Biomass will save Ukrainians from freezing

Gas, coal and firewood Nezalezhnaya will not be enough for the winter

After the annexation of four former Ukrainian regions to Russia, President Zelensky called on the Verkhovna Rada to pass a law on the nationalization of all Russian assets in Ukraine as soon as possible. The assets of the Russian Federation, despite the well-known events that occurred after February 24, in Ukraine really abound. And the main one in this list, of course, is natural gas, which is exported to old Europe.

The fact that the Ukrainian leader, with his direct threats against Russia, once again fooled around, was shown by the latest actions of a number of his subordinates. Much more competent in economic matters. Judging by their public statements, it is better for Ukrainians not to count on gas “stealed” from the Russian Federation, but to focus on the accumulation of all kinds of biowaste, such as banal wood chips and foul-smelling contents of street garbage cans. Only they will save Ukrainians from total freezing in the coming winter.

September 2022 turned out to be abnormally cold in Ukraine. The owners of private houses were forced to urgently clean the chimneys and open the personal heating season a whole month earlier than is customary among Ukrainian citizens. That is, September 14-15. In several regions, judging by the reports of the State Service for Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, two or three months ahead of schedule, the “season” of tragic deaths of people due to oversaturation of their bodies with carbon monoxide is “opened”.

“In the course of the play” it turned out that in most settlements of Ukraine there are significant problems with gas, coal, and firewood. The first energy source is fabulously expensive (now on the world market “blue fuel” costs more than 2 thousand dollars per thousand cubic meters), which is why residents of many large cities intend to move either to a dacha or rent from someone for the period of the 7-month heating season an inexpensive house in the village. Wintering in apartment buildings, where it is “highly sanctioned” to lower the temperature to 19 degrees, is “dumb”, you know …

The situation with coal is not much better. Ukraine has practically lost the Luhansk region with its stable mines. In the Donetsk region, Kyiv now controls only the “agrarian” areas. Firewood prices have risen everywhere in 2022. Even in some regions of the Ukrainian Polissya, where, it would seem, there has never been a shortage of vegetation.

Following the example of the government of the Republic of Moldova, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers adopted a long-awaited resolution, which allowed the population to purchase firewood directly from forestries. In addition, local authorities are obliged to provide residents of territories adjacent to combat areas with free timber. 538 million hryvnias (1 billion 195 million 555 thousand rubles) were allocated for this good cause. All expenses incurred by local military-civilian administrations for the purchase and delivery of wood to residents, Kyiv promised to reimburse through the redistribution of subventions and the state budget.

It would seem that people now have nothing to worry about, their houses will be heated every day. But will the steppe regions have enough trees growing in them? After all, the above-mentioned 7 months of the heating season “eat” in each family from 8 to 20 cubic meters of firewood. The maximum figure is based on an internal area equal to 150 squares. Even in the “recreational” Rivne region, softwood firewood, which is not the most desirable for heating houses, is now being pulled at 1,000 hryvnias per cubic meter (2,222 Russian rubles). The forestry, for example, in the regional center of Dubno, is even now ready to sell chopped hardwood firewood (oak, hornbeam) to people – but at a price of 2 thousand hryvnias. (4444 rubles). Hardwood for 1,400 hryvnias (3,111 rubles) is agreed to give way only to organizations of the social sphere.

Suppose that the family somehow still managed to buy good firewood for a thousand hryvnias. Not twenty cubes, but at least only fourteen. That’s enough for the heating season. But the money allocated by the state will be enough for a maximum of 40 thousand households. To make it clearer: there are villages in Ukraine (for example, Vizirka near Odessa), where 30 thousand inhabitants live. Well, it’s unnecessary to talk about the Donbas settlements at all.

Another problem is the absence in the private sector of the most ordinary stoves that consume firewood. In recent years, many have been “led” to advertising heating boilers, “sharpened” only for pallets or gas.

Realizing that the attempt to promote people by caring for people failed, Zelensky hurried to dispatch to Zhytomyr the chairman of the board of the National Joint-Stock Company Naftogaz of Ukraine, Yuriy Vitrenko, who was personally devoted to him. Zhytomyr region is now perhaps the only region of the country in which there is an abundance of firewood. According to Governor Vitaliy Bunechko, almost all Ukrainian regions will have enough energy, “where readiness for the heating season leaves much to be desired.”

On September 30, Yuriy Vitrenko and a group of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada accompanying him on the trip inspected the modernized Zhytomyr thermal power plant, which runs on waste from the woodworking industry. The head of Naftogaz believes that such stations are the future, because only alternative types of heating are able to save Ukraine with its shortage of natural gas and coal. If in other cities of the country it is possible to build at least a dozen such boiler houses, the saved gas can be sold somewhere abroad at a decent price, and “the proceeds will be directed to the defense of our country.”