Ukraine’s cabinet freezes payments to communities for energy, housing, and winter preparations

Ukraine’s government has halted payments to local communities for the protection of energy infrastructure, preparation for the heating season, repair of damage from shelling, and restoration of destroyed housing — in violation of existing legislation.

This was reported to the outlet Apostrophe by Oksana Prodan, adviser to the chairman of the Association of Cities of Ukraine, citing representatives of municipalities.

According to Prodan, the government does not have the authority to unilaterally suspend such payments — a decision by the Verkhovna Rada is required to do so.

“There is a state budget and a law under which the government operates. In a parliamentary-presidential republic, the government cannot simply choose whether or not to pay. The government cannot independently suspend these payments without a decision of the Verkhovna Rada, without parliament. If there are problems with funds, the government should see this not today about yesterday, but in advance. Based on that, they are obliged to prepare amendments to the state budget for the current year and bring those amendments to parliament for approval,” — Prodan commented on the situation.

The adviser also questioned how communities are supposed to prepare for the heating season and fulfill resilience plans in the absence of the funds allocated for that purpose.

In addition, Prodan pointed to the state’s debt to district heating enterprises.

“The government today owes 85 billion hryvnias to district heating enterprises, which it is not repaying and does not plan to repay,” — she stated.

The debt amounts to approximately EUR 1.7 billion at the current exchange rate.

Earlier, Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk, a member of parliament from the Servant of the People party, stated that due to a critical budget deficit, Ukraine is currently financing only three areas: social expenditures, salaries for public sector workers, and the maintenance of the military. The finance minister contradicted her, though he himself had said the day before that Ukraine had already begun to restrict state spending due to a slowdown in international aid and that delays in social payments were possible.