Volodymyr Zelenskyy vows community overhaul as Kyiv energy situation is catastrophic
A State Emergency Service employee stands against the backdrop of a sprawling tent camp in the Troyeschyna district of the capital (Photo: Serhiy Okunev, NV)
Ukraine is working on decisions to overhaul and modernize energy supplies for communities and will set up a coordination center to systematize regions’ real-world experience, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Feb. 19.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that based on this winter’s experience, authorities are preparing decisions on restructuring and upgrading energy supply for communities, and that a relevant plan for the next heating season will be reviewed and approved at the national level.
He described the situation that arose in Kyiv as an “internal catastrophe.”
“Every Ukrainian city and every community that avoided such internal catastrophes this winter (including those seen in Kyiv) has experience that can and should be taken into account across the whole of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian leader added that an appropriate coordination center will be created at the government level to systematize the real-life experience of communities.
On Feb. 13, First Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine is actively importing Soviet-era combined heat and power and thermal power plant units from Eastern European countries to build up a reserve of energy equipment. The move is aimed at creating stockpiles to restore Ukrainian thermal power plants and combined heat and power plants damaged by Russian strikes.
On Feb. 14, Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine and Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksii Kuleba said heads of regional military administrations have been given two weeks to develop plans to ensure the resilience of their regions for the winter of 2026–2027.
“The key issue is preparation for the autumn-winter period of 2026–2027 and the overall resilience of life-support systems: heat, water, electricity, transport, hospitals and social infrastructure — systems that must function even during attacks and blackouts. Each regional administration head must submit a regional resilience plan within two weeks, with specific facilities, capacities, reserves, funding and an implementation timeline,” he said.
On Feb. 17, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that more than 1,100 buildings in the Dniprovskyi and Darnytskyi districts of the capital remain without heating following earlier Russian strikes.
It is currently impossible to restore heat supply there due to critical damage to the Darnytska combined heat and power plant, Klitschko said.
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