Kyiv eyes emergency evacuation plan amid fears of total blackout: ‘Won’t be death of city’

It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal barrage of strikes in recent weeks hit 40 percent of the country’s critical energy infrastructure, forcing multiple regions, including Kyiv, to conduct rolling blackouts to balance the grid which operators make repairs.

Mr Klitschko has called Russia’s deliberate attacks on energy infrastructure “terrorism” and “genocide”. He said Putin “doesn’t need us Ukrainians. He needs territory, he needs Ukraine without us”, adding that this is “why everything that is happening now [strikes on infrastructure] is genocide. His task is for us to die, to freeze, or to make us flee our land so that he can have it”.

Now, the capital’s mayor has urged citizens to prepare for different scenarios but has ensured that he is doing “everything” to keep the power running. However, under the “worst-case scenario”, Mr Klitchko advises that residents arrange to stay with friends or relatives who live in the suburbs and still have water and power if the energy supply to Kyiv is lost. 

But according to Pavlo Kukhta, an energy expert and former advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Putin will need to up the ante if he is to cause enough damage to warrant this response. 

Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1693411/kyiv-blackout-ukraine-russia-vitaly-klitschko