President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko traded fresh accusations of failing to prepare the Ukrainian capital for new Russian strikes that have plunged the city into unprecedented power and water outages.
Kiev's bridges across the sweeping Dnipro River have also come under attack for the first time in nearly five years of war with Russia, snarling traffic. Outages have also frequently halted metro services.
Zelenskyy, in his latest criticism of Kiev's management, called on Friday the challenges "extremely serious".
He said the city faced the worst energy situation in the country and suggested Klitschko's administration was partly responsible.
"In fact, these are the consequences of the failure to implement decisions at the city level on preparations for the heating season, as well as of this Russian operation against Ukraine's energy infrastructure," he wrote on X.
‘Dragging its feet’
In two separate statements, Klitschko accused the government of "cynically" dragging its feet in approving a resilience plan for the city and described Zelenskyy's criticism of Kiev as "constant manipulations".
"Because in its attempts to get rid of Klitschko in any way possible, in creating constant obstacles and not helping the capital, the central government is effectively destroying Kiev," he said.
The city of more than 3 million is entering another winter of attacks on energy facilities that are sparking long periods of emergency power cuts, as Ukraine struggles amid a shortage of air-defence weapons to down fast-moving missiles and drones.
The rumble of generators has returned to torch-lit streets, with temperatures nearing freezing and residents still waiting for centralised heating to return. City-wide water outages last hours and are more frequent than in previous years.
Past feuds
The barbs are the latest in a long-running feud between Zelenskyy, a former TV comedian elected in 2019, and Klitschko, an ex-champion boxer who has served as mayor since 2014.
Wartime elections are prohibited in Ukraine, meaning both men have remained in office beyond their terms.
Zelenskyy had criticised city officials before as well for the state of Kiev's bomb shelters after three people were killed running to a locked shelter.
Klitschko has accused Zelenskyy of attempting to score political points by attacking him. Both men have rarely mentioned one another by name.
Working together
In an interview with Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne released on Thursday, Klitschko said his calls for a meeting with Zelenskyy to address Kiev's problems had gone unanswered.
His remarks came days after Zelenskyy said he had approached a number of top ex-officials to lead Kiev's military administration, a parallel wartime authority answerable to the president, but that none had agreed.
Speaking to reporters, Zelenskyy said it was "difficult" for Klitschko and presidential appointees to work together.
"Because as soon as we start talking to some managers about how to strengthen Kiev, the mayor gets the impression that someone wants to replace him," Suspilne quoted Zelenskyy as saying.
