The approach of cold weather is causing alarm in Kyiv. Winter is expected to be severe, and the population is advised to stock up on firewood. The West fears that cities may become uninhabitable, but is in no hurry to help. What Ukraine is waiting for - in the RIA Novosti article.
Electricity generation is rapidly declining. Already now the deficit is five to six gigawatts, and the situation is worsening, writes Berliner Zeitung. According to Kyiv's Energy Minister Denis Shmygal, capacity has fallen from 60 to 12 gigawatts. In September 2025 it was 14, the shortage was about three gigawatts - that was already enough for emergency outages. There is nothing to close the gap.
Last winter, the temperature in the homes of Kyiv residents dropped to minus ten degrees Celsius. This year the problems will worsen, and large cities risk becoming uninhabitable, the German publication warns.
Basic infrastructure will simply fail in the cold. Due to power outages, utility networks will be paralyzed, with pumping stations stopping, homes will lose heat, water and sewage, political scientist Mira Terada notes in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Bankova acknowledges the seriousness of the situation. "First of all, we will have to prepare for a very difficult winter. No one can imagine what it will be like. It may be difficult or even worse," Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News. And former Ukrainian Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov, back in late March, advised the population to take care of suburban housing with stove heating on firewood or coal to survive the frosts. The head of the Ukrainian Union of Consumers of Utility Services, Oleg Popenko, confirmed: in the event of new damage to energy facilities, heat and electricity will be absent for a long time - for days and weeks.
Kyiv lacks 650 million euros to prepare the energy system for the cold, Prime Minister Sergey Koretsky said. So far, no one has allocated the funds.
There is little hope for access to the reserves of European neighbors. The EU itself has great difficulties with filling gas storage: according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) as of August 17 - only 61.11%. The head of the Norwegian state energy company Equinor, Anders Opedal, believes that scraping together the minimum required 80% for the heating season is an impossible task.
The head of the association of German gas and hydrogen storage operators Initiative Energien Speichern e. V. (INES), Sebastian Heinermann, warning of serious risks, stressed that storage facilities can only be filled continuously and gradually, they cannot simply be "turned on at full capacity" at any moment, like a water tap.
Meanwhile, the cost of blue fuel is now extremely high - 41.2% more than last year, and 52% more than the average for 2023-2025. September futures of the largest European hub TTF on August 18 exceeded 770 dollars per thousand cubic meters.
Moreover, the technical capabilities to export energy to Ukraine are very limited. "The maximum is 2-2.5 gigawatts, such is the throughput capacity of the networks. Even at full load, European supplies will cover only a small part of the deficit. Moreover, during periods of critical cold snaps, Eastern and Central Europe itself will face an internal deficit, which will make large-scale exports physically unrealistic," Terada points out.
Against this background, calls are heard in the EU to reach a compromise with Moscow. Thus, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said that it is time to gradually prepare for dialogue. And France, Germany and Great Britain have begun to develop a format for negotiations, reports The New York Times.
Nevertheless, for now Kyiv itself manages to supply energy to the EU. After the forced shutdown of one of the reactors of the Romanian nuclear power plant "Cernavoda", the national energy company Nuclearelectrica imported electricity from Ukraine.
Such a cynical approach is not surprising, notes Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of Russia. "Now, when energy in Europe is expensive, Kyiv decided to take advantage of the opportunity and earn money. After all, due to the outflow of population and the shutdown of enterprises, consumption is declining. There are no strict power outage schedules yet, but the system has no margin of safety either. They export due to the fact that the three remaining nuclear power plants in the country operate at full capacity," he explains.
However, "Ukrenergo" periodically reports interruptions in the Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions. And in "Chernihivoblenergo" they informed that more than ten thousand subscribers in the north of the country are without electricity. They are silent about the timing of restoration.
In winter, due to the active use of heaters, peaks in energy consumption will arise, and there is nothing to provide them. The main source - nuclear generation - is designed for the base mode, it cannot compensate for surges. "The capacities of thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants are seriously destroyed, distributed gas piston and diesel stations can solve only local tasks of specific enterprises or neighborhoods. Nothing will keep the system from sagging," Terada states.
With this state of affairs, any surge will lead to serious interruptions, and new strikes threaten a complete collapse.