The Kyiv City Council at a meeting on Thursday is expected to pass a decision to secure local borrowing for the capital’s budget, which includes a UAH 2.5 billion loan from the state-owned Oschadbank and a EUR 50 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the Kyivteploenergo municipal enterprise, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said.
"These are funds that will be used to ensure the implementation of measures under the Kyiv Resilience Plan. I want to note that the city is preparing for winter. Currently, within our capabilities and the additional resources we are finding… Based on an analysis of the initial implementation stages, the plan has been refined and improved. It has a clear structure of critically important priorities with responsible executors and realistic funding volumes," Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
According to him, Kyiv has an agreement with the government regarding the prioritization of energy resilience measures, the implementation of which will cost around UAH 30 billion. In addition, the funding of measures and work was to be carried out on a 50:50 basis by the city and the state.
"Now the government has told us that this only applies to funding, and it will have practically nothing to do with the actual work. The State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine will handle the creation of backup heat supply only in the CHP-4 zone. Everything else – the construction of cogeneration, backup power systems, and backup heat supply systems – must be done by the city alone. Today, we are doing what we can," the mayor stated.
In particular, according to him, three diesel generator units with a capacity of over 15 MW have already been installed to provide uninterrupted power to water supply facilities. In total, it is planned to secure around 40 MW of backup capacity for water supply systems this year.
According to the mayor, the construction of new distributed cogeneration facilities with a capacity of 45 MW has already been completed, and more than 100 MW of capacity is currently under development. Thus, it is planned to obtain about 200 MW of additional cogeneration capacity by the end of the year.
"But we understand that this is not enough for Kyiv, and it is impossible for the city to do everything without state participation. We insist that the government honor previous agreements, because there should be a statesmanlike approach rather than political squabbling. We have introduced changes that further detail the plan’s measures and optimize project costs, prioritizing the upcoming heating season. Crucially, they also fix the participation of both the city and the state in both funding and carrying out work at 50/50. Today, we propose that the Kyiv City Council support this decision," Klitschko summarized.
As reported, on June 5, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the allocation of an additional UAH 2 billion to Kyiv for winter preparations. The funds will be spent on protecting energy facilities and ensuring uninterrupted heat supply. As specified by the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, in particular, about UAH 1.2 billion will be directed toward the engineering and technical protection of critical infrastructure facilities, and almost UAH 800 million will go toward developing backup thermal generation in the coverage zone of two of the capital’s CHPs.
This is a continuation of systematic work to implement the Kyiv Resilience Plan. Earlier, the government had already directed funds for the purchase of block-modular boiler houses for the capital, which are intended to strengthen the reliability of heat supply under conditions of continuous Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
At the beginning of June, Klitschko reported that Kyiv was creating a duplicate heat and power supply system costing between UAH 30 billion and UAH 60 billion, and therefore required financial assistance from the state. According to him, the state takes 60% of personal income tax (PIT), does not compensate communities for the difference in heat tariffs or expenditures on subsidized travel, and last year withdrew UAH 8 billion from the city budget, meaning the capital cannot build an alternative heat and power supply system on its own.
"At the last meeting of the Kyiv City Council, we adopted an appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada regarding financial support for the city’s resilience plan to formalize our agreements. We hope that the state will adhere to them. By the way, we have already provided UAH 1 billion 250 million to the Restoration Agency and have approached financial institutions for funding. We are currently allocating more than UAH 15 billion for the heat supply system and restoration in Kyiv to prepare for the upcoming heating season," he said.
