«We will try not to repeat last year's mistakes»: Vereshchuk assessed the state of Mykolaiv region's readiness for winter

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk and the head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim. Photo: NikVesti

Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk is confident that Mykolaiv Oblast will enter the upcoming 2024-2025 heating season without any problems. She positively assessed the level of preparation of the region for the winter period.

She said this at a meeting with journalists during her visit to Mykolaiv, NikVesti writes.

«I want to thank the Mykolaiv Oblast for systematic preparation, for the fact that everything was done on time. I see that we will enter the heating season together with our partners with quality, we will try not to repeat the mistakes that were made last year, and you know that they were,» she said.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the problems of the last heating season arose in most of the front-line territories of Ukraine. She associates this with the late start of training.

«And this is not only in the Mykolayiv region, it is in all the front-line territories that belatedly began to form a need. We started this year in May, and I can already state that we will enter the heating season on time and professionally,» said Iryna Vereshchuk.

She said that it is the first time she has seen such a systematic preparation for winter in the Mykolaiv region.

«I travel to different regions, I often visit frontline regions, and for the first time I saw such systematic training. We have an order of the Cabinet of Ministers that each region had to adopt its regional life support plan for the region for 2024-2025. This plan has specific steps the region needs to take to get through the winter. And today, for the first time, I saw such a plan being implemented in Mykolaiv region. A clear understanding of how many centers of invincibility we have, how many fuel reserves are needed, what a network of food, medicine, water, etc. should be deployed,» said Iryna Vereshchuk.

We will remind that in June 2024, Mykolaiv city mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych reported to the chairman of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Oleksii Chernyshov, how the city was preparing for the start of the heating season.

It is worth noting that Oleksii Chernyshov in a comment to NikVesti promised to monitor that Mykolaiv CHP was ready for the heating season this year.

How the Nikolaev CHP failed the heating season in 2023

Excavation of Mykolaiv thermal power plant in the center of Mykolaiv, photo from the archive of NikVesti, September 2023.

The 2023-24 heating season in Mykolaiv began on November 14, but Mykolaiv CHP was able to provide heat to residents only at the beginning of December due to numerous accidents on heating networks. The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, believes that the problems with starting heat will only get worse in the coming years.

After the disruption of the heating season and statements by the Mykolaiv RMA about the need for personnel decisions, the CHP began an official investigation to find the culprits.

As of the evening of November 18, 2023, Mykolaiv CHP connected only half of the total number of its consumers in Mykolaiv to heat. At the same time, in September, the CHP reported that it was 92% ready for the start of the heating season.

Excavation of the CHP plant in the center of Mykolaiv, photo from the archive of NikVesti, November 2023

As of the evening of November 20 , dozens of apartment buildings remained without heating in Mykolaiv. In several districts of the city, repair works of heating networks continued. Then the first deputy of Mykolaiv city mayor Vitalii Lukov announced that they plan to connect all residential buildings of Mykolaiv to heat in a few days.

However, on the evening of November 21 , there were still more than 400 apartment buildings in the city without heating. Mykolaiv CHPP said that delays in the supply of heat to multi-apartment buildings occurred due to large gusts on the main pipelines of the heating lines.

On November 30, the CHP reported that due to emergency work in three more areas of the city, residents will again be left without heating for some time. However, the company immediately announced the good news — according to forecasters, the weather conditions in Mykolaiv are expected to improve.

Numerous gusts of CHP networks are connected, in particular, with the fact that last heating season the enterprise used salty water from the estuary, which accelerates the corrosion of already outdated pipes. In contrast to this, purified water from wells was poured into «Mykolaivvoblteploenergo», which NikVesti wrote in the article «Winter is near: What will the heating season be like in Mykolaiv?». Thus, the start of both heating seasons began without disruptions and significant accidents in the houses served by the regional heat and power utility.

At the same time, the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant reported that during the 2023/2024 heating season, water from the estuary will be poured in only in emergency cases. Thus, the company's networks are filled with salt water by 8%, while last year the systems were filled with estuarine water by 91%.

The section of Mariupolska Street where the CHP refuses to repair the asphalt, photo NikVesti, March 2024

For six months now, Mykolaiv TPP has not brought Mariupolska (Moskovska) Street from Tsentralnyi Avenue to Chkalov, where repair work on heating networks was carried out last fall, into order. The Mykolaiv CHP says that it makes no sense to asphalt the excavated sections of the road along Mariupolska Street, because in a few months there will be a partial replacement of the heating line there. The section of networks should be replaced from Dunaieva Street to Sevastopolska Street. Similar works will be carried out in the areas along Pohranychna Street.

We will remind you that the director of the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant (TPP) Dmytro Myroshnychenko submitted a declaration on property and income for 2023. During the year, the official earned 2 million 143 thousand 897 hryvnias. On average, the salary of an official was 178 thousand hryvnias per month (about 4.5 thousand US dollars).

In addition, the Mykolaiv District Administrative Court will consider the case based on the claim of the journalist of the online media NikVesti against the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant (TPP), which refused to provide information about the salaries of the management during 2023.