Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

22:31:42
19/11/2018

ukraina.ru

The political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko, in an exclusive interview with “ukraina.ru”, reported that the shutting down of heating in the cities of Ukraine is a political technology. Mayors have deliberately brought the situation in the cities to national revolts in order to show that the current president Petro Poroshenko cannot cope with his duties.

According to him, the mayors of the cities who are supporters of the leader of “Fatherland” Yuliya Tymoshenko in the upcoming 2019 elections deliberately brought the situation to the fact that “Naftogaz“ was forced to disconnect them from the gas supply.

“They brought the situation to national revolts in order to show how much of a bastard Poroshenko is. Well, of course, Poroshenko is undoubtedly a bastard, another thing is that they are no better. You see that if in all these cities the mayors really supported the opposition and that the same thing happens in all these cities (i.e., the non-payment even of restructured debts [utility bills – ed]), then it is clear that they provoke ‘Naftogaz’ which has no other ways of fighting besides shutting off the gas… They (local authorities) brought the situation to national revolts, now everyone will very quietly pay everything, and the cities will have heating, but everyone will remember that Poroshenko is a villain. I.e., this is a purely political technology,” said Ishchenko.

As a reminder, in the autumn in Ukraine there was a critical situation with the heating. Cities freeze because of the multimillion debts of gas suppliers to “Naftogaz”, which refuses to deliver gas to the enterprises.

On the evening of December 13th “Naftogaz of Ukraine” reported about the lack of a chance to give permission for gas supplies to 22 heat-supplying enterprises, including 12 large ones in nine regions. The company emphasised that in most cases the accumulation of considerable debt and the failure of the repayment schedule are a consequence of the inaction of local authorities and published a complete list of territories where local enterprises ran into debt for heating. This list included: Krivoy Rog, Pyatikhatki, the Donetsk region, Berdyansk, Kievo-Svyatoshinsky district, Fastov, Kropivnitsky, Severodonetsk, Pervomaisk, Kherson, Shepetovka, and Smela. The complete list of enterprises and the sums of debt can be seen here.

On November 16th Poroshenko, under his personal responsibility, urged freezing citizens to tear off the seals of boiler houses. He also threatened the local authorities with early elections if they don’t correct the situation with the supply of heat to the cities of Ukraine in the shortest possible time.

However, as representatives of various gas companies noted earlier, unauthorised connections to the distribution network can lead to an emergency, as a result of which the gas supply will be completely stopped.

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