Prime Minister: The state is working in three directions to prepare for winter – infrastructure, accumulation of resources, decentralisation of power generation

The Government, regional military administrations and communities are working in sync in three key areas to ensure that all homes are warm and lighted in winter. This was emphasised by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during a Government meeting on 15 October.

“Ukraine is on the threshold of the heating season. This is the third autumn-winter period we have to go through in the context of a full-scale war. We are aware of all the extraordinary challenges and we are doing everything to minimise the risks,” the Prime Minister said.

The first area of work is infrastructure preparation. According to the Head of Government, more than 99% of residential buildings are now ready for the start of the heating season. The number of schools, kindergartens and hospitals ready for the winter is also close to 100%.

“More than 18,000 boiler houses and 4,800 central heating units are ready to provide heat,” added Denys Shmyhal.

The second area is resource accumulation. Currently, there are over 12.2 billion cubic metres of natural gas in storage, excluding the reserve gas stock in the customs warehouse, as well as 3.1 million tonnes of coal.

“This is enough to get us through the winter. I remind you that in this heating season, as in the last one, we plan to use domestically produced gas,” the Prime Minister stressed, adding that all nine nuclear power units under Ukrainian control were currently in operation. They will provide the bulk of electricity generation during the heating season.

The third area of winterisation is the creation of decentralised power generation. The energy sustainability programmes initiated by the Government are in place.

“Loans at 0% for citizens, loans for condominiums under the GreenDIM programme, 5-7-9% loans for small and medium-sized businesses, preferential loans from the Decarbonisation Fund of Ukraine for utilities and communities,” the Prime Minister said.

In total, according to the Head of Government, banks have already disbursed loans worth UAH 2 billion to various categories of borrowers.