Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman instructed local authorities to connect buildings to heat supply in 5 days instead of 14 days, as stipulated by the standards. He announced this during a teleconference on Thursday dedicated to the state of preparedness of the housing and communal services complex for the autumn-winter period of 2016-2017 which he chaired.

"We have a standard period of 14 days to launch heating in homes. But I don't want to wait for 14 days. I believe that you can start heating process in all the houses in the cities for 5 days", said Volodymyr Groysman.

The Head of Government noted that it is crucial to ensure and control the launch of heating process in each particular building.

At the same time Volodymyr Groysman noted that those officials who fail to connect people to heating in 5 days should try themselves how cold it is at homes of people with no heating.

"Tell all the officials of the regional administration to turn off the heating up to 25^th - then they’ll understand what it feels like when the heating is off in apartments for 2 weeks", he stressed.