Context: On February 4, 2026, Belarusians had to walk home from work in the dark during rush hour. This happened because Aleksandr Lukashenko ordered a change to the street lighting schedule: the lights were turned on at about 8:00 p.m. instead of 6:00 p.m., and turned off between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m.
On February 6, Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the streetlights were turned on just 10-15 minutes later than usual. He claimed that the active spinning of this topic was an information and psychological special operation by “opposition fugitives” against Belarus. He went on to share his estimate of how the money saved on electricity will be used:
“Ten minutes! And no one has calculated that those 10–15 minutes, as [Chair of the Minsk City Executive Committee] Uladzimir Kukharau says, those 10–15 minutes, over the course of a year, amount to the construction cost of three commercial dairy complexes, seven prophylactic calf houses, as they are called nowadays. The most important thing, though, is this: I signed a decree to increase pensions from February 1. It is only a 10% increase, but it will help retirees in this situation. If you take these savings over a year, it practically equals that increase. You can put up with ten minutes!”
In interviews, representatives of the Minsk City Council have repeatedly stated that only 0.5% of all electricity consumed in Minsk is used for street lighting. Assuming the same level of street lighting spending as in other regions, the country would consume a quarter of a billion kWh, or nearly 4,000 hours of street lamp operation, annually. In terms of money, it amounts to 130 million Belarusian rubles (about $45.1 million).
Reducing the operation of illuminating devices by 15 minutes in the morning and evening would save 6 million rubles, or just over $2 million, a year. If the devices were turned off for 2.5 hours a day, as Lukashenko in fact demanded, the savings would be 30 million rubles, or almost $10.48 million.
The WTF team verified whether this sum would be sufficient to construct commercial dairy complexes or seven prophylactic calf houses, as Lukashenko claims. Journalists examined the state Agrobusiness programme for the previous five-year period. It states that large commercial dairy complexes cost between 30 and 50 million rubles, while smaller ones cost around 10 million.
In other words, saving 15 minutes on lighting may not be enough for even one small dairy complex. However, if you cut streetlights to 2.5 hours a day for a year, as they did on February 4, 2026, you could build 3 complexes with the money you saved.
As for the pensions increase, supposedly funded by savings from electricity, official calculations show that an additional 219 million rubles is needed just for February — more than one and a half times the cost of street lighting nationwide for the year.
