Kyiv Mayor Urges Residents to Evacuate Temporarily Amid Ongoing Heating Crisis

Severe heating outages in Kyiv, resulting from Russian attacks, are expected to continue into the weekend. The city’s mayor has urged residents to consider leaving temporarily due to anticipated plummeting temperatures.

A significant missile and drone strike on Kyiv resulted in four fatalities and severe damage to residential buildings. Additionally, Moscow launched its dreaded Oreshnik ballistic missile at targets in western Ukraine, prompting outrage from Europe.

This assault occurred shortly after Russia dismissed a proposal from Kyiv and its Western partners to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine if a ceasefire could be established.

Journalists from AFP reported seeing residents scrambling for safety late Thursday night as air raid sirens blared, and they heard explosions from Russian drones hitting residential areas along with missiles flying overhead.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attacks, stating, «Moscow is attempting to weaponize the cold as a means of terror,» during a meeting in Kyiv with British Defense Secretary John Healy.

According to Zelensky, around 20 residential structures, including the Qatari embassy, sustained damage in what has been one of the most extensive assaults on the city in recent months.

Qatar expressed «deep regret» over the embassy’s damage, assuring that no personnel were harmed.

Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko noted that approximately half of the capital’s apartment buildings—around 6,000—are currently without heating due to the attacks.

Temperatures are projected to drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius by Saturday.

Officials indicated that they hope to restore some heating as early as Friday night, though areas with more complex damage may require additional time for repairs, according to Ukraine’s Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba.

Klitschko described the situation as «very difficult» and urged those who could to leave the city for locations with alternative heating and power sources.

City officials have established 1,200 warming centers for residents.

Among the fatalities was a medical worker who perished in a building hit during a subsequent strike, bringing the death toll to four, with 26 others injured.

Nina, a 70-year-old resident of one of the targeted buildings, expressed her frustration to AFP, questioning why discussions about a peace deal were occurring while such lethal attacks took place. «Where is Europe? Where is America? They don’t feel the pain as we do,» she lamented.

Her neighbor, 58-year-old Kostiantyn Kondratchenko, bravely battled the flames from a drone strike with a hose he used for watering plants.

This incident adds to a series of assaults on Ukraine as diplomats continue to seek a resolution to what has become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Russia has not shown any indication of reducing its ground or aerial offensives.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed it had targeted «strategic sites» with the Oreshnik missile, marking only the second known use of this new weapon, which the Kremlin claims is nearly unstoppable.

Ukrainian officials reported a ballistic missile traveling at approximately 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) per hour struck an «infrastructure facility» near Lviv, indicating that the attack targeted «civilian infrastructure,» although specific details on the damage were not provided.

The Oreshnik missile is classified as an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional payloads.

Officials in the Lviv region stated that radiation levels remained normal following the missile strike.

France, Germany, and Britain condemned Moscow’s «escalatory and unacceptable» deployment of the Oreshnik missile, according to a spokesperson from the U.K. government following a leaders’ conference among the three nations.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, the governor reported that over half a million residents were left without power or heating due to a Ukrainian strike on local utilities.

Despite ongoing efforts led by U.S. President Donald Trump for a resolution to the conflict, a comprehensive agreement continues to elude all parties involved.

Russia expressed disapproval this week of a contingent plan announced by European leaders and U.S. representatives, stating it posed «dangerous» and «destructive» implications.

Core territorial disputes remain unresolved, particularly as Russia demands full control over Ukraine’s Donbas region, part of which is still held by Kyiv.

Currently, Russia occupies roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory.

Since the invasion began in February 2022, tens of thousands have lost their lives, millions have been displaced from their homes, and much of eastern and southern Ukraine has been severely damaged.