A business imports Teslas, strips the batteries. A single Tesla battery can be split into 10-12 household rechargeable batteries that can power lights in an apartment for up to 10 hours.
The Ukrainian power system has been damaged to the point where the power is only on for 4 hours a day in some areas.
While you’re absolutely correct, lithium cells are no joke, they seem to know what they’re doing and even Tesla themselves have very similar (with bigger capacity) product called PowerWall. Even if Ukrainians shove their tech into black tool box instead of shiny white plastic casing the internals are more or less the same and, when made properly, it’s pretty safe and as the situation in Ukraine gets more and more difficult that can make a big difference on everyday life.
5kWh is not a lot, but it’s well enough to keep the (led) lights on and even run a small refridgerator for half a day. As the article states, that’s not enough for heating and when the winter comes it’ll be a tough situation to manage for a lot of people. In comparison, our ~170m² house consumes easily 4-6kW during winter hours even with heat pump. A small apartment with heat pump might mange with 1kW for heating, but it’s still a lot to ask from a small(ish) battery like that and I don’t know what kind of infrastructure in Ukraine is generally around.