Urgent need for air defenses: Interview with Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov

hromadske: A month has passed since Russia's most powerful attack on Kharkiv, when virtually all critical energy infrastructure was destroyed. Has the situation been stabilized so far? What is the situation with electricity and water supply?

Almost all of our power generation has been destroyed. So we have to borrow electricity from other regions. The situation in Kharkiv and the settlements of Kharkiv Oblat has now been stabilized. At least, there are no blackouts nows.Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration

Oleg Synegubov: There are only scheduled outages now, as we still have a shortage of electricity for 200,000-300,000 subscribers in Kharkiv and the region. On average, people have no electricity for two to four hours a day. How long we will have to live in such conditions will depend on the pace of recovery. It is ongoing now, but the damage is quite significant. That's why we don't give any deadlines. In particular, in order not to inform the enemy.

As for critical infrastructure, it has not stopped working. Even during a complete blackout, we have an autonomous power supply. This includes water utilities and sewage treatment plants. Further, of course, we will strengthen and stabilize. However, this is subject to one condition: if there are no repeated hits on our energy system.

How did you manage to stabilize the situation?

Thanks to a whole range of measures. First of all, it is the actual restoration of what can still be restored. Of course, emergency measures in cooperation with our enterprises – Ukrenergo, Centrenergo, regional power distribution companies – to provide power to the population. We also need quick assistance from the government, neighboring regions, and international partners, including generators for emergency needs. For example, in the first hours of the blackout, the Howard Buffett Foundation provided us with three large, powerful generators for critical infrastructure.

According to the Western press, the Russians are trying to force Kharkiv residents to leave the city and make it uninhabitable with these intensified attacks. Do you agree with this opinion?

No, I don't think so. We survived the heaviest onslaughts in 2022, we survived the attacks in 2023. They were more intense in Kharkiv proper than now.

At the beginning of the invasion, the enemy was too close, they could hit Kharkiv with absolutely everything: artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks, aircraft. Almost all types of weapons available to the Russians. At the moment, this is not the case.Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration

Indeed, the enemy continues to strike with S-300 missiles, guided aerial bombs, and modified 30-caliber guided munitions. However, this is a controlled situation. Unfortunately, our civilian objects and residential buildings are being hit. It is more active along the border: 15 to 20 settlements are under fire every day.

There are plans to evacuate the population from the border areas. Is such a plan being considered for Kharkiv?

There must be grounds for evacuation. First of all, those settlements that are constantly under enemy fire but where our civilians, including children, remain are evacuated. We have now made a decision to compulsorily evacuate families with children in three districts: Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv, and Izyum districts. These are four communities and almost 50 settlements. We have to evacuate 182 families with children. So far, about 70 have been taken out.

In fact, the evacuation is ongoing. We work with each family individually. Either we provide places for temporary accommodation in Kharkiv – mostly dormitories; or we can provide a place to live in the countryside; or we organize logistics and look for places outside Kharkiv Oblast. This mostly concerns people who have relatives in other regions.

As for Kharkiv, there are no grounds for evacuation today.

There is currently a lot of talk in the media about a possible summer offensive by the Russians. In this context, there have been many statements about attempts to capture Kharkiv. To what extent are they grounded?

We hear these statements every year. We must clearly understand that the enemy has not abandoned its ideas to either seize certain territories of Kharkiv Oblast or occupy Kharkiv. Therefore, we must be ready to do everything to counter any enemy sentiments and attacks.

We are talking about building fortifications and other assistance to our military. We are monitoring the enemy's actions along the border, in the north, northeast, and on the Kupyansk axis.

Do the Russians really have such an intention? What was the purpose of sending out messages about evacuation from Kharkiv? Was it the latest hit on the TV tower?

The enemy does not stop information and psychological operations, waging an information war in parallel with the war on the battlefield. We face this from time to time: we did last year, we are facing it now. In fact, active information dumps have been going on for two weeks. We have to refute and counteract all this.

We have had massive attacks on the telecommunications system of the entire Kharkiv Oblast, with eight facilities being hit. We understand this, it is nothing new for us. Because by attacking these facilities, the enemy is simultaneously strengthening its television signal to our territory, in particular to spread disinformation among our population.

