Kyiv authorities prepared to evacuate capital in January due to mass missile attacks, says Klitschko

“In January we were pretty close to calling on the population to evacuate,” he told RND. “The worst blackout lasted 14 hours. There was no electricity, no water, no heating. Luckily the weather was mild. But the situation has been very difficult.”

Klitschko added that the infrastructure of the city with a population of almost three million was saved from destruction only thanks to “a lot of strength and energy.”

“The employees of our municipal companies worked around the clock,” the mayor said.

Klitschko also highly praised Germany’s military assistance, in particular the transfer of the IRIS-T air defense system. The mayor says the system saved “thousands of lives” during the Russian air strikes on Kyiv.

“Our military are excited about IRIS-T. Every shot is a hit, nobody misses,” he said.

Since October, Russian forces have launched massive rocket attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, trying to leave the civilian population without electricity, water, and heat during the winter.

Read also: Russia will fail in its new strategy to plunge Ukraine into darkness, says Zelenskyy

Dozens of missiles flew at Kyiv and surrounding areas, most of them were shot down by air defense forces, but some hit the capital’s energy and other critical infrastructure facilities.

Klitschko had stated that Kyiv was preparing for the “worst case scenario” in which the capital would be completely without heat, light and water.

The most difficult situation was after the strikes on Nov. 23, when the subway stopped working in the city for several days and all electric mass transit stopped, being replaced with non-electric. Almost all residents of Kyiv had no electricity.

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