A semi-basement office at −20°C: how AMI got through winter 2025–2026
The Office Impulse project is complete. Over two months, the team navigated equipment shortages, exceptional market demand and office temperatures as low as +7°C, emerging with fully autonomous infrastructure.
1. How it began
AMI’s Kharkiv office occupies a damp semi-basement. Winter 2025–2026 brought temperatures down to −23°C, power cuts of 15–19 hours a day under new Kharkivoblenergo schedules, and a major attack on 3 February 2026 that left around 900 buildings without heating or electricity.
The International Renaissance Foundation supported AMI’s equipment application through the “Resilience in Emergency Conditions” programme. The budget was UAH 379,320, with implementation from December 2025 to February 2026.
2. Results
Procurement finished on 13–15 February, in the project’s final days. Portable power stations, generators and SSDs disappeared from online shops within hours. For over a month, the team monitored dozens of products daily and finally bought everything when the required equipment became available together.
The public tender was unsuccessful. Of requests to Comfy, Rozetka, Elmir, Foxtrot, MOYO and other suppliers, only Elmir submitted an offer, which did not meet specifications or substantially exceeded market prices.
The organisation obtained a generator, two portable power stations, mains chargers, a dehumidifier, an infrared heater, a laptop, a multifunction printer, five power banks, five portable lights and external SSDs — equipping both the permanent office and a mobile workplace for community visits.
3. Challenges and achievements
Some equipment arrived during implementation. The heater raised the office temperature from +7°C to a workable level, but during −20°C weather it could not support full working days, so the team mainly worked from home. Power banks and power stations delivered later maintained continuity in both settings.
Communication with the donor was difficult when both teams simultaneously lacked electricity or Internet. Purchases required prior approval, while suppliers kept invoices valid for only three working days.
No budget line changed. All purchases met donor requirements.
4. Community impact
AMI’s uninterrupted work in frontline Kharkiv meant continued free legal assistance regardless of power availability. Internally displaced people, residents with limited mobility and older people in Kharkiv Region experienced no interruption even during the hardest winter weeks.
5. The project’s legacy
The equipment is integrated into daily work. Autonomous infrastructure reduces operating costs by an estimated 25–30%. The mobile office enables work directly in communities without returning to the main premises.
Daily market monitoring, negotiations during shortages and exceptional approval procedures were documented, giving the team practical crisis procurement experience for future projects.
Implemented with support from the International Renaissance Foundation under “Resilience in Emergency Conditions — 2025”.
