Ukraine: anticipating a cold winter

The Bilohorodka district in the Kyiv region was left counting the cost after being partly occupied and regularly attacked by the Russian army in 2022: 40 buildings were destroyed and a further 340 seriously damaged. In addition to this the district faced ongoing power cuts which caused interruptions to supplies of water and heating during the cold season. Bilohorodka is home to 25,000 people. Last winter Lohmen, its partner city in Germany, helped improve the stability of Bilohorodka’s electricity supplies.

The partnership between the two municipalities began when Lohmen started taking in refugees from Bilohorodka after Russia invaded. Lohmen initially helped the Ukrainian district meet its pressing needs such as by replacing computer equipment damaged by the Russians. After this Lohmen focused on systematic support related to electricity,

helping Bilohorodka to install solar-thermal equipment in nurseries and schools. The equipment comprises solar panels, 300 litre boilers and system management devices. Today they help achieve 50%–80% savings on hot water, depending on the number of sunny days in the year. This also means that nurseries and schools have access to water and waste water even during power cuts. Lohmen also helped by providing several generators.

Lohmen and Bilohorodka are currently in discussions over installing solar panels on municipal buildings in order to operate a wastewater pumping station. A station of this kind would give almost half the district access to mains water and sewerage, even if a village has no power at the time. Running generators is expensive and not always possible as it can be hard to get fuel for them.

Anton Ovsiyenko is mayor of the Ukrainian district and expresses his sincere thanks to his municipal partners in Lohmen for their help with securing electricity and heating supplies. The German partners were always accessible and ready, he said, to listen to the needs and requirements of his district.

Partners from the German town of Vörstetten were also among those who raced to respond to the needs of their partner communities, says the Mayor of Hirske, Roman Dmytriv, expressing his heartfelt thanks for their support. Hirske is a district in the Kyiv region near Boryspil International Airport, which has been out of operation since the Russian invasion. The district is home to 6,000 people including many internally displaced persons, who make up 12% of the total population.

Last year Vörstetten send two generators to the Ukrainian village, one of which was presented to the local fire brigade while the other operates a gas heating system to keep critical infrastructure running. Looking ahead to autumn and winter this year, Hirske hopes to receive generators and tents for heating station with the help of their German municipal partner.

The district of Hirske is making serious preparations for the upcoming winter. They already have petrol generators to power critical infrastructure in the village. Nevertheless, alternative sources of power for critical infrastructure are still urgently needed says Roman Dmytriv. This includes gas generators which can be used when no petrol is available and solar modules to help run heating facilities. Given the ongoing conflict, Dmytriv is keenly aware of the need to install solar modules on communications towers, as communications and the internet are essential if the village is not to find itself in an information vacuum.

Friendship and collaboration between firefighters led to the partnership between the county of Rendsburg-Eckernförde and Chernivtsi Raion. Raion is located in Western Ukraine near the Romanian border and has given refuge to many internally displaced persons from other parts of Ukraine.

In the past year the partnership with Rendsburg-Eckernförde was a vital help in getting through the cold winter, says Karina Yuriyiv, Deputy Chair of Chernivtsi district administration. The Ukrainian power grid could not withstand constant Russian bombardment of Ukrainian infrastructure, causing frequent interruptions to heating and power. Without electricity it was impossible to buy food or medications, call family members or use the internet. Generators from Germany helped the villages in Chernivtsi Raion to get electricity to vulnerable groups in the local population.

Thomas Voerste, Head of the Youth and Family Department in Rendsburg-Eckernförde has visited Ukraine twice and saw the destroyed infrastructure for himself, along with the challenges facing the 650,000 inhabitants of Chernivtsi Raion. On his visits he accompanied consignments of aid from the municipal partner in Germany, which provided eight generators along with many power banks and charging stations. During power cuts the generators provided electricity to old people’s homes, several schools (one including a centre for children with additional needs), a boarding school for internally displaced persons, and rural medical clinics.

Another of the generators which Chernivtsi Raion received from their German partners has been put to use in a heating station set up in the Chernivtsi Raion administrative building. In a region where cold and darkness can prevail for 10 to 12 hours, people can come to the station to warm up, have a cup of hot tea and charge their phones.

Rendsburg-Eckernförde is currently preparing another consignment of aid for Chernivtsi Raion which includes boilers and generators for old people’s homes and schools, Thomas Voerste explains. The representative of the German district is emphatic: “We are currently helping our Ukrainian partners as best we can, and once the war is over we will share experiences between the two districts in a comprehensive way.”