President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that the energy supply situation in Kyiv is the worst of any region in Ukraine, blaming city authorities for failing to implement decisions on preparing the capital for winter.
Speaking after a coordination call on regional efforts to restore energy supplies and deal with the aftermath of Russian strikes, Zelenskyy said residents and businesses in the capital are enduring prolonged power and water outages, describing the challenges as extremely serious.
"In fact, these are the consequences of the failure to implement decisions at the city level on preparations for the heating season, as well as of this Russian operation against Ukraine's energy infrastructure," Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The president said the government is providing additional resources to help, including supplying equipment and accelerating repair work. He added that agreements are in place with Germany and Spain for the delivery of much-needed generators, cables and other equipment.
Zelenskyy said he was briefed on the situation in the cities of Dnipro, Kharkiv and Odesa, as well as in Poltava, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kyiv and Odesa oblasts. Separate talks were held with representatives of state-owned and private energy companies about bringing in additional crews and speeding up repairs.
The president also heard reports from the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Air Force on the use of combat aircraft to shoot down Shahed drones, along with the work of groups protecting energy and infrastructure facilities and mobile fire groups.
"We are preparing additional supplies of munitions for F-16s, relevant agreements with our partners are already in place," Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy has previously accused the Kyiv city authorities of completely failing to take the necessary steps to introduce resilience plans amid ongoing Russian aggression.
Tensions between the central government and the capital's leadership have been building for weeks. On 17 October, a protest demanding the resignation of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko was held outside the Kyiv City State Administration building on Khreshchatyk Street.
Klitschko's Udar faction urged Kyiv residents not to attend the protest, citing the security situation and warning that a large gathering could be a target for a jet-powered Shahed drone. Klitschko said the protest had been "commissioned" and "scripted" by the central government.
