Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held the first telephone conversation of the new year with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the president’s press service has said.
“The interlocutors discussed the expected results of the next Ukraine-EU summit, which will take place in Kiev on February 3 this year, and agreed to intensify the preparatory work,” the statement said.
Kyiv has received the first two of 20 planned high-capacity generators (300-800 kVA) as part of a memorandum between Kyiv and Taiwan on assistance in acquiring alternative power sources, the press service of the capital’s mayor said Monday.
“The first two generators have already been transferred to Kievteploenergo, they are used in city boiler houses. As part of the project, about 20 generators are expected to be transferred to power critical infrastructure facilities in the capital. We are very grateful to our partners for support of Kyiv and Ukraine,” Vitalii Klitschko said during the transfer of generators to the communal enterprise “Kyivteploenerho”.
Last December, Kiev and Taiwan signed a memorandum of understanding to help the Ukrainian capital purchase diesel power generators with the help of a donation from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kiev’s permanent population is currently about 3.6 million, including 300,000 refugees from other regions of Ukraine, compared to 3.8 million before the war, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
In an interview with Spiegel published Friday, when asked if he knew how many people were left in Kiev, the mayor answered in the affirmative, referring to statistics on cell phone usage.
“We count how many cell phones are being used. Before the war there were 3.8 million people here, in March less than a million, in July two, two and a half million, now 3.6 million. 300,000 of them are registered refugees from other parts of the country. The city is full,” Klitschko said.
Asked about the restoration of power, water and heating supplies in the Ukrainian capital, he said that water and heating are already back in almost every apartment in Kiev. “The power supply deficit is 50%. Sometimes we turn off electricity in one district to turn it on in another district and vice versa. The situation is complicated, but under control,” the mayor said.
When asked how he assesses Germany’s position on Russia and Ukraine since the war began, the mayor replied, “The biggest mistake of Western politicians was thinking that Putin would be satisfied with the annexation of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. I know Putin’s mentality: he goes as far as we allow him to go.”
Klitschko also said that “the war will end when the last Russian soldier leaves our territory.”
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the population of Kiev in 2019 was 2 million 966 thousand people. The population of the Kiev agglomeration (Kiev with its suburbs) exceeds 4 million people. Also a significant number of people registered in other localities live permanently in the capital.
London has sent Kiev over 1,000 metal detectors and 100 bomb disposal kits to help the Ukrainian authorities in demining, the British Defense Ministry said Friday.
“The United Kingdom has donated over 1,000 VALLON metal detectors and 100 bomb disposal kits to Ukraine to assist it in demining and in making the area, homes and infrastructure safe,” the department said in a statement.
In particular, the kits are designed to disarm unexploded bombs, ammunition and improvised explosive devices.
The Ministry of Defense promised to continue supporting Ukraine in 2023. The ministry recalled that in 2022 it had delivered £2.3bn worth of military aid to Kiev and promised to maintain the same level of support in the coming year.
The demand for the purchase of houses in the suburbs of the capital will increase in the first half of 2023.
This forecast in a comment to “Interfax-Ukraine” gave the developer of the cottage town “Park House” Rudolf Arzumanyan.
“The demand for houses will increase in anticipation of summer. This will also be facilitated by the new air defense systems, which will close, we hope, in the near future, the sky over the capital region,” Arzumanyan said.
He added that the suburban real estate market of Kiev region since the beginning of the war went through several stages. In the spring there was a surge in demand for rent, including at the expense of displaced people, then there was a demand to buy.
“In general, if anyone had finished houses with renovations, they all sold them or rented them out long-term. People with money understand that it is possible to provide more or less comfortable and predictable conditions of stay only in a private house due to autonomous heating, gas, firewood, electricity, autonomous water supply and sewage,” explained Arzumanyan.
According to him, developers of suburban real estate provided autonomous power supply through generators and high capacity batteries such as SOUOP, ECOFLOW, etc. During the year, however, there was not as much new facility commissioning as the market demanded.
“New facilities are not being commissioned because of a shortage of handymen and problems with materials. Another retarding factor is the imbalance. Prices have gone up for almost everything, but not for real estate. Thus, the market froze,” he said.
Another trend: there were virtually no investment deals during 2022.
“Rental prices in dollars have fallen by half, people are afraid to invest money. In fact, the demand to buy fell by 80% compared to last year,” said Arzumanyan.
The situation with power supply in Kiev has significantly improved, said SCM public relations and communications director Natalia Emchenko.
“In Kiev today, all districts should be more or less with electricity. Not 100%, but under current conditions it should be enough,” she wrote in her Facebook on Sunday.
At the same time, Yemchenko noted that power engineers have done “absolutely impossible, almost a miracle.”
For his part, the general director of energy supplier YASNO Serhiy Kovalenko noted in his Facebook that Kiev, although not completely, should be sufficiently supplied with electricity, given such significant restrictions in the last week.
