Heating season starts in all regions except Kherson, Odesa

This was reported by Deputy Minister for Community and Territorial Develment, Tymur Tkachenko, during a telethon broadcast, as cited by Ukrinform, referencing the Ministry's press service.

"In terms of numbers, 71% of boiler houses are up and running. Currently, 37% of buildings across Ukraine are being heated. Regions with near-total or complete connection include: Vyn – 100%, Zhytomyr – 100%, Rivne – 99.8%, Ternil – 99.9%, Chernivtsi – 99.0%, and Chernihiv – 98.3%. Additionally, 73% of kindergartens, nearly 65% of educational institutions, and 69% of healthcare facilities are connected," Tkachenko stated.

The Deputy Minister also mentioned that, due to worsening weather conditions, residential buildings in the capital would begin receiving heat today.

Tkachenko emphasized that Ukrainians should prepare for a challenging winter as enemies continue to attempt to leave the entire country without heat. Thus, each region and community has a contingency plan in place for critical situations.

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Preparations for winter began well in advance to ensure that communities also have heating, especially in cities and towns such as Kharkiv, Ladyzhyn, Burshtyn, Ukrainka, Dobrotvir, Zelenodsk, and Shostka. Efforts are underway to establish distributed systems for generating electricity and heat.

“Special attention is being given to frontline communities in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipretrovsk, Kherson, Mykaiv, and Odesa regions. We are working with the Ministry of Energy and international partners to provide these areas with necessary backup equipment,” the Deputy Minister noted.

The Ukrainian government has also launched an initiative to provide timely information on the heating season. Social media pages under the name “Unified Community Headquarters” have been set up for this purpose.