Political civil war in Ukraine: The evacuation of Kherson and Kiev has begun – Without electricity, heating and with polar temperatures million citizens

Tragic conditions for millions of Ukrainians

The Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, issued a recommendation to evacuate Kyiv, stressing that “anyone who has a house in the suburbs with water, heating or friends should go.

Those who can move now to the suburbs of Kiev, to their summer house or to their friends’ residence, if there is water supply and they have a fireplace, move immediately ,” Klitschko emphasized.

In an interview with RBK-Ukraine, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko stressed that residents of the Ukrainian capital should be prepared for “the worst case scenario”.

The most serious crisis is located in central and eastern Ukraine as Russian raids are more frequent in these areas.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that 14 of Ukraine’s 27 regions and Kyiv have been cut off, which equates to more than 100,000 consumers per region.

“This shows us how important it is to store energy and consume it within a reasonable framework,” added the Ukrainian president.

It is noted that the New York Times had reported on November 6 that the authorities in Kiev had begun planning the evacuation of the city’s three million residents in the event of a complete blackout in the Ukrainian capital. After the reactions, Roman Tkachuk, director of the security department of Kyiv, had denied the information.

On November 23, Russia launched its fifth massive attack on energy infrastructure on Ukrainian territory, causing widespread power, telecommunications and water outages in Kyiv and other cities. The previous heavy Russian attacks took place on 10 October, 17 October, 31 October and 15 November. According to Klitschko, the day after the November 23 attack, 70% of households in Kyiv were left without power.

Recommendation of the Mayor of Kyiv: “Leave the city”!

Klitschko called on Kiev residents to prepare for a prolonged blackout in the capital by stocking up on food, water, warm clothes and power banks.

Regarding the speculation that there are plans to evacuate Kiev due to the Russian attacks, Klitschko specifically said that it would be a “big mistake” if they do not prepare for different scenarios by confirming this information.

Specifically stated:

“We have to be prepared for different scenarios, even the bad ones.

In this case, each of us has an algorithm of actions, even evacuation.

I am not ruling out the worst case scenario which is evacuation.

There will not be a complete evacuation, maybe a partial evacuation, but it is forbidden to call it an evacuation.

It will be a temporary relocation of certain categories of people to the suburbs, where the proper services will be available,” argued Klitschko, who even called on those who are able to leave the city to do so.

“In the case of a bad scenario, it would be good for anyone who has a house in the suburbs with water, heating or friends, to go,” emphasized the mayor of Kyiv.

He did not specify which areas these are, whether the authorities will organize the relocation or whether the citizens themselves will be relocated, which he himself had requested. He also asked those who can now move to the suburbs of Kiev, in their summer house or in the residence of their friends, if there is water supply and they have a fireplace.

No power until spring

He said they should prepare for back-to-back power outages that could last until next spring.

“We have to be prepared for the fact that power outages may continue into the spring.

This is due to the low temperatures, but also because many people have devices that provide heat, some have warm floors.

People always consume more electricity when the weather is cold, and that’s why there is a big load on the energy system,” emphasized Klitshcko.

Political civil war in Ukraine – Mayor of Kyiv: “I don’t want to get involved in political disputes”

At the same time, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned of political unrest due to power outages and appealed for calm.

“We must continue to work together to defend the country and protect the infrastructure,” he noted, adding that authorities are looking for a solution in “record time.”

“I don’t want to get involved in political disputes, especially in the current situation, ” Klitschko said in a video posted on Telegram.

“This is meaningless. I have things to do in town.”

Klitschko, who had clashed numerous times with Zelenskiy before the Russian invasion, said allies of the president had engaged in “misrepresentations” about the city’s efforts, including “incomprehensible photos” posted online.

“To put it mildly, this is not nice. Neither for the Ukrainians nor for our foreign partners,” Klitschko said. Today, as never before, everyone must unite and work together. And here we have some kind of political games.”

As Klitschko said, at the moment in Kyiv there are 430 points that provide heating and are working.

