Given the experience of this winter, each community should start preparing for the upcoming season right now, says Oleksii Kuleba

The resilience of communities during the upcoming heating season has been identified as a strategic priority.

A meeting of the Headquarters for the Preparation and Passage of the 2025/2026 Heating Season was held, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine – Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine Oleksiy Kuleba.

The meeting brought together representatives from the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity, State Emergency Service, Naftogaz of Ukraine, NEURC, regional military administrations, heating providers, relevant organizations and associations, and members of Parliament.

The key focus is on getting through this heating season and systematically preparing for the next winter of 2026/2027, taking into account the constant threat from the russian federation.

"Without waiting for the end of this heating period, we are formulating specific decisions to increase the resilience of communities for the winter of 2026/2027. This is a comprehensive preparation of regions in three key areas: strengthening the protection of critical infrastructure, providing water and heat supply enterprises with independent power sources, and developing distributed heat generation to replace large boiler rooms. Regional military administrations, together with the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development and the Ministry of Energy, are already working on appropriate response plans to ensure the operation of life support systems," Oleksii Kuleba emphasized.

Housing and utilities companies have already commissioned hundreds of distributed generation units — cogeneration plants, modular boiler rooms, gas turbine and gas piston units with a total capacity of over 600 MW. Capacity expansion is planned for 2026.

Special attention has been paid to providing generator equipment for the continuous operation of critical infrastructure facilities in the event of prolonged power outages. In particular, seven cogeneration units have already been delivered to the National Fund for the Reserve of Mobile and Modular Energy Equipment.

"We take a systematic approach to ensuring the energy security of communities. The focus is on facilities that are essential for the stable functioning of life support systems: pumping stations, water intakes, treatment plants, boiler rooms, and heating stations. Our goal is to ensure their uninterrupted operation even during prolonged power outages," said Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development, Kostiantyn Kovalchuk.

Following the meeting, the regions were instructed to update their response plans for possible prolonged power outages caused by russian attacks, with clear calculations of needs and deadlines for implementing measures aimed at strengthening community resilience.

The Ministry for Communities and Territories Development continues to coordinate with regional military administrations, central authorities, and international partners to strengthen the energy autonomy and resilience of communities across the country for stable passage of the next heating season.