Kyiv residents call the amounts in their utility bills “cosmic.” And a significant part of this money goes to the Kyivteploenergo KP, a monopolist that provides the capital with heat and electricity.
Journalists from the project "In the Shadow of the Chestnut" tried to understand the finances of the company, which operates in billions every year. But it turned out to be difficult to do: Kyivteploenergo does not have public financial statements - it was closed under the pretext of martial law.
Despite this, it is known that in 2023, the Kyiv City Council recapitalized the company by UAH 2.5 billion. The money was borrowed from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development — EUR 50 million for 5 years. And it was not the company or officials who decided to give it away, but the city budget. That is, every Kyiv resident.
Moreover, the city authorities also managed to squeeze out a grant of 5 million euros from the EBRD. The formal explanation is the population's debts for heating. But perhaps the main reason for non-payment lies in the tariffs themselves.
Kyivteploenergo independently forms their size and includes in them… heat losses in networks. Officially, they reach 27%. This means that more than a quarter of the heat “disappears” on the way to the consumer, and it is for these billion-dollar losses that Kyiv residents pay out of their own pockets.
According to expert Oleksiy Kucherenko, the methodology allows only 13% of losses to be included in the tariff, but the monopolist doubles the figures. "This is a deal worth at least 2–2.5 billion hryvnias per year. The elimination of state control has opened the door to manipulation," he emphasizes.
While the authorities are writing off loans and "heat losses" on Kyiv residents, payments for the population remain astronomical.
