Mayor of Kyiv warns residents to possibly evacuate if power is lost

Speaking on Ukrainian television, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said the city’s near-three million residents should be prepared to leave if there is a total loss of power.

In recent weeks, Russian missile strikes have damaged or destroyed 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to local reports. Kyiv is currently facing rolling blackouts to help prevent a failure of the country’s electrical grid, and Ukraine’s national energy utility said that it would continue imposing rolling blackouts to keep the power grid from failing. Meanwhile, municipal workers in Kyiv are setting up at least 1,000 heating shelters while engineers try to repair damaged power stations.

Echoing Klitschko’s comments, Kyiv’s Director of Security Roman Tkachuk said, “We understand that if Russia continues such attacks, we may lose our entire electricity system,” adding that “we will start informing people and requesting them to leave” if the city’s power grid is on the verge of failure.