Ukrainian hospitals will not be closed during the blackout, but medical institutions need to optimize the use of premises, Health Minister Viktor Liashko has said.

"Hospitals will not be closed, but certain hospitals will reconsider and optimize the use of space in order to concentrate everything on smaller areas," he said on the air of the national telethon United News on Friday.

The Minister noted that such measures "would make it easier to pass the autumn-winter period, in particular, with the onset of great cold weather."

"When the area is smaller, it is easier to heat it using power sources if there is a disconnection from the district heating supply," he said.

Liashko said that the Ministry of Health has identified two levels of hospitals: clinics that can operate without centralized power supply, and clinics that can operate without centralized heat and centralized water supply.

"It is at these hospitals that the main network of capable medical institutions will be formed, which in this difficult autumn-winter period should provide medical care. We understand that in these hospitals all equipment that is connected to power supply will work 100%," he concluded.