Freezing Kiev in the dark – Image Social Media X
Kiev has started suffering like the frontlines.
As the Russia-Ukraine war nears its fourth year, we’ve come to the point where Moscow forces’ combined missile-drone strikes have degraded enemy power generation and electrical grids so much that they can’t get it fixed before a new wave of attacks hits.
The result is that even the capital Kiev is going through a grueling winter in the cold and dark.
And that is not information from military Telegram channels or analysts: the mayor of the capital is stating this to whoever will hear him.
Kyiv is receiving only half the electricity it needs
According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the capital is facing its most severe energy crisis since the start of the war due to Russian attacks on infrastructure.
Klitschko said the city of 3.6 million people requires 1,700… pic.twitter.com/walwO021E0
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 17, 2026
Reuters reported:
“Ukraine’s capital Kiev has only about half the electricity that it needs as it faces its most severe wartime energy crisis following waves of Russian attacks on its infrastructure, mayor Vitali Klitschko told Reuters on Friday.
Kiev, one of Eastern Europe’s largest cities, requires 1,700 megawatts of electricity to power the services for its 3.6 million people, Klitschko said.”
Ukraine’s top energy expert Oleksandr Kharchenko, commenting after the Kyiv mayor urged people to leave the city:
“Leave Kyiv if you’ve already had no heating for a week.
Because in the near future, most likely, there won’t be any.”
Photo @HromadskeUA pic.twitter.com/1FkhREfyKo
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) January 18, 2026
“Klitschko said the current energy crisis was the most difficult challenge facing the capital in the nearly four years since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. ‘It’s the first time in the history of our city that, in such severe frosts, most of the city was left without heating and with a huge shortage of electricity’, Klitschko, a former world heavyweight boxing champion, said in an interview in his office at the heart of Kiev.”
18 to 20 hours a day without electricity has become the norm.
This week, Nighttime temperatures in Kiev have dropped to -17 Celsius (1 Fahrenheit).
“Klitschko reiterated his call for Kiev residents to leave the city if they have the opportunity to do so to ease the pressure on its infrastructure.”
Vitali Klitschko has urged residents of Kiev to leave the city amid an energy crisis .
According to Klitschko, Kiev currently has only about half of the electricity it needs, facing its most severe energy crisis since February 2022. Some residents are experiencing centralized… pic.twitter.com/0HW34ZKe4V
— Bernadette (@BDooher) January 17, 2026
Read more:
Amid a Myriad of Problems, Ukrainian Air Defense Is Now Running Out of Ammo
The post UKRAINE WINTER DESPAIR: Kiev Only Has Half the Electricity It Needs to Function, According to Mayor Klitschko appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.