The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has said he can’t rule out that the Ukrainian capital could be left without water and power as a result of Russia's devastating strikes on energy infrastructure.
"We are doing everything so that this does not happen. But let's be honest, our enemies are doing everything to keep the city without heat, electricity, and water, and for us all to die. We are not ruling it out, we are calculating various scenarios in order to withstand this and be prepared," Klitschko said on November 5.
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Ukraine has been grappling with power outages and the disruption of water supplies since Russia started unleashing massive barrages of missile and drone strikes on the country's energy infrastructure last month.
Moscow has said those came in response to what it alleged were Ukrainian attacks on Crimea, the region that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine has denied those allegations.
Klitschko said that Kyiv was doing what it can to prevent an energy and water emergency, stockpiling food supplies and water while having electrical generators ready to go if need be.
"We are ready for various scenarios, we will not give up," Klitschko added.
Over the past month, Russian missiles and drones have inflicted damage on power plants, water supplies and other civilian targets, in a grinding war that is nearing its nine-month mark.
According to Ukrainian authorities, about 40 percent of the country’s energy infrastructure has been “seriously damaged” by Russian shelling, triggering power outages in many areas of the country.
Klitschko’s comments come as Ukrenerho, the sole operator of Ukraine’s high-voltage transmission lines, first said in an online statement on November 5 that scheduled blackouts will take place in the capital and the greater Kyiv region, as well as several regions around it -- Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Poltava, and Kharkiv.
Later in the day, however, the company released an update saying that scheduled outages for a specific number of hours aren't enough and instead there will be emergency outages, which could last an indefinite amount of time.