More than 16 billion hryvnias have already been spent on improving the capital’s resilience since the beginning of 2026, compared to 2 billion hryvnias last year, and another 4.5–5 billion hryvnias are planned to be spent by the end of this year, said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Center for Energy Research.
“This is effectively a tenfold increase in investment, and these investments are specifically in security measures. This includes protecting high-voltage substations, providing backup power for essential sewer systems, and providing backup power for heating systems,” he said during a discussion titled “Ukraine on the Threshold of Winter: Energy, Defense, and the New Diplomatic Reality” at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Friday.
At the same time, according to the expert, the city needs an additional approximately EUR1.5 billion to carry out the necessary work to improve resilience.
As he noted, this year’s preparations for the heating season in Kyiv were funded primarily by the local budget, while the central budget’s share amounted to only about 10%.
“The national budget is not in very good shape right now, and payments in treasury accounts were frozen for over a month, which dealt a severe blow to all local authorities and to winter preparations as well,” explained the director of the Center for Economic Development.
As a result, some of the equipment that the city had planned to install by November or December will have to be put into operation later due to the four-week delay.
As Kharchenko recalled, in January 2026, all of Kyiv’s local power generation capacity was destroyed. In other words, Kyiv—with consumption of approximately 2 GW at a temperature of -10°C, and consumption of 1.2 GW under the current weather conditions in Ukraine—had 1.3 GW of domestic generating capacity until January 2026.
“In January 2026, these facilities were physically destroyed. What does this lead to? It leads precisely to the effects that are currently causing great distress among Kyiv residents,” explained Kharchenko.
In the absence of power generation in the city, the metro shuts down and switches to backup power, and the water utility’s pumping stations also shut down and switch to backup power—which, under such operating conditions, cannot provide full service.
However, according to the expert, despite this, the city has currently secured its key systems against man-made accidents and strategic technological issues.
“But it’s one thing to maintain water pressure in the water mains—which allows water to circulate through the pipes, fill reservoirs, and support basic infrastructure—and quite another to deliver pressure, say, to Pechersk or certain other districts located on hills,” he added.
This cannot be achieved without the operation of the main power supply lines at the water utility’s facilities.
“Therefore, certain inconveniences this winter are almost inevitable,” the expert concluded.
According to Kharchenko, in most cities it is impossible—due to engineering and regulatory factors—to implement technical projects aimed at improving energy resilience in a single season lasting seven to eight months; this would take two to three years.
“First, you spend seven to eight months on paperwork—even if you have the money—and then you start building something. This applies to everything: installing backup power supplies, backup generators, decentralized cogeneration plants—absolutely everything,” he explained.
According to the director of the Center for Energy Efficiency (CEE), Kyiv, in particular, needs approximately another EUR1.5 billion to do everything necessary to ensure the city’s resilience. Nationwide, the need could amount to 250–300 billion UAH per year for at least the next two years.
energy resilience, HEATING SEASON, INVESTMENTS, Kharchenko, KYIV, POWER GENERATION
