The Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klychko, stated that the capital is not receiving sufficient support from the central government to prepare for the upcoming heating season. According to the mayor, the city is independently carrying out all possible measures, while the government’s public promises to help remain unfulfilled.
This is reported by Finway
“Kyiv continues to prepare for the next winter. We are doing everything within the city’s power. The central government, while publicly stating that it will help, has no intention of doing so.”
Klychko noted that the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development had previously promised state funding and offered contractors for repair work at Kyiv CHPP-5. However, he believes that the responsibility is now solely being shifted to the city, despite the fact that resolving Kyiv’s energy issues relates to the safety of its residents and the functioning of the city itself.
The mayor added that to ensure stable heating supply, Kyiv urgently needs to find an additional 3 billion hryvnias, and in total, creating a backup system and purchasing equipment for CHPP-5 will cost approximately 9 billion hryvnias. Despite the difficult situation, the city continues to implement the restoration of facilities damaged by Russian strikes and is building backup heating supply systems using its own funds and loans from partners.
Ministry of Regional Development’s Position: Funding Already Allocated
The Minister of Community and Territorial Development, Oleksiy Kuleba, responded by stating that the pace of the capital’s preparation for winter does not correspond to either the level of threats or the amount of state funds already allocated. He clarified that discussions are ongoing with Klychko regarding the implementation of the city’s Resilience Plan and backup heating supply.
According to Kuleba, the state has already allocated significant resources for the protection and reservation of Kyiv’s heating supply systems, including 987 million hryvnias directed to priority measures, another 967 million for the advance payment of equipment for distributed generation, and an additional 2 billion allocated for the protection of critical elements and the launch of additional capacities. In total, the capital is receiving nearly 4 billion hryvnias in state funding.
Requirements for the City Authorities and Risks
Kuleba emphasized the need for the city authorities to urgently transition from discussions to concrete steps, including signing contracts, determining contractors, preparing sites, connecting to networks, and launching backup generation. The minister noted that during a meeting with the mayor, options for actions in case of crisis scenarios, such as attacks on CHPPs, were discussed, and parameters for backup generation were defined to maintain the minimum necessary temperature in homes even under difficult conditions.
The minister also added that without resolving issues related to land plots, technical conditions, and access to networks, it is impossible to implement any of the initiatives. Kyiv must provide clearly contracted solutions with defined timelines, a financing schedule, and personally responsible parties by May 10. If these requirements are not met, according to Kuleba, the effectiveness of the city authorities’ management decisions will be called into question, given that they have all the necessary resources.
Earlier, Klychko emphasized the significant expenses needed to prepare the city for winter, considering the consequences of Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. In February 2026, the Darnytsia CHPP, which provides heating to about half a million residents in the Dnipro and Darnytsia districts of Kyiv, suffered significant damage. According to the mayor, at least two months are needed for its restoration.
Since autumn 2025, Russia’s shelling of Ukraine’s energy facilities has intensified, leading to a significant gap between generation capacities and consumption, causing widespread power outages. However, with the arrival of spring 2026 and the increase in generation from solar power plants, restrictions on electricity supply have somewhat eased.