At the beginning of summer, household consumers’ debt for district heating and hot water reached UAH 33.9 billion, which is UAH 2.2 billion (or 6.9%) more than a year ago. This data was published on the Energy Map portal. The largest debtors are Kharkiv region, Kyiv city, and Dnipropetrovsk region, which together owe UAH 20.5 billion.
As of June 1, 2025, three administrative units – Kharkiv region (UAH 8.9 billion), the Kyiv city (UAH 6.9 billion), and Dnipropetrovsk region (UAH 4.7 billion) – accounted for 60.6% of all district heating and hot water debts. In addition, these regions showed the largest increase in debt over the year: Dnipropetrovsk region added UAH 1 billion, Kharkiv region – UAH 0.4 billion, and Kyiv city – UAH 0.3 billion. Together, the debt growth of these regions amounts to UAH 1.7 billion, or more than 76% of the total debt growth in Ukraine.
Four other regions have a debt of more than UAH 1 billion:
- Donetsk – UAH 2.6 billion;
- Zaporizhzhia – UAH 1.7 billion;
- Odesa – UAH 1.6 billion;
- Kherson – UAH 1.2 billion.
Instead, 17 other regions owe a total of UAH 6.2 billion (18.1% of the total).
Zakarpattia region has the smallest debt: only UAH 0.8 million. This is due to the almost complete absence of centralized heating and hot water supply in the region.
During the non-heating season, from April to September, the level of payments for heat and hot water traditionally exceeds 100% due to the repayment of debts accumulated in the winter.
As of May 2025, the highest payment rates are in the western regions:
- Zakarpattia – 133.2%;
- Chernivtsi – 128.8%;
- Lviv – 120.5%.
The lowest level of payments is in the frontline Kherson region: only 44.1%. At the same time, during the heating season, residents paid less than a third of the accrued amounts in some months: in January – 31.6%, in February – 22.7%, in March – 26.1%. In the frontline Donetsk region, which is also under constant shelling, the payment rate for May was 55.9%. In the other 19 regions, households paid for heating and hot water at the level of 89% to 120%.
A steady upward trend in debt has been observed since 2015
While ten years ago, in June 2015, the debt for heat and hot water amounted to UAH 5.0 billion, over the decade it has grown by 578% to UAH 33.9 billion. Seasonal peaks occur during the winter heating period.
At the same time, the debt remained virtually unchanged in US dollar terms over the four years from June 2021 to June 2024, at about USD 782 million. During this period, the increase was only 0.1%, while in 2016-2021, the debt increased by more than half a billion dollars (+280.2%).
An important factor affecting the accumulation of debts is the moratorium on the termination of housing and utilities services in case of non-payment, introduced by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine: from March 5, 2022, throughout Ukraine, and from April 27, 2023, only in territories experiencing active hostilities or temporary occupation. This mechanism protects household consumers, but at the same time deepens the financial problems of utility companies.
However, consumer non-payment is only part of the picture. A significant part of the debt is caused by the lack of tariff revisions, especially for energy, and the absence of state compensation for the difference in tariffs. As a result, companies do not have the resources to pay for energy resources, which creates a chain of debt accumulation in the sector. Thus, as of the end of spring 2025, the total debt of heating companies for natural gas, as well as water utilities for electricity and its distribution, reached UAH 124.2 billion.
Debts for other housing and utilities services
As of June 1, 2025, the households’ debt for centralized water supply and sewerage amounted to UAH 9.3 billion, and for household waste disposal – UAH 2.4 billion. Updated data on household debts for natural gas and electricity are currently unavailable. The last update, from December 31, 2021, reported UAH 33.8 billion in gas debt and UAH 7.7 billion in electricity debt.
Download data on households payment level for utilities by service types (Ministry of Development). Covers payment level and arrears for housing and utility services by region and service type (heating and hot water, cold water and sewage, household waste removal). Period: July 2023 – June 2025.
Download data on households payment level for utilities by service types (State Statistics Service of Ukraine). Covers payment level and arrears for housing and utility services by region and service type (natural gas, electricity, heating and hot water, cold water and sewage, household waste removal, maintenance of buildings and structures and adjacent territories). Period: January 2014 – December 2021.
The preparation of this material was made possible thanks to the support of the American people, provided through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) within the framework of the project “Energy Sector Transparency”, implemented by the DiXi Group NGO. The information presented in this material is the sole responsibility of the DiXi Group NGO and under no circumstances can be considered as reflecting the position of USAID or the US Government.