As for the damaged TV tower, the situation is actually not critical. It is a technical structure that had equipment on it. It was just a digital television signal through T2 receivers that was lost. We can still watch TV through cable operators, the Internet, and satellite. That is, other sources of information are working.Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration

As for the enemy's intentions, we will refrain from talking about a possible offensive, seizure, etc. Everyone in their place should do everything to actively counteract this.

From what I can see, the Russian psyops did not work; there is no panic among Kharkiv residents. Does Kharkiv have a stable population?

Yes. Now, according to our estimates, the city has about 1.2-1.3 million people. Kharkiv is home to those people who have already decided for themselves that they are staying here. However, we should take into account the military situation that we will have in the future, every single minute.

Have you already made any decisions about the next heating season? Obviously, it will be difficult.

The last heating season was not easy either. Our task is to prevent people from noticing it. Preparing for the new heating season is very simple. We have to do everything possible to restore what has been lost or damaged as much as possible. And then we have to keep thinking about introducing the latest technologies, including decentralization of heating and electricity supply, etc.

However, these are large-scale projects. Indeed, we need to start them now. However, this situation is actually for years. We have to decide at the strategic level that this is the way to go. We need mobile heating stations, mobile boiler houses. They are small in size and heat between 5,000 and 15,000 households. In addition, we need cogeneration, the generation of electricity for the own needs of a given boiler house. This is the way we are going to move forward, both in Kharkiv and in the settlements of Kharkiv Oblast.

What kind of weapons can protect Kharkiv, and when do you expect to receive them?

We expected them yesterday. We need it for yesterday. Not for tomorrow, not for the day after tomorrow, but for yesterday. First of all, these are air defense systems. This is what Kharkiv needs. Any systems, complex systems. And of course, we need to strengthen our army on the battlefield.

You have seconds to react to air strikes. Are air defense systems capable of reacting so quickly and intercepting targets?

It depends. A set of measures must be taken, and it's not just about hitting the air targets themselves. We are talking about the destruction of the installations that launch these missiles. In other words, a comprehensive approach to protecting the skies over Kharkiv Oblast must be implemented.

Indeed, it takes 30-40 seconds to reach us. This is if we take S-300 missiles. Different types of missiles are launched. But the most massive ones are S-300 missiles. They fly for 30-40 seconds from the moment of launch, if the enemy launches them from the territory of Belgorod Oblast.

How do businesses survive in the current environment? We can see that small and medium-sized businesses, including those in the service sector, are operating in Kharkiv on a massive scale. What about medium and large enterprises? How many of them have shut down?

Of course, we have a slump in the work of enterprises. Some of them were relocated. Some of them were destroyed, both in Kharkiv and in the region, and we feel it. There are hundreds of such enterprises.

As a government, we must do everything possible to introduce additional incentives to support businesses. We already have such developments and specific solutions. In particular, with regard to preferential loans for businesses located in Kharkiv Oblast. For example, a 30% discount on rail transportation of agricultural products. Also, local budgets will be compensated for losses associated with the exemption of local businesses from paying local taxes. This is also a rather significant decision. So, in fact, this set of measures allows us to support both small and medium-sized businesses and to speak frankly with big businesses.

How bad is the damage in the region, and how do you help civilians?

Our region, among the de-occupied ones, is probably the most destroyed in Ukraine. Almost 50,000 facilities have been destroyed or damaged. Of these, 35,000 are private households and more than 15,000 are high-rise buildings. I'm not talking about administrative buildings, cultural institutions, kindergartens, hospitals, and schools.

We are now working to launch offline education in some districts in September this year. But building a safe educational environment requires a lot of preparation.

We are currently implementing the "eRestoration" program, through which the government compensates people for the costs associated with repairing their homes that were damaged as a result of the hostilities. Payments in our region have already reached about UAH 2 billion ($50.4 million). This is the largest amount. We are such "sad leaders" in the country. In addition, we have launched a project to compensate for completely destroyed housing. And people are already receiving such certificates.

We have to maintain life, we have to recover in parallel. And, of course, we have to think about the frontline.