Zelensky and Klitschko trade blame as Kyiv faces power and water outages after Russian strikes

Outages across the capital

Russian strikes on energy infrastructure have left Kyiv, a city of more than three million people, with severe power and water cuts. Residents and businesses are living with long interruptions, and generators have again become a common sight on streets where temperatures are approaching freezing. Water supply is cut for several hours in different districts, and such incidents are more frequent than in earlier years. Power cuts have repeatedly disrupted the metro. The attacks also targeted bridges over the Dnipro river, the first such strikes since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, which added to traffic problems. Ukraine's shortage of air defence systems and munitions limits its capacity to intercept Russian missiles and drones.

Zelensky points at city hall

On Friday, 6 November, President Volodymyr Zelensky described the energy situation in Kyiv as the worst in the country. He blamed both the Russian attacks and the city administration's failure to carry out decisions on preparing for the heating season, and he made the point in a post on social media.

“The worst situation is in Kyiv: people and companies have long power and water outages, and the challenges are very serious.”

Zelensky said the central government is providing additional equipment and resources to speed up repairs, and that agreements had been reached with Germany and Spain for generators, cables and other equipment. Bonuses have been introduced for workers restoring the affected systems, and Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said parts of the armed forces should also help rebuild the power grid. Zelensky said he had also spoken with state and private energy companies about sending extra crews to the capital.

Klitschko rejects the accusations

Mayor Vitali Klitschko rejected the criticism in two statements on Friday, calling Zelensky's accusations repeated manipulation and saying the presidential administration is trying to undermine his position. He accused central authorities of delaying approval of a plan to strengthen the capital's infrastructure resilience, a plan he said had stalled for almost half a year. Since spring, the city has run an energy staff bringing together experts, power engineers, practitioners and scientists, which has drawn up responses for different scenarios. He warned that, with such intensive attacks and no air defence protecting key facilities, their restoration and stable operation are in doubt. In an interview with Suspilne, he said water interruptions this autumn and winter are happening more often than in any earlier year of the full-scale war, and that the city has built water reserves and backup power for hospitals, schools and water intakes. He put the scale of the power problem in numbers.

“Kyiv needs 2 GW of electricity, and it is completely impossible to cover that need with generators.”

Klitschko stressed that generators cannot fully replace central power supply for a city of this size.

Water utility and protests

In an interview with TSN published on 4 November, Zelensky said the management of Kyivvodokanal, the city water utility, is not working well enough and should work faster. He said that if the management needs replacing, it should be replaced, and that promises to work around the clock are not enough. He also recounted a case in which residents blocked a street after a long loss of power, and said he had called the interior minister, who reported that police had already dealt with the situation and that there had not been enough workers at the site. On 17 October, a demonstration on Khreshchatyk outside the Kyiv City State Administration building demanded Klitschko's dismissal, with protesters pointing to a shortage of mobile and stationary shelters. Zelensky had earlier accused the city authorities of not carrying out the steps needed to implement the city's resilience plans.

Latest state of the dispute

Water cuts of several hours and power outages were still being reported across Kyiv on Friday, 6 November, the day both leaders made their latest statements.