By Galina Korol | 2024-10-29

KYIV -- Winter is approaching; days are shortening, and temperatures are dropping.

Meanwhile, Russian officials running occupied Ukrainian cities are repeatedly assuring the hierarchy in Moscow that the so-called "new regions" are ready to provide adequate heat for the season.

Russian Construction Minister Irek Faizullin relayed the occupying officials' assurances to President Vladimir Putin, the Moscow-run Luhansk Information Center reported October 16.

"The preparation of facilities [in occupied areas] will be completed as planned by the end of October," he told Putin.

But reality might not match Faizullin's claims.

In late September, utility workers protesting months-long delays in wages went on strike in the "Donetsk People's Republic."

Because the boiler workers in Donetsk province "ran out of patience ... boiler houses are not being prepared for the new heating season," the Ukrainian Center for National Resistance wrote on September 30.

An update on the strike was not available.

Repairs instead of heat

Russian-occupied Mariupol also risks being left without heat this year.

"Once again, this winter there will be no central heating for the residents of the destroyed city," the Center for National Resistance wrote in late September.

"Despite local collaborators' news reports that the heating networks are at least 60% ready for the heating season ... the 'restored' boiler houses are not at all restored, and the occupiers will not be able to get them started before winter begins."

"A similar situation exists in the destroyed and temporarily occupied city of Volnovakha. And there is nothing to even say about districts such as Yasynuvata and Novoazovsk in the captured territories of Donetsk," wrote the Ukrainian resistance organization.

Workers in occupied territory are still making preliminary repairs, rather than delivering heat.

Indeed, at "current temperatures ... the boiler houses should have begun operating," said Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to the legitimate mayor of Mariupol.

But instead, "toward the beginning of autumn they [the occupation utilities] began replacing heating mains throughout the city," Andriushchenko told Kontur.

If temperatures begin to drop sharply now, the situation could become truly critical, according to Andriushchenko.

"The problem is that it isn't technically possible to start up a boiler house while the heating main is being replaced... and this could be a huge problem," he said.

In past winters, Mariupol residents used space heaters to stay warm. But a problem with the power supply caused widespread fires in the city.

"Since the start of the 'heating season,' there have been more than 300 fires. Dozens of people have died," said Vadym Boychenko, the legitimate mayor of Mariupol, according to a January 9, 2023, Oboz.ua report.

Mariupol residents should probably expect power supply problems this year as well, said Andriushchenko.

In almost three years, Mariupol's occupiers have not managed to restore the electrical infrastructure, he said.

"During the previous heating season, the city had 120,000 to 130,000 people. Today there are 30,000 to 40,000 more because of the influx of Russians [purposely brought in to change the demographics]," said Andriushchenko.

"The electrical infrastructure is not yet capable of digesting that number. ... It's all tumbling down like a house of cards."

'No scheduled work'

Winter promises to be equally difficult for the occupied parts of Kherson province.

"This is especially true for the [Russian-occupied] area of Dnipro along the river, which is an active combat zone. It will be absolutely horrible there," Yuriy Sobolevsky, first deputy chairman of the Kherson Provincial Council, told Kontur.

"Because they [the occupation authorities] have not performed any repairs, there is no program for real support of the population there. There is only propaganda."

Thus, realizing that they can expect nothing good from the occupiers, residents are trying to solve their problems on their own.

This attitude is especially prevalent in villages and districts affected by the June 2023 explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka dam and power station, which international analysts blame on Russia.

"Last winter demonstrated that the disaster at Kakhovka ... destroyed all the electrical substations and pumping stations in the cities and towns that are close to the Dnipro and suffered during the [post-explosion] flooding," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service quoted Oleksandr Samoylenko, chairman of the Kherson Provincial Council, as saying October 6.

"As a result, heating is going to amount to some stoves or the firewood that [residents] are stocking up on there," he continued.

"They are currently cutting down the forest, whatever saplings exist. The occupiers are deliberately not performing any work."

'A disaster'

Occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia province will be going through harsh times, predicted Viktor Dudukalov, deputy chairman of the Berdyansk District Council.

The heating preparations "there, like everything else, is to tick boxes," he told Kontur.

The occupiers' neglect of the heating system last winter bodes ill, he said.

"Initially, everything started up and there really was heat, but that lasted literally a few weeks," he recalled.

Breakdowns and storms derailed the heating system, and the rest of the winter was haunted by a "constant problem with heat," he recalled.

Only in October did the occupiers "start scrambling" to fix the heating system for this winter, he said. "It's clear to me that a disaster is going to happen there."

On top of it all, many residents fled the Russian occupation. As a result, Zaporizhzhia province's occupied zones have a severe shortage of heating system workers.

Puppet officials are pressing local residents into service.

"They are trying to create some sort of 'flying brigades' from locals -- ordinary residents of Berdyansk -- and to send them for training in Chuvashia [about 1,500km away from Berdyansk]," he said.

In theory, these new brigades will be able "to independently perform certain emergency work such as repairing some breaks [in heating mains]," said Dudukalov.

However, the occupation authorities' websites do not indicate whether such workers will be paid for this cold, wet toil.