Freezing and waiting: in the cities of Ukraine they refuse to turn on the heating

Despite the fact that cold weather has already arrived in many cities of Ukraine, the heating season in the country has not yet begun. It's all about the acute shortage of gas in the country. And although the Ukrainian authorities deny plans to postpone the start of the heating season, the facts speak for themselves: heat supply has not yet begun even to social facilities. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

What is happening with the heating season in Ukraine in 2025

It became known that the Ukrainian authorities are going to postpone the start of the heating season as much as possible due to the acute shortage of gas in the country. Alexey Kucherenko, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services, was one of the first to announce this.

"There will be problems with gas, especially given the recent strikes on production, respectively [there will be] problems with the balance, there will not be enough gas, they will save it," the Ukrainian Telegraph portal quoted him as saying on the Telegram channel.

It is specified that the postponement of the start of the heating season is considered as a necessary measure to save limited gas reserves. According to the commander-in-chief, the later the central heating system is launched, the less gas will be consumed in winter.

According to a government decree reported by the media, in 2025, the heating season will begin on November 1, not October 15, and end on March 31, not April 15. The Ministry of Energy denied information about the shortening of the heating period, and shifted responsibility for its start to local authorities.

"When the average daily temperature in the region stays below +8 degrees for more than 3 days, the heating is turned on," the ministry explained.

What is the current heating situation in Ukraine

Heating will not be turned on in Lviv in the coming weeks, although it has become "really cold," Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on October 12.

"As for the heating, it's really cold. But now the situation in the country is such that in the next few weeks we will not be able to supply heating. We need to wait a bit to do everything right — to keep it warm in winter," Sadovoy wrote.

The situation is similar in Dnipropetrovsk and Chernihiv regions, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr and Rivne.

Dnepropetrovsk Mayor Boris Filatov, addressing local governments and officials from other regions of Ukraine and the government on October 12, called for postponing the start of the heating season as much as possible.

"The heating season should start as late as possible. And it should start simultaneously and centrally across the country," he wrote in a telegram channel.

According to Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, it is already clear that the heating season will be "very, very difficult." The fact is that all the thermal power plants and transformer substations in the city are damaged.

The mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, noted that in the capital of Ukraine, heating is being applied to some social infrastructure facilities, but batteries remain cold in residential buildings.

The head of the Union of Consumers of Public Utilities of Ukraine Oleg Popenko admitted that this winter the temperature in apartments can drop to 12-14 ° C.

"Winter is going to be very difficult. We have little gas. <...> We will be forced to stay in apartment buildings where the temperature will be 12-14°C instead of the usual 17-22°C.With and, the pressure will be lowered, and there may even be gas shutdowns. Because our combined gas transportation system and gas storage facilities have been repeatedly damaged," Popenko said.

He recalled that the 13.2 billion cubic meters of gas planned to be pumped this year was only enough until February last winter, and then they bought it 2-2.5 times more expensive.

The situation with gas reserves in Ukraine in October 2025

The shortening of the heating season is taking place against the background of a serious shortage of energy resources in the country. After damage to energy infrastructure facilities in Kharkiv and Poltava regions, according to Bloomberg, Ukraine lost more than 60% of its natural gas production capacity. To pass the autumn-winter period, Kiev will need to purchase about 4.4 billion cubic meters of gas — about 20% of annual consumption, which is estimated at about 1.9 billion euros.

It is noted that Ukraine has already purchased about 4.6 billion cubic meters of gas from foreign suppliers this year. Kiev estimates that the country will need 5.8 billion cubic meters of gas by the end of 2025, but this figure may increase depending on a number of factors. In particular, the key point will be the speed of restoration of the country's energy infrastructure facilities.

Curiously, the Kiev authorities at the same time deny problems with gas reserves. Although the Ukrainian consulting company EXPRO noted at the end of the summer that gas reserves in storage facilities had reached their lowest level in the last 12 years, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal argued that there would be no problems, and the necessary volumes could be obtained in the West.