Once a boxing champion, Kyiv's mayor is up against a challenge bigger than any he faced in the ring: keeping Ukraine’s capital functioning during a war. Vitali Klitschko, who spoke with AP, is an extraordinary mayor, in extraordinarily difficult times.
against an invader, Russia, seemingly intent on destroying all those things — with repeated barrages of missiles and exploding drones that have battered Ukraine’s power grid and other key infrastructure.
“It’s terror,” Klitschko said, delivering the word like a punch in an Associated Press interview in his City Hall office on the invasion’s 268th day.Power still comes on — sometimes — but . In a city with ubiquitous wifi and where most anything could be done online, rolling hours-long electricity cuts are the horrid new norm for many. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian strikes have damaged around half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.In blacked-out Kyiv restaurants, diners feel their way through meals in near-darkness, served by waiters carrying candles. Residents wake in the dead of night — if that’s when it’s their turn to get a few hours of power again — to shower and do laundry.So what’s the worst-case scenario? How much worse can it possibly get?Part of the answer is out of Klitschko’s very large hands. How difficult life will become depends, in part, on how many more missiles Russian President Vladimir Putin has left in his arsenal to throw at Kyiv and other cities.But on the plus side, based on the most recent strikes, fewer missiles and drones appear to be getting through the capital’s air defenses, because they’ve been beefed up with Western-supplied systems to shoot down projectiles. On, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came with more help, pledging 125 anti-aircraft guns and other defenses against exploding, Iran-supplied drones that Russia has used. “It’s much better than before. Definitely,” Klitschko said. “But it’s not enough. ... We need more to protect other cities.” Klitschko’s guess is that Putin’s strategy is to heap so much misery on Ukrainians that they give up fighting.“After every rocket attack, I talk to the people, to simple civilians. They not depressed,” he said. “They were angry, angry and ready to stay and defend our houses, our families and our future.” A Ukrainian flag affixed to the wall behind his desk reinforced his argument: “Together to victory” and “We will win,” soldiers wrote on it.Driving home his point, Klitschko cited a message he said he’d received from a Kyiv soldier telling him that on his front line, there is “no heating, no water, no electricity, no services.” “‘We’re fighting for every one of you. If you complain, think about our condition,’” Klitschko said, recalling the soldier’s plea.
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