Public utilities under martial law

02 May 2023
Public utilities under martial law
Home > Monitoring > Public utilities under martial law

Draft bill #9236 of April 24, 2023 

Sponsor: the Cabinet 

Who is affected: the Cabinet of Ministers, companies in the energy and public utilities sectors, the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (NCSREPU), consumers of public utilities in areas of active hostilities, and territories temporarily occupied after the full-scale invasion. 

Summary of the bill: 

  • the Cabinet of Ministers will be authorized to: 
    • define special regulations for companies in the energy and public utilities sectors, the compensation procedure to such companies affected by the full-scale invasion, in particular, in the territories temporarily occupied after the full-scale invasion 
    • define regulations for companies providing public utilities (heat, hot water, centralized water supply, and sewage) in the areas of active hostilities, in particular, in the territories temporarily occupied after the full-scale invasion 
  • conditional on the Cabinet making such decisions, the NCSREPU will have to approve the appropriate service accounting procedures 
  • compensation to companies in the energy and public utilities sectors will be funded with money that Russia will pay as compensation for its aggression. 

What is right: 

  • people in the areas of active hostilities and in the territories temporarily occupied since the start of the full-scale invasion will have better access to public utilities 
  • the bill explicitly defines the source of funding for compensation for damage made to public utility companies in the course of the full-scale invasion. 

What is wrong: the Criminal Code provisions that conducting economic activities in cooperation with the aggressor is an offense. Since it is hardly possible to provide public utilities in the temporarily occupied territories without interacting with occupational administrations, the Cabinet actually proposes to introduce regulations on activities that are considered criminal under the current laws of Ukraine. 

Alternative solution: amendments should be introduced to legislation on collaborationism so that employees and companies providing services critical for the population in the temporarily occupied territories will not be held accountable for providing such services.