Deputy Minister for Reconstruction Oliinyk to be responsible for protecting the energy infrastructure of Kyiv region. Will they make it before the frosts?

By November 15, Kyiv region must, on an accelerated basis, equip its main substations with second-level protection against attacks by conventional and jet-powered "Shaheds," as well as build first-level protection for important life-support facilities in accordance with the region’s resilience plan. A specially established working group of the Ministry for Restoration, headed by Deputy Minister Ruslan Oliynyk, is responsible for completing the task within the tight deadlines, UNN reports, citing UNIAN.

According to documents of the working group available to the editorial office, this concerns both stepping up the construction work itself and simplifying administrative procedures and accelerating funding.

However, the question remains open as to whether bureaucracy will become the "bottleneck" of the entire process.

Resilience plan

The energy facilities of the capital region — substations, power lines, and generating capacity — have become one of the priority targets of enemy attacks. Therefore, they require additional protection. The functioning of the economy of the entire state directly depends on the speed and quality of construction of protective structures.

The massive strikes on the energy infrastructure of Kyiv region this autumn confirmed that the region requires special attention and that the protection of its energy facilities must be accelerated.

In mid-October, the Ministry for Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport established an interagency working group to help Kyiv region implement the planned measures to protect critical infrastructure. In particular, it is to step up implementation of the Comprehensive Regional Resilience Plan adopted back in February 2026. The group is headed by Deputy Minister Ruslan Oliynyk. Representatives of the Ministry of Energy, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, the State Emergency Service, the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, and energy companies were involved in the work.

The Comprehensive Resilience Plan is a standardized document developed and presented at meetings of the National Security and Defense Council by the heads of each region and Kyiv. It consists of four components: backup power for critical infrastructure facilities (combined heat and power plants, hospitals, and water utilities), decentralized electricity generation, decentralized heat generation, and the physical protection of critical energy facilities — power plants, pumping stations, electrical substations, and so on. Each region and community independently included in the plan the facilities and works it considered priorities, while the Cabinet of Ministers approved the plans and allocated the relevant funding — in full or in part. The specific list of facilities is not made public for security reasons.

In accordance with government directive No. 257-r, Kyiv region received slightly more than UAH 1 billion. Another UAH 600 million was allocated from the regional budget (a subvention under directive No. 821-r). The government did not distribute the funds for a long time, as a result of which the original deadline for implementing the resilience plans — September 1 — was effectively missed.

In mid-September, the funds were "unfrozen," but amid total austerity it is extremely important to distribute them as efficiently as possible. In fact, streamlining and accelerating this process is one of the key tasks of Oliynyk’s working group.

Tight deadlines

The editorial office obtained a protocol of assignments to various members of the working group, which clarifies the priorities and deadlines for completing the tasks, as well as the scope of audits and inspections to be carried out. Most of the measures must be completed by November 15.

In particular, the protocol refers to the need to "step up the quality implementation of the necessary measures/works at critical infrastructure facilities" and "carry out such works within the shortest possible timeframes in order to ensure the livelihoods of the population of Kyiv region under martial law, subject to compliance with the legislation of Ukraine regulating activities in this area."

Among the top-priority tasks is conducting a comprehensive analysis of the readiness of 110 kV substations across the region, the amounts of planned, allocated and used funding, and the status of the development and expert review of the design and cost-estimate documentation. Lists of problematic issues, risks and circumstances preventing the timely completion of the works and commissioning of the substations within the specified deadlines must also be determined as soon as possible. The relevant adjustments to the design and cost-estimate documentation must be made by the end of October.

In the coming days, the local authorities and the energy companies responsible must select contractors for the permanent and temporary electrical connection of the substations to the relevant power grids and submit coordinated proposals on the timelines for carrying out such works and the required funding. In addition, by the end of October, the regional administration should conduct a financial audit of payments already made and works already carried out: reconciliation of mutual settlements with contracting organizations, agreement on the actual volumes of completed works, their cost and compliance with acceptance certificates, compliance with the design and cost-estimate documentation, determination of outstanding debts and advances not confirmed by completed works, and so on.

Before the functions of the client are transferred to the Restoration Agency, all necessary settlements with contractors should be completed, and in the coming days the issue of advancing the works to connect the substations to the grids should be considered.

Situation under control?

As our source at the Ministry for Restoration told us, Deputy Minister Ruslan Oliinyk has personally been dealing for more than a week with checking the readiness of facilities in Kyiv region and coordinating issues related to work schedules and funding, the risks of delays, as well as the use of advances already paid and verifying whether the funds spent correspond to the works actually completed. The possibility of carrying out the announced works to protect energy facilities in Kyiv region within a short timeframe de facto depends on establishing the real state of affairs. That is why the task has been assigned at the deputy-minister level: he must ensure the interaction of all involved bodies and organizations, facilitate the prompt resolution of technical and organizational issues, and monitor compliance with the established deadlines.

"Under conditions of constant military threats, preparing critical infrastructure requires not only coordinated decisions, but also a concrete result at every facility. It is the works actually completed, proper engineering protection and the readiness of the infrastructure for possible strikes that will determine how the region can get through the difficult winter period. Therefore, it is important now to eliminate the problems hindering the works and prevent the deadlines from being missed," our interlocutor at the Ministry for Restoration adds.

The tight deadlines for implementing the plans appear to be the most risky "bottleneck" in carrying out these ambitious plans. Adjustments to the design and cost-estimate documentation may continue until October 30, while the standard regulatory period for the expert review of energy-protection facilities is up to 30 days. The protocol explicitly states that local authorities and energy companies must "promptly eliminate" comments from expert organizations. Therefore, if the expert institutions are not also ready to speed up their work, the deadlines may be missed. At the same time, back in March 2026, the government allowed the use of standard designs without a repeat expert review, meaning that quick compromise solutions may be possible here.

The direct connection of the substations depends on the procurement of equipment, which, in turn, is tied to the allocation of funds. This will depend on the speed of the audit of payments already made and the region's readiness to advance future expenses (since the redistribution of funds between the regions and the Agency is scheduled for the last two weeks of December).

Kyiv's experience demonstrated that some of the works can be carried out many times faster than the city authorities did so.

"Previously, the standard construction period for protection at a substation was one year. Some regional administrations have only now completed facilities that were started in August last year. In frontline regions, despite air-raid alerts and winter conditions, we built such structures in approximately five months, and in Kyiv—in three. The work began in May, and by September it was approximately 90% complete. At some very large substations, the Agency and Ukrenergo previously built protection over a period of two years," former head of the State Agency for Restoration Serhii Sukhomlyn said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.

However, the feasibility of implementing the ambitious objectives of ensuring the resilience plan in Kyiv region will depend on the effectiveness of coordinating the efforts of all parties involved. After all, it appears that both the speed and the quality of protecting energy facilities ultimately rely not only on the availability of the necessary funds and the expertise of the contractors, but also on the readiness of those involved in the process to make unconventional management decisions in order to avoid bureaucratic obstacles, which are the greatest risk for any project of this scale. The protection of critical infrastructure facilities and the resilience plan in the capital region will depend to a large extent on the management decisions of the current working group.