Ukrainians are buying heating equipment en masse – Financial Times
Washington - Kyiv, October 16 (PolitNavigator, Vasily Ablyazimov) - Ukrainians fear that the ongoing conflict in the Southeast and with Russia could lead to a winter energy crisis, writes the American edition of the Financial Times Thursday.
Subscribe to the news "PolitNavigator - Kyiv" в Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
At the Foxtrot household appliances store in Kyiv, the most sold-out item was the Delonghi oil electric heater. “This is the last of the 20 heaters brought today,” says Alexander, a salesman at the store. Sales of such heaters, he notes, have increased fivefold compared to last year.
This increase in sales is one of the signs of panic gripping Ukraine ahead of winter, as the country teeters on the brink of an energy crisis.
Imports of Russian natural gas have been cut off since June due to debt. The conflict in the Southeast has cut off coal supplies to Ukraine.
“Russia now has much more leverage over Ukraine than in 2006 and 2009, when there were disputes over gas,” said Dmitry Marunich, an analyst at the Ukrainian Energy Campaign. “Kyiv has lost effective control over most of the coal mining industry, which in turn affects electricity production.”
So far, Ukraine has managed to store 16 billion cubic meters of gas in underground reservoirs, that is, 5 billion cubic meters less than necessary.
Meanwhile, the largest private power producer, DTEK, warned this weekend that some of its thermal power plants could be closed within weeks due to a coal shortage.
“The remaining coal will allow us to work from 10 to 20 days, depending on the type (power) of the station,” said DTEK Director Maxim Timchenko. The company has 370 tons of reserves, but this is far from the 000 million tons of reserves it had a year ago.”
In addition, arrears in payment for electricity from the regions of the former Donetsk and Lugansk regions are growing. “We should have cut off this region a long time ago,” Yuri Nedashkovsky, head of the state nuclear company that produces half the country’s electricity needs, said this week.
The country is preparing for an energy famine, notes the Financial Times. Gas supplies to chemical plants are currently limited. Officials are also considering a longer winter break from school.
Many Ukrainians do not expect the negotiations between Poroshenko and Putin to bring any positive results, so they are insulating their houses as best they can, replacing windows and buying up oil heaters. But, as Alexander, a salesman at the Foxtrot store, admits, this may be useless if there are hours-long power outages. “We, unfortunately, do not have anything in stock to help customers keep their apartments warm if electricity, like gas, is cut off,” he said.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.