Ukraine is setting a new standard for infrastructure resilience in Europe: Oleksii Kuleba

Oleksii Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine and Minister for Communities and Territories Development, participated in the EU Preparedness Conference. 

The event brought together government officials, military personnel, civil protection experts, and business representatives from across Europe to develop joint solutions for crisis response. The central topic of discussion was Ukraine’s experience in ensuring the functioning of cities and the physical protection of critical infrastructure amid a full-scale war. 

“We have moved from a piecemeal response to a systemic resilience model. At its core are regional and community resilience plans covering infrastructure protection, distributed generation, water, and heat. The scale of the challenges is significant. Over 3,000 critical infrastructure facilities require protection. In total, the implementation of energy resilience plans requires over EUR 5.4 billion. We are also developing distributed generation with a target of 4 GW. At the same time, we are rolling out modular solutions in heat supply—this involves over 5 GW of additional capacity,” emphasized Oleksii Kuleba. 

Regional energy resilience plans cover the protection of critical infrastructure, the development of distributed generation, uninterrupted water supply and wastewater management, and reliable heat supply. The goal is to create a new decentralized, flexible system that will operate for decades.

Ukraine’s experience is setting a new standard for infrastructure resilience. Ukraine possesses practical expertise that could be relevant to EU countries as well, and is ready to share it. The construction of physical protection for critical infrastructure already has successful examples: protected energy facilities can withstand up to 40 strikes and remain functional.

Oleksii Kuleba thanked European partners for their prompt assistance — the delivery of generators and power equipment —which enabled the country to weather the critical periods of winter without disruption. 

European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness, and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib visited Kyiv about a month ago, during the harshest cold snap, and delivered 500 generators to the capital. At that time, following attacks on key thermal power plants, more than 1,500 apartment buildings were left without heating.