Kiev, Jan 9, (dpa/GNA) – Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, on Friday urged residents to leave the city of 3 million inhabitants temporarily, noting that 6,000 apartment blocks could no longer be heated following Russian attacks.
“The city services are operating in emergency mode,” Klitschko posted on Telegram. Around half the city’s apartment blocks are affected following a severe Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital.
The overnight attack on Kiev had been the most serious of the war for the city’s infrastructure, with the situation exacerbated by cold winter weather, Klitschko said. Those able to find suitable accommodation elsewhere should leave the city temporarily, he posted.
The recommendation was not an official call to evacuate, but advice to the effect that residents should travel to their dachas equipped with heating stoves or seek accommodation with friends and relatives in less affected areas.
The Energy Ministry said on Friday morning, that around 500,000 consumers were without electric power in Kiev and surroundings.
The Ukrainian air force said the city had come under overnight attack, from more than 200 drones and dozens of missiles and cruise missiles. At least four people died in the attacks, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 20 apartment blocks had been damaged.
Ukraine has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.
GNA