Over 160 repair crews working to restore heating in Kyiv – Kuleba
As many as 166 emergency repair crews are working to restore heating supply in Kyiv after Russian attacks in January.
Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine and Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksii Kuleba announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.
"These are 847 specialists – people who work day and night. Among them are additional crews from Ukrzaliznytsia and other regions of Ukraine. Welders, track workers, builders, engineers – people of different professions united by a common goal: not to leave the capital without heat," Kuleba said.
Railway workers and utility crews from various regions – Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy, Odesa, Lviv, Rivne, Kyiv region and others – have joined the response. They are thawing frozen heating risers, replacing shut-off valves and damaged sections of heating networks, and bleeding air from the systems.
The work is being carried out in extremely difficult conditions: severe frost, power outages requiring generators, and repeated repairs on networks that have already been restored several times after previous attacks.
"There are buildings that can be launched within a few hours. And there are others where restoration has been ongoing for a third consecutive day because the system is completely frozen. Every building taken into work is restarted immediately, without postponing until the next day, to prevent repeated freezing," Kuleba said.
Heating is currently being restored in 1,331 buildings.
Due to the latest Russian strikes, the most difficult situation is in the Desnianskyi district in the Troieshchyna neighborhood. Additional warming centers have been set up there, where people can stay overnight and warm up.
As of the morning of January 25, 1,676 apartment buildings in Kyiv were without heating. Overnight, heating was restored to more than 1,600 buildings, and since morning more than 340 additional buildings have been reconnected.
Photo credit: Oleksii Kuleba / Telegram