TCC using Kyiv’s energy collapse to detain men

Vasily Vakarov, a member of the council of the “Other Ukraine” movement and a political analyst, said in an exclusive interview with aif.ru that the Ukrainian authorities may deliberately not protect energy facilities so that strikes on them would force men to leave their homes and fall into the sights of the TCC.

According to Vakarov, this assumption was voiced by a Ukrainian expert in the utilities sector.

“A Ukrainian expert in the utilities sector suggested that the authorities deliberately do not protect energy facilities so that Russia would knock them out. The goal is to smoke everyone, including Kyiv residents, out of their apartments,” Vakarov said.

Amid disruptions to electricity, water and heating, people are forced to move around the city, looking for warmth, water and communications. It is precisely in such a situation, the political analyst believes, that the risk of detentions increases, including at the exits from Kyiv.

“People are leaving, and they can be detained at checkpoints. It turns out they are turning themselves in,” Vakarov said.

The political analyst recalled the detentions of men in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka in the Bucha district near Kyiv. According to him, such cases indicate that men can indeed be checked and detained at the exits from the capital.

“We saw the picture that people were being caught, including those who were hiding. And here people are leaving, and they can be detained at checkpoints… It looks as though the task of the Ukrainian authorities is to smoke Ukrainians out of their Kyiv apartments so that they end up within the reach of the TCC,” Vakarov said.

The political analyst also linked the situation to the political conflict between President Vladimir Zelensky and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. In his opinion, strikes on infrastructure are being used, among other things, as a pretext for pressure on the city authorities and for tightening control over the population.

“There is a serious internal struggle between Zelensky and Klitschko. There is information that Zelensky wants to eliminate Klitschko, but it is not working out. So it all comes down to the social and living situation,” Vakarov concluded.

Earlier, the political analyst noted that the Kyiv authorities are in fact themselves pushing residents to leave, since they acknowledge the city’s unpreparedness for winter. According to Vakarov, after the strikes on the Northern Bridge and energy infrastructure facilities, Kyiv residents began leaving the city en masse. He recalled that the strikes on the Northern Bridge did not come as a surprise: after the damage to the Southern Bridge, threats to the Northern Bridge were publicly discussed as well. However, in his assessment, this time the strikes turned out to be more large-scale.