Preparations for the autumn-winter heating season are entering their final stage, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has said.

"Just over a month remains until the start of the heating season – the second during the full-scale war, and no less challenging than the previous year. Once again, the enemy intends to use cold and darkness as weapons. We have been preparing and continue to prepare our energy system. As of today, preparations for the autumn-winter period are entering their final stage," Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister said that today seven nuclear power units have been repaired, two more will be put into operation before the start of the heating season, bringing their total capacity to 7.8 GW.

"We are taking an important step towards energy independence – at the Rivne NPP, we have started loading new nuclear fuel from the Westinghouse company instead of relying on Russian monopoly for such fuel types. Europe, along with Ukraine, should work together to eliminate Russia from this market in order to remove the energy threat," he added.

Also, according to the prime minister, the Ministry of Energy has committed itself that 25 power units will be operational before the start of the season, which will provide the energy system with 4.5 GW of power.

In addition, he said that about 80% of the equipment has been repaired, intensive repairs are ongoing and will be completed on time.

"Hydroelectric power plant. 35 hydroelectric units with a capacity of almost 2.3 GW have been repaired and are being repaired. According to the Ministry of Energy, 804 MW of the planned additional 1.7 GW of capacity have already been added to the system. 15,200 boiler houses are also ready for winter, about 84% heating networks, 78% of central heating stations, more than 80% of residential buildings, 86% of schools, kindergartens and hospitals. In a month it should be 100%," the prime minister said.

Among other things, Shmyhal said that local budgets also have enough funds to complete all preparatory work before the onset of cold weather, and where this is necessary, it is necessary to speed up to turn on heat for people on time.

"One of the priorities is the protection of strategic energy facilities. There are no details here, but the work is being carried out seriously and systematically. At the meeting before last, the government allocated an additional UAH 9.7 billion to protect the critical infrastructure of the fuel and energy sector. We do projects that no one else in the world has done before; in weeks we install and repair things that would otherwise take months or even years," the prime minister said.

Shmyhal also confirmed that the price of gas, heat, and hot water will remain unchanged until the end of the heating season.