in November 2024 it was destroyed by the Russians.

For me, it was actually something unique when a city is formed around a single enterprise. This is the case of Kurakhove. Most of the townspeople had someone who worked at the station. Or every other person worked at the station. The station was really the center of the town, around which the whole world revolved. It's honestly hard to explain: a huge enterprise to which everyone is emotionally and physically attached.

We understand that a lot of people worked there before the full-scale invasion began, and it functioned every day. Please describe the conditions when you arrived for the shoot.

This is a critical infrastructure facility, it was classified information. I was told about the station by one of DTEK's representatives, who was working in strategic communications at the time. He told me and I immediately realized that we had to go there, we had to film it, because it was a really unique story, because it was very close to the front line, a large industrial facility, people still work there and try to work despite all the daily shelling and threats. And we literally got together in a couple of days, unfortunately, we didn't even have time to research this story, the situation, because the station can last for a couple of weeks. We had information that it was very dangerous there, there was shelling, Donetsk region, very close to the front, the facility was a closed energy facility.

We arrived there and saw a very destroyed city and an almost destroyed plant. We were warmly welcomed, tea and cookies were prepared. We were their guests. About an hour after we drank tea and talked a little about the situation, they asked us: "Guys, when will you have enough? When are you going to go home?". We smiled, of course, and said that we would stay for a while longer. After all, we had traveled a long way to come here. Right when we were recording the conversation, the station was shelled. And we all ran to the shelter, to the bomb shelter, together with the employees. And at that moment, there were air raids on the station. Of course, the territory of the station is large, but it was still really dangerous, because usually the station is the target. And after they saw our reaction to such challenges, to the fact that we didn't just run to hide, but we were still in control at that moment, filming in such a stressful situation. And after that, their hearts opened a little bit for us.

Anton Shtuka. PHOTO: Natalia Dovbysh

There were quite a few people there, compared to how many people usually work at the station. People were afraid to even leave the premises, to move around the station. It was really dangerous, because when something arrives, it's better to be indoors somewhere. So the atmosphere was quite tense, and everyone was moving around in bulletproof vests and helmets. To be honest, it was strange to see power engineers in bulletproof vests and military gear. It was really frequent, people's cars were burning, there were injured and dead.

You need to understand that these are power engineers, they are civilians, this is their job. That is, they can either resign or not come to work at certain moments. The company cannot force people to go to work. So those who stayed, it was their conscious choice to stay under threat. Even though they had no water or heat in their homes in the city. They chose this path.

I wanted you to tell us a little bit about the power engineers themselves, maybe some conversations that took place outside of work: what kind of people are they?

We had 55 filming days for this project, and we discovered people from Kurakhove, from the station, in a very interesting way. Of course, these are primarily people who are very focused on their work, so all those challenges were interesting to them. And they really took on all these challenges with such enthusiasm, with such a flame in their eyes. And there were really very unusual situations. I think power engineers and those who are connected with this will understand that there was shelling. Because of this, the station stopped. The water circulation stopped. The water was freezing in these pipes. There are a lot of pipes, millions of them, and when the water freezes, they burst. Again, it's like what we have with heating now. But this is on an industrial scale. We had to repair everything, sew it up, find out where exactly, and then drain the water, or vice versa. Launching the plant after it was stopped due to shelling is like resuscitating an almost dead person. It's like resuscitating a huge enterprise in every sense. And they were really inspired by this. And then, when the evacuation of the equipment took place, it was a unique event in the history of Ukraine and, in general, in the world. Because when large units of 200 tons are transported, it is very unique. Even those who transported this company had never done anything like this before.

They had a lot of life and human moments again. Many of the characters told me about their hobby of fishing. They love to fish, they have a lake, the Vovcha River, and this reservoir near the station. There were even fishing championships between the station employees. They fondly recalled these moments, because, unfortunately, again, during the active hostilities, when they came to the station, it was impossible to do this, because people were killed while fishing, their friends It often hit the reservoir and the shore. And so, unfortunately, it was very dangerous. And of course, football. "Shakhtar Donetsk is an iconic football club. Kurakhove is very close to Donetsk, literally 30 kilometers away. Many people used to live in Kurakhove and commute to Donetsk or vice versa.

Soon it will be the 1500th day of the full-scale war. Do we live or do we exist?

We definitely live, but we live and work hard. I would like to think that everyone would feel and do the same. That is, we live precisely because we work. And maybe if you look at it in a broader format, you know, life is also some things like that, not only related to a specific kind of work. It also includes some everyday things: culture, cinema, some such things just for inspiration. We basically exist because we live, so to speak. Because we have this life, this culture, these things that surround us, that make us happy, in fact, in the midst of these anxieties, blackouts, blows, unfortunately, losses. That's why it's important to continue living, to be inspired, and to fulfill our mission.

Марія Литянська