Asked about the criticism leveled at him regarding shortcomings and problems in the organization, he said that the issue is being politicized.

“When I meet MPs from the ruling party either on detours or at checkpoints, they tell me everything is working fine, and then I see them making posts saying everything is bad.

This is not good for the residents of the city or for our foreign allies,” said Klitschko, who estimated that more than 3.3 million people currently live in Kyiv.

“We have about 3.35 million inhabitants, calculation based on the use of smartphones” emphasized the mayor of Kyiv.

Zelensky last week referred to “invincible centers” to be set up across Ukraine to provide free 24-hour electricity, heating, water, internet and a pharmacy

In his late-night video speech on Friday, Zelensky said the mayor of Kyiv had not done enough to help the capital’s residents.

“To put it mildly, more work is needed, ” the Ukrainian president said.

Zelenskiy was elected overwhelmingly in 2019, five years after Klitschko first took office. Before the war, the two political leaders had clashed over the way the capital and its services were run.

Snow and bitter cold in Kyiv with Ukrainians without electricity and heating

Snow is falling in Kyiv and the temperature is hovering around zero as tens of thousands of residents of the Ukrainian capital remain without electricity and heating.

The cold weather is gradually increasing consumers’ energy needs and technicians are racing against time to repair energy infrastructure damaged by Russian bombing, grid operator Ukrenergo said.

Power producers are still unable to fully feed the grid after Russia’s missile attacks last Wednesday and have no choice but to save energy by forcing blackouts, he added.

“The consumption restriction regime remains in force due to the deficit, which is around 20%, ” Ukrenergo said yesterday in its Telegram post.

Moscow has targeted critical infrastructure in recent weeks, causing widespread blackouts. Last Wednesday’s attacks caused the worst damage to date, leaving millions of people without electricity, water or heating as the mercury plunged below zero degrees Celsius.

David Arakhamiya, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, predicted that Russia would launch new attacks on infrastructure this week, which is expected to be “really difficult”.

On Saturday night, November 26, Zelensky said there were restrictions on the use of electricity in 14 of Ukraine’s 27 regions – including Kyiv and its surroundings. These restrictions affect more than 100,000 consumers in each region. “If consumption increases at night, the number of power outages may increase,” he said in his daily address, repeating his appeal to citizens to save energy.

Forecasters predict that the snowfall in Kyiv will continue until the middle of the week, while the temperature will remain at very low levels.

Four hours of electricity a day

Sergey Kovalenko, head of the YASNO company that supplies electricity to Kyiv, said the situation in the city had improved but remained “quite difficult”.

He explained that residents should have electricity for at least four hours a day. “If you didn’t have electricity for at least four hours yesterday, contact the Kyiv Electric Network DTEK, colleagues will help you find what the problem is,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

YASNO is the retail arm of DTEK, the largest private energy company.

Ukrenergo warned that blackouts would continue and urged consumers to limit energy use.

“We want to remind you that now, every Ukrainian whose house has electricity restored, can help restore it for others faster, just by consuming electricity sparingly ,” the company said.

Kherson is a ghost town again: Hundreds of Ukrainians are leaving the city

Hundreds of Ukrainians fled the city of Kherson on Sunday. The evacuations began last week amid fears that damage to infrastructure was too severe for people to withstand Ukraine’s harsh winter, where the snowfall began.

The mass exodus has now been magnified due to the Russian bombings.

“It’s sad that we’re leaving our home ,” Yevhen Yankov told The Associated Press.

” Now we are free, but we have to leave, because there are bombings and there are dead people in the population.”

Galina Lugova, the head of the city’s military administration, said authorities ” will do everything to keep people safe,” but “the shelling is intensifying every day. Bombings, bombings and more bombings.”

Vitaliy Nadochiy told AP that the artillery hit his house. “Four apartments were burnt. The windows were broken,” he said. “We can’t be there. There is no electricity, water, heating. So we’re leaving to go to my brother.”