Zelensky accused Kyiv authorities of insufficient preparation for the heating season

Criticism after a meeting on the regions

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the Kyiv city authorities over prolonged power and water outages. Summing up a meeting on the situation in the regions, he wrote on social media that 'the most difficult situation is in Kyiv,' where residents and businesses are facing lengthy outages, and linked this to 'the consequences of failure to implement decisions at the city level on preparation for the heating season and the Russian operation against Ukraine's energy infrastructure.' This is reported by Life.ru.

The Kyiv mayor's position

Earlier, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated that damage to an energy facility in Zhytomyr had led to new problems with electricity and water supply in the capital: pressure in the water networks dropped, and utility services began switching part of the equipment to backup power. According to him, specialists at Kyivvodokanal are trying to keep pumping stations running with the help of generators, but not all equipment can be switched to backup sources. Life.ru also notes that Klitschko accused Zelensky of trying to get rid of him and of destroying Kyiv — thus, the public assessments of the causes of the crisis by the president and the mayor diverge.

Recovery measures

To address the consequences of the damage, the Ukrainian government expects to speed up restoration work and bring in additional repair crews. Zelensky announced agreements with Germany and Spain on the supply of generators, cables and other equipment. Power supply problems were also discussed with regard to Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa and a number of regions. To support specialists involved in infrastructure repairs, a program of monthly bonus payments is being launched — it covers energy workers, utility employees, railway workers and staff of water supply companies.