Two projects, the Resilience Plan, and ancient oaks — what the Teremky scandal will lead to

Last week was marked by public protests in the Holosiivskyi district of the capital and on Khreshchatyk near the Kyiv City State Administration. At the center of the scandal is a new project for a backup heat pipeline in Teremky. Eco-activists are demanding an end to the cutting of the park zone, which contains centennial oaks and many other valuable tree species. City authorities link the cutting to one of the conditions for the neighborhood’s survival during an expectedly difficult winter. Why the scandal erupted and where it has reached — in the overview from Korotko pro.

Ten girls with cardboard signs — three dozen police officers

The plan to cut down more than 660 trees on the plot near Teremkivska Street became known at the end of July. Photos of equipment entering the green strip were published by graphic designer Bohdan Hdal. He also called the first protests “a theater of the absurd,” when “…from 10 girls with cardboard signs the cutting is being defended by 20-30 police officers,” and said that the pipeline project existed long before the large-scale invasion and had been planned outside the green zone, which in 2019 was granted park status.

This received confirmation. Publicly, information began to appear from various sources that the technical documentation for the heat main had been developed in 2015 - 2017, and the final project was approved in 2023. The route was supposed to run along Teremkivska Street under the paved zone. Such a route was specified in the tender documentation and corresponded to Kyiv’s General Plan. 8 million hryvnias were spent on its development and approval.

This year’s work in the park zone began without any attempts to explain anything to the public. That additionally outraged activists, who literally threw their bodies into protecting the trees. On 6 August law enforcement intervened in the confrontation between activists and builders. “As of now, unknown people in black with police chevrons physically dragged us out of the park territory. To the countless demands to show documents—silence. In the photo, ‘the person’ (Pylypenko Ruslan Mykolayovych) who gave me a lot of bruises just because I was standing in the park. 102 does not react. Two minors who were detained an hour and a half ago continue to be held at the station,” wrote director of CHEsnyy Theater Kateryna Chepura. She posted photos that went viral online: police forcibly carrying women out of the cutting zone. Other sources published images of partially cut trees.

The next day the Kyiv City State Administration published a justification: that removing some trees in Teremky is a forced step necessary for building a new heat network for the residential areas Teremky-1 and Teremky-2. If CHP-5 sustains damage, as it did last winter, more than 280 buildings in the Holosiivskyi district could be left without heat supply. The backup scheme being built will allow consumers to be quickly switched to an alternative source. The basis for such a decision is the Resilience Plan. “In wartime it is necessary to find a balance between ecological values and people’s safety. Moreover, instead of the removed trees, new ones will be planted on the territory after the heat pipeline is laid,” the new authorities promised.

It will not be possible to restore

The Cabinet of Ministers gave permission in March this year to lay the heat main through the park zone. Referring to the vegetation inspection report from 18.03.2026, Kyiv City Council deputy Viktoriia Ptashnyk published the scale of the cutting:

606 trees are subject to full felling,

54 trees are planned to be transplanted,

54 shrubs will be cut, 16 will be transplanted.

The greatest tragedy of the project is considered to be 45 oaks, among which are giants aged from 70 to 120 years. According to the project, they are to be removed — to serve as firewood for Kyivzelenbud greenhouses. It is clear that such an ecological complex cannot simply be restored. Especially since planting vegetation with long, strong roots is forbidden in the heat-trench zone. The fate of the several dozen trees and shrubs promised to be transplanted is also undecided. Mature plants endure relocations poorly.

“They will bury the pipe, plant some grasses, a few shrubs, put in benches and say: enjoy. There will be neither shade nor freshness,” complains one Teremky resident.

At a meeting with protesters in Holosiivskyi district, Vitali Klitschko’s deputy Petro Panteleiev explained that there is no alternative to the cutting because the previous project would have required digging up the road, which would complicate traffic on Teremkivska. In addition, there is no space here for pipes with a diameter of 700 mm because other utilities are already laid. And to be fair — far from all neighborhood residents share the eco-activists’ position.

“The war is being fought for a strip of 5 - 6 meters that is overgrown and unmaintained. This is not a place for recreation,” comments another neighborhood resident. “It’s a pity about the trees, but when the question is whether people will freeze or the trees will stand, I think people deserve more sympathy. Teremky may have up to 80 000 residents, while no more than three hundred take to the protests. I was invited too, I didn’t go…”

Air purifier and home of the stag beetle

However, the green strip along Teremkivska Street has park status, and in such zones any construction not related to their maintenance and designated use is completely prohibited, reminds National Nature Park Holosiivskyi employee Oleksandr Sokolenko.

“The shelterbelt inside the district is multi-tiered. There are old trees, middle-aged ones, and a young understory. Teremky is very short of such plots. The district is densely built up; in fact the only natural park is the Teremky tract and this strip. One must understand that these are not just trees and shrubs. In the green season the strip ‘works’ as a sink for pollen, pollution, and noise from the Ring Road that runs nearby,” the ecologist points out. “Without it people will simply have a harder time breathing.”

Sokolenko also notes that studies conducted by biologists of National Nature Park Holosiivskyi found bat roosts and a population of the stag beetle in the green strip. Both species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and protected by the Bern Convention.

“The heat pipeline is certainly needed, but that does not mean ecology should be sacrificed, which also has great importance for people’s life and health. As for the Resilience Plan, it cannot be used to justify violations of the law and cheap solutions that harm protected natural territories,” the ecologist is convinced.

So far the public does not have a clear answer as to why a project that three years ago was deemed completely acceptable has now become inconvenient and unfeasible. One theory is that laying the main was delayed because new residential complexes were being built along the route. Now that interest has ripened, the shelling and the cold of 2025 - 2006 years have made the problem urgent, and the Resilience Plan allowed it to be made cheaper.

What remains

Because of the scandal, work on building the heat main has been suspended until 12 August. They hope to reach a compromise on the evening of 11 during a meeting of authorities and the public in the Holosiivskyi District State Administration building. The conversation is unlikely to be easy. Activists are already inviting those concerned about the environment to another rally, and at a briefing on implementation of Kyiv’s Resilience Plan Petro Panteleiev confirmed that the city went ahead with the cutting out of critical necessity; there is no other engineering corridor for laying the heat networks.

Skeptics predict that by the cold season, when Russia is expected to intensify shelling, there will no longer be a green zone and the new heat pipeline will still not be ready. And there will be another risky moment: the construction that has caused so much uproar may attract the enemy’s attention.