Preparations underway in case of no electric power, water or district heating, says Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko
Authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv are preparing more than 1,000 heating points throughout the city in case its district heating system is disabled by continued Russian attacks, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Wednesday.
Missile and drone attacks have damaged 40% of Ukraine‘s energy infrastructure and have already briefly left large parts of Kyiv without power and water, prompting power rationing.
On Wednesday, Klitschko wrote on messaging app Telegram that city authorities were considering different scenarios due to missile attacks.
“The worst one is where there will be no electric power, water or district heating at all,” he said. “For that case, we are preparing over 1,000 heating points in our city.”
The locations will be equipped by generators and have a stock of necessities such as water, he said.
While urging Ukrainians who have already left the country to stay abroad for the winter, the government has accused Russia of provoking a new humanitarian crisis by forcing even more people to flee, scared by the prospects of having to survive with no power or heating during the cold season.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be with you for the next while.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has met with Kadri Simson, European Union commissioner for energy affairs, telling her that Russian forces have “seriously damaged” about 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, in particular thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants. Because of the attacks, Ukraine has been forced to stop exports of electricity to Europe.
A long-term defence is needed for Ukraine’s grain export corridor and the world must respond firmly to any Russian attempts to disrupt it, Zelenskiy has said, as more ships loaded despite Moscow suspending its participation in the UN-brokered deal.
Zelenskiy said ships were moving out of Ukrainian ports with their cargo thanks to the work of Turkey and the UN, the two main brokers of the 22 July grain export agreement.
In an interview with Sky News, Boris Johnson said that he did not think Vladimir Putin would use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine and doing so “would immediately tender Russia’s resignation from the club of civilised nations”.
The Russian occupying government in the Kherson oblast has moved its administration further south to Skadovsk, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces has said. Russia told civilians on Tuesday to leave an area along the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, a major extension of an evacuation order that Kyiv says amounts to the forced depopulation of occupied territory.
Russian forces launched four missile and 26 airstrikes, and carried out 27 multiple launch rocket system attacks on more than 20 settlements, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said.
The Ukrainian armed forces said its attack on Russian ammunition depots in the Zaporizhzhia oblast on 29 October destroyed five units of military equipment, killed 30 Russian personnel and wounded at least 100.
The UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, gave evidence to the international relations and defence committee in the UK parliament, addressing why he thinks Russia’s plans for a swift invasion failed. He also spoke of future Nato deployments.
The Ukrainian government accepted the resignation of Yuriy Vitrenko as chief executive of the state energy company Naftogaz. In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, Naftogaz said Vitrenko would remain in the role until 3 November, but gave no further details.
