Police searches at energy company deepen Zelensky-Klitschko tensions over Kyiv's winter preparations

Tensions are brewing in Kyiv as authorities shift responsibility for the energy crisis unfolding in the capital — while residents endure protracted power and water outages, temperature drops, and Russian attacks on the energy system continue.

Kyiv’s city-run heating company, Kyivteploenergo, accused the police of pressuring the company and seizing important documents pertaining to the capital’s energy resilience plan on Nov. 6.

In a public statement, Kyivteploenergo said that the police had searched the company and the homes of several employees. The company didn’t provide details as to why the searches took place.

Kyivteploenergo did not reply to the Kyiv Independent’s request for proof that the police searched the premises and seized documents by the time of publication.

"Kyivteploenergo believes that searches under such circumstances may indicate political pressure," the company wrote on its website.

"The situation is especially critical during the preparation for the launch of heating for millions of Kyivans."

Around the same time as Kyivteploenergo published the statement, the Kyiv City Administration publicly backed the company’s accusations and stressed the importance of the media covering the searches.

In response, Kyiv’s Prosecutor’s Office dismissed both the administration’s and Kyivteploenergo’s claims. The police did not take any documents, nor did they search Kyivteploenergo’s premises, the Prosecutor’s Office wrote on Telegram.

Instead, the police were investigating two employees as part of a suspected corruption case, the Prosecutor’s Office wrote.

"Investigative actions were carried out on the basis of court orders exclusively at the homes of two Kyivteploenergo employees and employees of contractor organizations, as part of an investigation into the possible theft and misappropriation of budget funds by inflating the cost of materials during construction work," the Prosecutor’s Office wrote.

Throughout the full-scale war, law enforcement authorities have uncovered numerous cases of embezzlement, particularly in the energy sector. Last year, anti-corruption authorities revealed a massive kickback scheme at the state-run nuclear company Energoatom involving top officials in the President’s Office.

The searches of Kyivteploenergo employees come as President Volodymyr Zelensky again criticized Kyiv’s authorities for failing to prepare the capital in time for winter. Throughout the year, Zelensky stressed that Kyiv was behind schedule with its energy resilience plan, which was first announced in March.

"The challenges (in Kyiv) are very serious. In effect, this is the result of the failure to carry out decisions at the city level on preparing for the heating season, along with this Russian operation against Ukrainian energy," Zelensky wrote on social media on Nov. 6.

Kyiv and the central government have traded blame for the worsening state of Kyiv's energy infrastructure ahead of winter.

According to people in Ukraine's energy sector who earlier spoke with the Kyiv Independent ahead of winter, the government announced the "resilience plans" without securing the funds needed to complete them. As a result, many regions, including Kyiv, were unable to prepare ahead of the cold season, they said.

But Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko, who has a long-running public feud with Zelensky, said that the government had failed to approve Kyiv’s resilience plan for nearly six months. Disputes over funding and implementation meant that the government only approved the plan in early August — just a month before autumn, according to the mayor.

"The central government’s mantra that Kyiv is the worst off, the constant manipulation and lies, is a bad story," Klitschko wrote on his Telegram channel on Nov. 6.

"Because in trying to get rid of Klitschko by any means, creating constant obstacles and not helping the capital, the central government is in effect destroying Kyiv," Klitschko wrote, suggesting the president is using the crisis to discredit him and weaken him as a political rival.

For Kyiv’s residents, the disputes between authorities aren’t helping their situation.

As the capital currently endures days-long power outages, frustrated residents blocked a street in protest on the morning of Nov. 6, Radio Svoboda reported. One woman told Radio Svoboda that in the last three days, she only had one hour of power.

With most Kyivans expecting another harsh winter without power and heating, some among those who can are leaving the capital for other parts of Ukraine or even abroad.