Criticism of Mayor Klitschko Grows in Kyiv

A new war winter is approaching in Kyiv. Many residents accuse Mayor Klitschko of mismanagement. Instead of securing power and water supply, money is being spent on road construction. By Rebecca Barth. "Kyiv without Klitschko," protesters chanted on Saturday in front of the Kyiv City Administration. Their list of grievances is long: chaos on the streets, chaos in public transport, opaque large construction projects, and recurring corruption scandals surrounding Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Vira and others demand his resignation: "We are dissatisfied with his leadership. Right now, it is an acute phase, but the results of his work over the past twelve years are generally poor." Constant airstrikes complicate the situation. Furthermore, there are constant Russian airstrikes, but far too few shelters, hours-long outages of power and water supply, and worries about the coming winter. Political scientist Wolodymyr Fesenko speaks of general mismanagement. A prime example is the extensive road construction projects. We are talking about billions. In peacetime, roads should take priority. But not in wartime. Why are construction activities currently ramping up? It irritates people that money is being made from this, Fesenko says. Money that should have been invested in the protection of critical infrastructure, in shelters, drones, and emergency power generators, is the accusation. Criticism is coming not only from the streets but also from the highest levels. President Wolodymyr Zelensky accused Klitschko of failing in the city's winter preparations. Klitschko rejected the criticism last week before parliament. For two months, Kyiv has been constantly subjected to attacks on its infrastructure. This is a challenge for every citizen of the city, Klitschko stated. "As the city administration, we are trying with all our strength to ensure the functioning of the city—despite the jabs from the Zelensky government that constantly tries to undermine us," he said. The conflict between Klitschko and Zelensky has been ongoing for several years. The latter sees himself subjected to a smear campaign. Zelensky's government has blocked funds, thereby hindering winter preparations, claims Klitschko. Political scientist Fesenko believes that the Ukrainian president is indeed trying to instrumentalize public discontent. However, the criticism of Klitschko is justified. There was justified criticism of Klitschko last winter, and the same holds true now—there are plenty of problems, Fesenko asserts. Problems nationwide, not just in Kyiv. However, these problems exist nationwide, says Wolodymyr Kudryzkyj. The former head of the energy supplier Ukrenerho fears that critical facilities have hardly been equipped with emergency power sources. "That means that most critical infrastructure facilities would simply not function if local power supply fails," Kudryzkyj states. This would affect heating plants, hospitals, and wastewater pumping stations of municipal water suppliers. People would be without vital services. All these facilities should have been fitted with diesel generators long ago, he emphasizes. "The government has painted over the situation." Kudryzkyj accuses the government of downplaying the situation. Even if Ukraine is capable of repairing damage after new Russian attacks, the entire energy system lacks power generation capacity in the fifth year of war. "We not only need to restore damaged facilities but also build new generation capacities," he says. Moreover, these capacities need to be decentralized so that it becomes harder to target and destroy them. This is the main issue in preparations for the heating season, according to Kudryzkyj. Massive outages last winter. At the protests in front of the city administration, protester Vira remembers last winter. For days, she had no electricity or heating. At minus 20 degrees, she hung plastic sheets in front of her windows to retain at least a little warmth in her apartment. "We received water at certain times, two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, as long as the generator for the pumps was running. For the rest of the time, we had neither water nor electricity. One cannot prepare for such a total blackout," she recalls. And even now, the problems are enormous—before the heating season has even started. After the latest Russian attack, Vira had once again lost both electricity and water at home.