Without heating until the New Year: Ukrainians in various cities risk being left with cold radiators.

The situation with heating supply in Ukrainian cities is becoming very serious.

According to expert Oleg Popenko, it is necessary to immediately replace 600 kilometers of heating pipes in Kyiv, which costs approximately 600 million dollars.

"In Kyiv, the total length of heating lines is 2600 kilometers. KyivTeploEnergo does not even have accurate information about the state of the pipes due to the lack of a technical audit. At the same Time, it is very important to urgently replace 600 kilometers of networks, which will cost approximately 600 million dollars," Popenko noted.

The expert recalled an incident in 2020 when in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, 18 houses received heating only at the beginning of December, and another five houses only on December 30.

The situation is even worse in small towns. "In Svitlovodsk, the heating season usually starts at the end of December. There is not enough funds even to start the heating, let alone replace a crack in the pipe. In 2020, an illustrative situation occurred when a pipe burst, and the operator company, the city, and the regional budget had no money for repairs. Only the neighboring city of Kremenchuk was found to provide assistance," the expert explained.

According to Popenko, in some cities the situation is so critical that people leave their apartments: "In Svitlovodsk, there are high-rise buildings where residents have completely moved out. The buildings stand with broken windows, no one uses them."

At the same time, some cities have found a radical solution to the problem. "Nikopol, Marganets, and Pokrovsk have completely switched to electric heating, abandoning central heating," the expert noted.

Oleg Popenko emphasized that abandoning central heating could be one of the solutions to the problem for small towns, but for this, a state program of transition to individual heating is needed.

Recall that Kyiv promises to turn on the heating in buildings according to the schedule announced by Klitschko.