Unusual warning from Kyiv's mayor: We are switching to survival mode

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko warned that the city is switching to a "survival mode" amid intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure and bridges. He urged residents who have relatives outside the capital to leave temporarily, but stressed he is not calling for a full evacuation, since that is what Putin is seeking. Since 2022, 534 people have died in Kyiv, 189 of them since the start of 2026.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko issued an unusual warning: amid intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, bridges and other critical facilities, the city is switching to a "survival mode". In an interview with AFP published on 8 October, Klitschko urged residents who have relatives outside the capital to leave temporarily. At the same time, he stressed that he is not calling for a full evacuation, since that, he said, is exactly what Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is seeking. Klitschko noted that strikes on the bridges across the Dnipro complicate transport links, and the resumption of attacks on the power grid raises fears that the coming winter will be as hard as the previous one, when residents were left without electricity and heating for several days in frosts down to -20°C. According to the Kyiv city state administration's health department, Russian attacks have killed at least 534 people in the capital since 2022, and 189 people have died since the start of 2026. Klitschko also placed part of the responsibility on Zelensky's government, with which he has a long-running conflict, and said that "the search for scapegoats will not warm people". President Zelensky, for his part, said that Putin had ordered restrictions on air attacks to be lifted, and that a new Russian doctrine permits strikes on a wider range of civilian targets.