Kiev council suggests residents leave in winter, cites power outages
A cold winter is upon Kiev's residents.
Member of Kiev's city council, Andriy Vitrenko, recommended Sunday that residents leave the Ukrainian capital for winter to avoid problems with energy if they had the chance.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that authorities could organize evacuating Ukrainian residents only in case of emergency and as a last resort - however, it isn't necessary to do so.
"To be honest, the situation is complicated. If people have an opportunity to spend winter in more comfortable conditions, they should do it to maintain the level of comfort that our citizens get used to," Vitrenko told TV channel Kyiv.
On November 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that around 40% o Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been damaged due to the war, particularly as a result of Russian strikes in response to Ukraine's bombing attack on the Crimean bridge.
Addressing the post-strike power outages, Ukrenergo (Ukraine's national energy company) stated that Kiev's energy infrastructure has been damaged due to the missile attack. Residents across Ukrainian cities were told to cut down on electricity consumption for the time being.
In October, Ukraine's Energy Ministry also announced that it will stop its electricity exports to the EU as of October 11 on account of the damage inflicted by the attacks.