Residents of the Teremky residential area in Kyiv have taken to a mass protest demanding the immediate completion of a vital backup heating main. The issue became especially acute after a severe heating season when, due to infrastructure damage, temperatures in citizens' apartments dropped to critical levels of +4°C, and water froze inside the pipes. People were forced to survive in extreme conditions without electricity, heat, and basic amenities, which became a severe ordeal for pensioners, seriously ill patients, and disabled individuals living in the microdistrict.
Essence of the conflict and environmental disputes
The need to lay the new main is driven by Kyiv's urban resilience plans in case of emergency situations and potential disruptions in the operation of CHPP-5. However, the project faced fierce resistance from eco-activists. Back in July, at the initial stage of construction work, the public expressed concern over the felling of green spaces in the forest belt through which the utility network must pass. This led to a temporary freeze of the project by city authorities in August to seek a compromise.
Contradictory data
During the implementation of the project, serious discrepancies arose regarding the scale of environmental damage and the priority of tasks. On the one hand, some activists insisted on the unconditional preservation of the forest belt and the unacceptability of cutting down trees for infrastructure needs. On the other hand, official representatives of the Kyiv City State Administration and initiative groups of local residents, including the elderly and veterans, pointed to a critical threat to the health and lives of more than 200,000 people in the Holosiivskyi District. After protracted consultations, the authorities managed to adjust the project: in the final version, up to 10 trees will be felled, while about 200 plantings will be preserved.
Social consequences and heating season prospects
The large-scale project is designed to provide reliable backup heating to 183 residential buildings, as well as about three dozen social institutions, including hospitals, schools, and kindergartens in Teremky. Local residents, such as 92-year-old veteran Volodymyr Stepanovych, emphasize the disproportion between environmental disputes and the real threat of an entire microdistrict freezing during the winter period. Citizens are demanding that the authorities accelerate installation work to launch the heating main before steady frosts set in and guarantee the safety of socially vulnerable citizens.
