President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared a national energy emergency and created a coordination headquarters for Kyiv on 14 January, criticizing unnamed officials for lacking “intensity.” Mayor Vitali Klitschko fired back within hours, revealing the two leaders haven’t met personally once during nearly four years of full-scale war.
“I’m answering you publicly, forgive me. Because in the last four years, Mr. President, we unfortunately haven’t met even once,” Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
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The exchange came as Kyiv endures its worst energy crisis since Russia’s 2022 invasion. Residents have been without power 46% of the time since the devastating 9 January strike, according to Ekonomichna Pravda monitoring data.
The attacks on 9 and 13 January broke Kyiv’s “energy ring”—the network of substations that distributes power across districts—leaving some neighborhoods cut off even when electricity is available elsewhere in the system.
What changes now
Zelenskyy’s evening address announced a permanent coordination headquarters for Kyiv, led by the First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Energy. The government will fast-track approvals for connecting backup generators and increase electricity imports from Europe.
“It’s important that state institutions, business, and all levels of local government work together.”
Curfew rules will also change. Communities Minister Oleksii Kuleba clarified that curfews won’t be canceled—but exceptions will allow critical infrastructure to operate around the clock and enable residents to access warming points at any hour.
“It’s important that state institutions, business, and all levels of local government work together, in coordination,” Zelenskyy said. “Everyone’s results determine the shared result for the whole country.”
“What intensity does the president not see?”
Klitschko rejected the criticism as an insult to workers operating around the clock in minus-10-degree cold.
He cited the numbers: heating restored to all but 400 of the 6,000 buildings that lost it after the strikes. Over 1,200 warming points open citywide. Social workers deliver hot meals daily to more than 3,000 elderly and disabled residents.
“They don’t have weapons in their hands, but they too are fighting for their country.”
“Such statements primarily diminish the selfless work of thousands of people,” Klitschko wrote. “They don’t have weapons in their hands, but through their tireless efforts, they too are fighting for their country.”
The mayor also defended his advice that residents with options should consider temporarily relocating west. Data support the suggestion: Khmelnytskyi and Lutsk have power roughly 90% of the time, compared to Kyiv’s 54%. Boryspil and Brovary, suburbs on Kyiv’s left bank, have been dark 77% and 64% of the time since 9 January.
A third layer of blame
The political clash obscures a deeper problem. Ekonomichna Pravda noted that January’s crisis combines “real winter frost for the first time in years, strikes on energy infrastructure, and consequences of years of theft by officials in the energy sector”—systemic failures predating both leaders.
Kyiv also missed its December deadline for installing protected cogeneration units, while smaller cities like Zhytomyr built distributed generation that survived the same attacks without citywide blackouts.
Both men are working. The national government has added 1 GW of generating capacity and deployed mobile generators to the worst-hit buildings. City crews restored heat to thousands of homes. But the broken energy ring requires unified command—something the political rivalry has made harder to achieve.
The new coordination headquarters forces two men who haven’t been in the same room for nearly four years to work through the same chain of command. Whether that resolves the problem or becomes another arena for blame will shape how Kyiv navigates the rest of the winter.
