The capital authorities and the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development have found themselves in a public conflict over Kyiv’s preparations for the upcoming heating season. Mayor Vitali Klitschko accused the central government of insufficient support, emphasizing that the city is forced to independently address the issue of providing warmth to Kyiv residents in winter.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Kyiv lacks funding for winter preparations
Vitali Klitschko noted that promises of state funding for restoration work at Kyiv CHPP-5 have not been fulfilled. According to him, the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development had previously promised assistance and suggested contractors, but is now shifting responsibility solely onto local authorities.
“Now, when the time has passed, the state is essentially washing its hands. The ministry stated that this is solely Kyiv’s issue. In other words, it’s politics again. Kyiv is being pushed into a corner. The situation is threatening. After all, it concerns how Kyiv residents will survive the winter, how the city will function,” the mayor reported.
The mayor emphasized that the city urgently needs to find an additional 3 billion hryvnias, while the total amount required for purchasing equipment and creating a backup heating system for CHPP-5 is estimated at 9 billion hryvnias. Klitschko also reported that Kyiv continues to implement its own projects to restore facilities damaged by Russian missile strikes and is building a backup heating system within existing resources and thanks to loans from partners.
Government’s position: Kyiv must act faster
Minister of Communities and Territories Oleksii Kuleba stated that the pace of Kyiv’s preparations for winter does not correspond to the level of threats and the volume of state support. He reported on discussions with the city authorities regarding the implementation of the Resilience Plan and the development of a backup heating system for the capital. According to Kuleba, the state has already allocated 987 million hryvnias for priority protection measures, is preparing another 967 million for advancing distributed generation equipment, and also plans an additional 2 billion hryvnias for the protection of critical elements and the launch of new thermal capacities. Overall, Kyiv is receiving nearly 4 billion hryvnias in state funds.
The minister urged the city authorities to immediately move from discussions to concrete actions – signing contracts, determining contractors, preparing sites, connecting facilities to networks, and launching backup generation. During a meeting with Klitschko, solutions for crisis situations were discussed, particularly in the event of attacks on specific CHPPs, as well as parameters for backup generation that would allow maintaining the minimum necessary temperature in homes even under difficult weather conditions.
Kuleba noted that issues of land plots, technical conditions, and access to networks remain critical for the implementation of plans. The city authorities must provide contracted solutions with clear timelines, a financing schedule, and designated responsible persons. Monitoring of execution, including contract signing, must be completed by May 10. If the tasks are not completed by this deadline, the government will assess the capacity of Kyiv’s leadership to respond to challenges, having all necessary resources for this.
Earlier, Klitschko also reported that preparations for the heating season and energy resilience measures are being carried out solely at the expense of city funds, and the restoration of critical infrastructure is significantly complicated by the consequences of Russian attacks. Since the beginning of autumn 2025, Russia has significantly intensified shelling of Ukrainian energy facilities, leading to prolonged power outages and the introduction of blackout schedules in many regions. With the arrival of spring, the situation somewhat stabilized due to increased generation from solar power plants.
In February 2026, the Darnytsia CHPP, which provides heating to about 500,000 residents of the Dnipro and Darnytsia districts, suffered significant damage. According to the mayor’s assessment, its restoration will require at least two months.