On Nov. 19, residents of Kyiv’s Zoolohichna Street blocked the road in an act of protest. The people were angry that their buildings had been without heating for a month — despite Kyiv seeing its first snowfall of the season and temperatures regularly hovering below freezing. The utilities service blamed the problem on a breakdown that was under repair.
If that explanation sounds unconvincing, it is also one that residents of Kyiv have long heard. Kyivans and people across Ukraine have gotten used to outages of heating, hot water and power. In fact, some residents of the capital have not had hot water for six months.
As of Nov. 13, 20 cities across Ukraine were without heating. Today, that number has been reduced to five. In these conditions, the residents of Zoolohichna Street were reacting as any normal person would.
“Ukraine is Europe!” is a common slogan that expresses a key idea of the EuroMaidan Revolution that rid the nation of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014: that Ukraine must chart a path to greater integration with the European Union, an idea the Kyiv Post has always backed.
But there is no Europe without basic standards of living. The Ukrainian government must find a solution to the utility woes. The problem is complex. But it is unacceptable for the citizens of a European country to live without heating, hot water and sometimes power.
With Ukraine’s 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections fast approaching, politicians have been beating the drums of identity, language and faith to attract voters.
But fundamentally, Ukraine needs leaders who can solve its problems and give its people a better quality or life. While Ukrainians may be divided over issues of language or religion utilities shutoffs can potentially affect everyone.
Politicians would be wise to devote less time to defining who Ukrainians are and claiming that the country is part of Europe and work harder to fix its concrete, everyday problems. Without heating and hot water in the winter, there can be no European Ukraine.
