On Friday, 16 October, Kyiv resumed heat supplies to hospitals, schools and kindergartens, Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced. Repairs to one of the damaged installations delayed the reconnection of parts of two districts on the left bank of the Dnipro.
What is known about the attack
According to Kyiv Post, which cites Klitschko’s statement, heat was first directed to healthcare and education facilities. The mayor did not specify which facility is being repaired. Kyiv Post notes that both districts were previously supplied by the Darnytsia power plant, which was seriously damaged in a Russian attack on 3 February. However, as of publication there has been no confirmation that this plant is the one currently being repaired.
Russia struck Kyiv’s three main thermal power plants again on the night of 13 to 14 October. Ekonomichna Pravda, cited by Kyiv Post, reported on 15 October, citing sources at energy companies, that all three had stopped generating electricity. No official statement has yet confirmed this data.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the scale of the overnight strike: according to him, Russia used 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 strike drones and loitering munitions against energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast and Kharkiv.
The city prepares its backup capacity
In a statement on 14 October, Klitschko said Kyiv had prepared almost 700 generators and 70 mobile boiler houses for water and heating facilities. The city has also built three diesel power plants. Kyiv Post recalls that last winter, attacks repeatedly disrupted heat and power supplies; on 24 January Klitschko spoke of nearly 6,000 homes without heating.
Attacks on energy infrastructure are also continuing beyond the capital. On Wednesday, 15 October, Zelensky wrote that in the evening Russia struck energy facilities in two oblasts. The day before, he said, a drone attack in Lutsk killed six people and injured 13.
What it means
For Kyiv residents, this means that facilities of key importance are the priority, and heating in parts of the left-bank districts may take longer to restore; the mayor gave no timeline or number of buildings. For readers in Poland, it is another sign that Russia is systematically attacking Ukraine’s energy sector before winter. This fuels migration pressure and increases Ukraine’s need for assistance, including energy equipment from neighbouring countries. No specific decisions on this have been announced so far.
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