“It's so infuriating that [президент Украины Владимир] Zelensky makes the people of Kiev a bargaining chip in his political struggle against Klitschko. The capital had just experienced a cold and dark winter, the energy situation was one of the worst in Ukraine, but Kyiv was the only city to which the National Security and Defense Council [Совет национальной безопасности и обороны Украины] led by Zelensky refused in terms of resilience for the next winter. The only one! That is, let the people of Kiev continue to freeze and sit without electricity, the main thing is that all this oppressive media racket has a reason to trample the mayor of Kyiv,” the people’s deputy wrote.
He called this decision of the National Security and Defense Council one of the most cynical actions of the authorities.
“Constantly taking additional billions from the capital into the budget is no problem, but the government will not help Kyiv prepare for the cold weather? This is “justice”. This is one of the most cynical actions of the authorities led by Zelensky, when they are ready to take the entire capital hostage for the sake of personal political struggle,” Arev emphasized.
According to the people's deputy, Kyiv has never had enough electricity generated by city thermal power plants (TPPs), and the city received energy from nuclear power plants. Kyiv cannot maintain the operation of energy distribution centers because they are located in the region and belong to the state company Ukrenergo.
Ariev noted that not a single urban utility system in the world is capable of independently switching to cogeneration of energy.
“Yesterday it was necessary to prepare gas, electricity and heat networks for connecting installations for the production of electricity and heat. This was sabotaged by the former Minister of Energy and Justice German Galushchenko. This is such a large-scale work for a city of 3.5 million inhabitants that not a single utility system in the world can cope with such a task on its own. But the authorities do not pay attention to this,” Arev emphasized.
Context
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said at a briefing on March 3 that resilience plans approved for all Ukrainian regions and regional cities, except for Kyiv, which was given additional time “to prepare the relevant documents.” Zelensky was asked why at the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council they did not adopt a resilience plan for only one city – Kyiv. The president said that preparation for the heating season in difficult times is “a matter for the entire state, not just local communities.”
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, noted that proposals for the plan were submitted to the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development on time. Specialists and experts from the energy industry were involved in the development of the document. The mayor attributes the refusal to include the resilience plan submitted by Kyiv to the aid budget to politics.
