{"id":515039,"date":"2026-02-04T22:01:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=515039"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:15:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T09:15:45","slug":"yershalaim-has-vanished-minsk-residents-react-to-new-street-lighting-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/yershalaim-has-vanished-minsk-residents-react-to-new-street-lighting-regime","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYershalaim Has Vanished\u201d: Minsk Residents React to New Street Lighting Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Users online are sharing photos, videos, and comments in response to a new street lighting regime. The changes followed criticism voiced the previous day by Alyaksandr Lukashenka<\/b>, who expressed dissatisfaction with how street lighting is switched on and off. According to him, streetlights are operating when it is already light outside. Lukashenka said this could even lead to war.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother thing that infuriates and astonishes me. Yesterday at six in the evening the entire Minsk Region is lit up. Lights are on. And this is typical everywhere. You have only yourselves to blame. You will pay at least out of your own pockets. All the streetlights are on, everything is shining. Minsk Region and further on \u2014 everything is lit. At six in the evening. Why? Already by half past seven in the morning the streetlights can be switched off, especially now when there is a lot of snow and it is light outside. No \u2014 all the lights are on,\u201d<\/i> he said.<\/p>\n

According to him, he instructed officials to deal with the issue. He was told that photo sensors were not working properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday I instruct the service: sort it out. They started sorting it out. The photo sensor under Turchyn, and now under the new governor, the photo sensor does not work. Complete nonsense. Complete nonsense. Adjust these photo sensors so that electricity is automatically switched off with your artificial intelligence at seven in the morning. And so that the lights turn on not at six in the evening, but at eight. Do the math \u2014 the whole country is lit and shining for four to five hours. How much money are we spending! These are your approaches,\u201d<\/i> he said.<\/p>\n

Today, Belarusians were able to see the idea in practice. Below is a selection of comments from Minsk residents sharing their impressions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWent out today with my son after parkour training and were shocked \u2014 it\u2019s dark, like my grandmother\u2019s vegetable garden in Ukraine in summer. The stars are visible as if in the palm of your hand. Incredible, what beauty! In Minsk it\u2019s pitch dark on the streets until 7 p.m., you can\u2019t see a thing. We were going down a slippery staircase almost by touch. Turns out there\u2019s a presidential order on saving electricity! Well then\u2026 Now everyone will have to carry flashlights. Has everyone managed to appreciate this?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cStanding ovation for this brilliant decision to turn on street lighting after 7 p.m. Everyone is driving home in absolute darkness, cut through by blinding headlights. A pedestrian can only be seen as a silhouette against the snow. Lighting standards have gone out the window. But for some reason fa\u00e7ade lighting is switched on as usual. Urgently need to sort this out!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201c6:49 p.m. \u2014 pitch darkness on the streets of Minsk. The decree in action. I went to the window and was surprised. The city is invisible, cars are moving in the dark. I\u2019ve got some awful virus, I\u2019ve been sick for three days already, I only look at the city from the window. Now I\u2019m thinking how people are supposed to cross the road during these unlit periods, how cars are supposed to get through major intersections? This is rush hour, people are coming home (looks like it will be the same in the morning on the way to work). Couldn\u2019t they at least leave the intersections lit?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cMinsk, did you notice that at 6:54 there\u2019s no light in the city?) Kind of dark and sad.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cMinsk! Who noticed that the lighting is off until 7 p.m.???? In my opinion, this is some kind of madness! On the ring road everyone is braking and scared to change lanes!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is the light in the city? This is \u0443\u0436\u0430\u0441, you can\u2019t see anything, there will be so many accidents\u2026 Darkness, how are children and the elderly supposed to walk?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI was driving past Gorky Park \u2014 everything was switched off there too. Probably in other parks as well. Intimacy and romance, and at the same time the birth rate will increase.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cMinsk. Is everyone comfortable driving on an unlit ring road?? Not in the biblical sense).\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd who cares about pedestrians? The main thing is saving money! In a country where a nuclear power plant has been built and there is an excess of electricity.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cMinsk, 7:00 p.m. \u2014 the streetlights turned on. I have no decent words to comment on this.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThe darkness that came from the Mediterranean Sea covered the city hated by the procurator. The hanging bridges connecting the temple with the dreadful Antonia Fortress disappeared, the abyss descended from the sky and flooded the winged gods above the hippodrome, the Hasmonean palace with its battlements, bazaars, caravanserais, alleys, ponds\u2026 Yershalaim<\/em>, the great city, vanished as if it never existed.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n