Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko traded accusations on Friday over failures to prepare and equip the Ukrainian capital to withstand recent Russian attacks, which have caused unprecedented power and water outages across the city.
The city, home to more than three million people, is heading into another winter under attacks targeting energy facilities and causing prolonged emergency power cuts, as Ukraine faces a shortage of air defense weapons needed to shoot down fast-moving missiles and drones.
The sound of generators has returned to the streets, which are lit by torches, as temperatures approach freezing and residents continue to wait for central heating to be restored. Water outages lasting several hours are also affecting neighborhoods across the city, occurring more frequently than in previous years.
Bridges in Kyiv spanning the Dnipro River have also come under attack for the first time since the war broke out nearly five years ago, causing severe traffic congestion. Power outages have also repeatedly disrupted metro services.
On Friday, Zelenskyy described these challenges as "extremely serious" and suggested that Klitschko's administration bore part of the responsibility.
"These are, in fact, the consequences of the failure to implement city-level decisions on preparations for the heating season, in addition to this Russian campaign against Ukraine's energy infrastructure," he wrote on X.
Less than an hour later, Klitschko responded in a video address, saying the government had been "remarkably slow" in approving a plan to strengthen the city's resilience.
"Given the intensity of enemy attacks and the lack of air defense systems to protect key facilities, their restoration, stable operation and even their very survival have become highly uncertain," he added.
