Zelensky again accuses Klitschko of failing to prepare Kyiv for winter

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to publicly criticize Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, accusing him of inadequate preparation of the capital for the winter season, and announced certain decisions to change the city’s management system.

Zelensky wrote about this on his Telegram channel on October 13, 2026.

According to the president, Kyiv is lagging behind the rest of the country’s regions in fulfilling resilience plans — and this is noticeable to the capital’s residents themselves.

“As of mid-October, practically across the entire country, even in border and frontline regions, the fulfillment of resilience plans is higher than in Kyiv. And Kyiv residents definitely feel this when even after isolated Shahed strikes there are power and water outages across a significant part of the capital,” Zelensky wrote.

In the same post, the president reported on a meeting with a number of officials, including former ones. Among the meeting’s participants were former head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Malyuk, former member of parliament Maxim Yefimov, former Minister of Transport Kostiantyn Yefimenko, head of the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development Ivan Fedorov, and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

Zelensky also announced the preparation of decisions on the “rational change of management algorithms” for the capital, without specifying their content.

Klitschko, for his part, had previously stated that the central authorities are accusing him of failing to prepare for winter in order to remove him from his post and replace him with the head of a military administration.

This is not the first such accusation against the mayor: several days earlier, Zelensky had also criticized Klitschko for failing to prepare Kyiv for strikes on energy infrastructure.