On the night of April 24, a residential building on Salyutna Street in Kyiv was hit by a hostile drone. Some of the homes were left without windows, the roof needs major repairs, and most importantly, residents have been without gas for over three weeks. The restoration of basic living conditions has stalled not because of a lack of resources or specialists, but because of the bureaucratic trap that people have found themselves in.

Anna Holovko, a resident of the building, wrote about the situation on social media.

Police, investigators, utility workers, and representatives of Kyivgaz arrived at the scene on the morning of April 24. For security reasons, the gas supply was cut off - a logical decision, since the damaged windows and the unknown state of communications could pose a threat. A few days later, local authorities, in particular the Shevchenkivsk Regional State Administration, promised assistance with roof repairs, garbage removal, and damage assessment. Some of the promises were fulfilled - the garbage was removed, the destroyed cars were taken away, and some windows were temporarily covered with film.

But that's where it all stopped.

Now residents are left without gas - the main source for cooking. The problem lies in the procedure for checking ventilation ducts. It would seem to be a technical formality. But it turned out that Kyivgaz does not accept the acts provided by the contractor company of the Housing Office. They need documentation of a different form, approved in accordance with the new norms of the order of the Ministry of Energy No. 402, which came into force in February 2025.

And here is the main thing: the act must be issued exclusively by a company that meets strict new criteria. And there is only one such enterprise in Ukraine. And this is no joke.

According to the new rules, enterprises servicing smoke ventilation ducts must have their own information and communication system, certified by state expertise. Only one company was able to obtain such a certificate - LLC "Specialized Organization "Spetsgaz". This company, according to activists, has connections with People's Deputy Oleksiy Kucherenko.

The fact is that the Ministry of Energy issued Order No. 402 "On Approval of the Rules for the Technical Operation of Gas Supply Systems." By this order, the energy sector obliged chimney sweeps to create software, and also to protect it at the level of a state secret (in fact, they require that business entities have an information and communication system (ICS), on which a comprehensive information protection system (CSI) is built).

The development and receipt of all these documents takes up to a year at best.

And a month later, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law that makes it impossible to obtain those documents (CSI certificate) at all, since the procedure for the security profile must now be developed by the Ministry of Energy itself.

But the Ministry is in no hurry to develop a new procedure or a transitional period to fulfill its requirements.

Now it is Spetsgaz that is the only player on the market capable of providing the necessary acts. This opens the way to a de facto monopoly: old contractors lose the right to provide services, contracts with them are terminated, new ones are concluded exclusively with the “right” supplier. And residents who want to speed up the process have to pay for individual inspections of each apartment — from 400 to 1000 hryvnias.

“In the city of Kyiv, houses are not being connected to the gas supply in large numbers after the Russian rocket attacks. And all because of the new regulations for servicing gas systems adopted. As a result, we have an artificially created monopoly. The right to connect was given to one company for the entire country called “Spetsgaz”, which is controlled by the BYuT MP Kucherenko. As a result of the scheme, each resident must pay an additional 1000 hryvnias from their own pocket, and this is after their house was shelled by the Russians,” writes public activist Serhiy Golovko.

So far, we are talking about one situation in Kyiv. But tomorrow there may be dozens or hundreds of such stories throughout the country. Especially in houses that have suffered from hostilities - without gas, with broken windows, old electrical networks and residents who often do not have the financial means to solve the problem on their own.

According to blogger Yuriy Smirnov, an artificially created monopoly in the form of representatives "Spetsgaz" is already actively putting pressure on managers and other enterprises. The goal is to terminate previous contracts for servicing smoke and ventilation ducts and conclude them with the "correct", or rather, a single enterprise.

If the ventilation system servicing market is transferred to the hands of one company, we will get a new type of communal dependence - a legally established monopoly, veiled under security requirements. And citizens will be left alone with a system that more resembles a well-thought-out scheme than a real mechanism for caring for people.

This situation requires an immediate response from the Kyiv City Administration, the Antimonopoly Committee and parliamentary committees. Legislative initiatives, even under the guise of security, have no right to lead to social isolation of citizens and the actual privatization of public utilities.

The editorial office of "Ukrainian Energy" has asked for an official comment from MP Oleksiy Kucherenko. He assured that a dishonest and manipulative PR campaign is being conducted against him - in order to protect his own name, Kucherenko has addressed a parliamentary request to the Ministry of Energy, the State Inspectorate for Energy Supervision and the State Agency for the Protection of Natural Resources and Energy. After all, it is these state bodies that are to blame for the fact that residents of the capital's high-rise building are still without gas.

"As a MP of Ukraine, I have learned from citizens' appeals and messages on social networks about the problematic situation that has developed in an apartment building at the address: 25A Salyutna Street in Kyiv after a drone strike that occurred on April 24, 2025. The problem may also affect other buildings. According to the information received, the operator of gas distribution networks JSC "Kyivgas" refuses to restore the emergency gas supply to the house due to the need to obtain a different form of certificate for servicing smoke ventilation ducts. At the same time, the relevant management company, which provides services for the housing stock, reports on the holding of a tender and the conclusion of contracts at the time of the need for proper provision of services with the company that conducted an inspection of the internal gas networks in the specified house. As a result, the residents of the damaged house have been without gas supply for the third week. As the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services, in my activities I pay special attention to the issues of providing high-quality housing and communal services, the safety of citizens' residence, as well as control over the activities of business entities in the relevant field. "Considering the above, I ask you, within your own powers, to immediately take the necessary measures aimed at restoring the rights of the residents of the specified building, as well as preventing similar violations in the future," wrote Oleksiy Kucherenko.

Olena Marchenko, specially for "Ukrainian Energy"