Not Wanting A Protracted Political Debate With President Zelensky In The Middle Of War, Mayor Kyiv: This Is Not Good

JAKARTA - The Mayor of Kyiv, who is also former professional boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko, exchanged criticism on Sunday with Ukrainian Presidents and his allies on how to help residents overcome power outages, ridiculed their dispute as "absurd" amid the Russian military campaign.

Klitschko said the 430 "heating centers" were helping residents overcome the impact of Russia's attacks on power plants, with more than 100 planned in the event of extreme conditions.

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky noted last week, there were many complaints about the steps taken in the capital.

"I don't want to get involved in political battles, especially in the current situation," Klitschko said in a video posted on Telegram.

"That doesn't make sense. There is something to do in the city," he said.

Klitschko, who had been involved in several disputes with President Zelensky prior to the invasion, said the president's allies had been involved in "manipulation" of city efforts, including "an elusive photo" posted online.

"Simply put, this is not good. Not for Ukraine or for our foreign partners," explained Klitschko.

"Today, unlike before, everyone must unite and work together. And here we have some kind of political game," he exclaimed.

But one of the president's main allies 'has taken' a new blow, saying Klitschko's explanation was "very different" from what residents reported. He gave the mayor a week, to fix the problem and submit to inspections of aid centers.

"I have a proposal. City authorities have a week to correct mistakes and we are conducting joint inspections with the mayor," said David Arakhamia, head of the presidential People's Service group in parliament, via Telegram.

Earlier, President Zelensky in the past week promoted the efforts of thousands of "reservoir centers" set up throughout Ukraine to provide hot connections, water, internet and cell phones.

In his evening video address on Friday, President Zelensky said Mayor Kyiv had not done much to help trapped residents.

"Simply put, more work is needed," President Zelensky said.

It is known that President Zelensky was elected in 2019, five years after first Klitschko took office. Prior to the war, the two leaders clashed over how to run the capital and its services