Kyiv Zaporizhzhia Ivano-Frankivsk: Novaya Krayina discussed cities' winter preparedness (photos)

Report from the discussion panel.

The decentralization reform and self-organization of local authorities in Ukraine were among the main factors of Ukraine's flexibility and resilience at the start of the full-scale invasion. The head of the supervisory board of the investment company EFI Group, Igor Lisky, believes this was the reason we withstood it then. He is confident that whether we hold together as a country now will depend on how local authorities (with help from the government) handle the challenges of this coming winter.

“It would be very easy to break the resilience of the Ukrainian people and the home front through Kyiv. And if the rear collapses, the heroic Armed Forces of Ukraine will not be able to save this country,” Lisky believes.

Is the “rear” ready for the challenges of this heating season — using Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk as examples? How does the situation differ across regions? What common pains do they have? And is it realistically possible to protect the critical facilities that keep large cities functioning? This was the topic of Novaya Krayina’s thematic discussion featuring:

Vitaliy Klychko, mayor of Kyiv;

Vitaliy Klychko, mayor of Kyiv

Ruslan Martsiukiv, mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk;

Ruslan Martsiukiv, mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk

Regina Kharchenko, acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia City Council;

Regina Kharchenko, acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia

Igor Lisky, head of EFI Group

Igor Lisky, head of EFI Group

Igor Lisky, Vitaliy Klychko, Regina Kharchenko, Ruslan Martsiukiv

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klychko asserts: Kyiv’s main combined heat and power plants (CHPs) are ready for the heating season. But they remain priority targets for the enemy during shelling, so the city is working on a redundant heating supply system in case the central system is destroyed.

“For the first time we presented this plan at a Kyiv City Council meeting to the deputies, explaining our concrete actions. …We presented the plan twice to the National Security and Defense Council, and it was approved. We are moving according to this plan to ensure the city of Kyiv has a system of backup heat supply in case the central heat supply is destroyed.

I would like to remind you that the central heat supply system was built over decades after World War II. Dozens of institutes worked in this area. And for us, given financial, personnel, and time constraints, the task with an asterisk is to build in the period after the end of winter and before the start of the next heating season what was built over decades,” said Vitaliy Klychko. However, he said the work must be completed in December.

Vitaliy Klychko, mayor of Kyiv

In Zaporizhzhia, during the heating season 25/26 no building had heating problems, acting mayor Regina Kharchenko said.

“We had a period of terrible blackout when at the moment 5 million people — that’s the entire Dnipropetrovsk region and the Zaporizhzhia region — were left without power. In other words, the zero phase was applied to all facilities. The communal enterprise Vodokanal restored water supply in one and a half hours. Heating was restored at night. People didn’t even understand what was happening. We were given six hours to start the heating. By morning everyone had heating.

We in Zaporizhzhia do not think in terms of preparing for the heating season. We think in terms of preparing for shelling. Therefore, as of today 36 critical infrastructure facilities (I mean pumping stations, boiler houses, heat points, huge generators that are in reserve) — all are under protection. They must not only operate, they must be protected,” Kharchenko noted.

Regina Kharchenko, acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia

But Zaporizhzhia’s proximity to the front adds options to the city’s protection plan, its leader emphasizes: in particular, the need to install anti-drone nets, increase the number of modular shelters, cover public transport with bulletproof film, protect municipal institutions and hospitals, create fuel reserves, and so on.

Ivano-Frankivsk, being far from the front, has very different but in its own way challenging problems for the city, says Mayor Ruslan Martsiukiv.

The heating system in the city is already 75% individual — it began to be decentralized 10 years ago, long before the start of the full-scale invasion. Only 25% of the city still depends on central heating. Local authorities are also trying to secure fuel reserves and stable communications.

Ruslan Martsiukiv, mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk

But the number-one challenge for Ivano-Frankivsk, Martsiukiv stresses, is people. With the increase in shelling intensity in frontline and central regions, internal migration of Ukrainians to the west of the country has increased.

“It feels like we are returning to the year 22 again,” Martsiukiv says. “The load on transport, housing, and infrastructure is growing. I appeal to Ivano-Frankivsk residents not to raise rents, but rents have tripled.” Over the past decade, the city’s population has increased by almost 150 thousand, which is critical for Ivano-Frankivsk, its mayor says. Nonetheless, the city is seeking ways to adapt.

Read more soon on LB.ua about how each region is responding to the challenges that are worsening with intensified shelling.

Igor Lisky, Vitaliy Klychko, Regina Kharchenko, Ruslan Martsiukiv

Ruslan Martsiukiv, mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk

Igor Lisky, Vitaliy Klychko, Regina Kharchenko, Ruslan Martsiukiv

Igor Lisky, head of EFI Group

Sonya Koshkina, discussion moderator, editor-in-chief of LB.ua

Lyudmyla Zubko

Discussion guests

Discussion guests

Dmytro Vasiliev

Hanna Malyar

co-founder of the public organization “Smart Education,” Ivanna Kobernyk

Lesia Pinzenyk, Kyiv City Council deputy

Tetyana Abramova (Rito Group)

Iryna Tykhomyrova, Chair of the Advisory Board of the MIM Business School

Leonid Yemets, Kyiv City Council deputy

Serhii Kvit, President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

Maksym Prazdnikov, CEO of Knyholav

entrepreneur Viktor Kurteev, founder of the Metropolia group of companies

Oleksandr Kopyl, co-founder of K&K Group, venture investor

Olha Chervakova

Artur Yurchenko, head of the company Tykun

Oleh Shcherbyna, producer

Nataliya Dmytrenko, communications expert

Lyudmyla Boichenko, marketing director of LB.ua

Regina Kharchenko, acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia City Council

Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation

Serhii Orel, general director of Dobrobut

Tymofii Brik, rector of Kyiv School of Economics

Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy Nina Yuzhanina and President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine Hennadiy Chyzhykov

Ivan Plachkov

Yuliya Savostina

Dmytro Koziatynskyi, veteran

Hennadiy Zubko

Andrii Zhurzhii, founder and CEO of the investment company Inzhur

Igor Lisky, Vitaliy Klychko, Regina Kharchenko, Ruslan Martsiukiv

Yuliya Klymenko, deputy from Holos

Igor Lisky, Vitaliy Klychko, Sonya Koshkina, Regina Kharchenko, Ruslan Martsiukiv