​In a video interview with the HotNews.ro team in Kyiv, the mayor of the city Vitaliy Klitschko explained the difficulties that the residents of the capital of Ukraine experienced this winter due to Russian attacks.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that since the beginning of the war, kamikaze drones have destroyed about 800 buildings in the city, killing about 160 people, including five children.

“If we talk about statistics, the people of Kyiv heard the alarm for about 800 hours and in total spent about a month in the basements,” Klitschko explained to the HotNews.ro team in an interview given at the city hall. .

This winter, Russia attacked the civilian infrastructure of Kyiv. People suffered from the cold, were left without electricity. What are the biggest challenges you have faced?

What Russia is doing can only be called genocide and terrorism. There is simply no other simpler explanation for the need to destroy civil infrastructure, leave people without light, without heat.

Russia wants us to live in a depressed state. Let’s take our things and go somewhere to leave Ukraine to them. These actions can only be called terrorism when women and children die.

We must be strong and say that it is better to live without water and electricity than with Russian soldiers. People have a will, they are invincible and ready to fight.

Since I came to Kyiv, there have been two air guns. I noticed that recently people have relaxed more, they don’t necessarily go to shelters anymore. How do you see this relaxation? Can it be considered premature?

One day you heard two alarms. Every day, the residents of the city hear these sirens, and I want to cite interesting numbers: although we are not on the front line, kamikaze drones destroyed about 800 buildings in the city of Kyiv. Of them, 417 were houses where people actually lived. About 160 people died, five of whom were children.

If we talk about statistics, the people of Kyiv heard the alarm for about 800 hours and in general stayed in the basements for about a month.

Each person decides to listen to the instructions and hide in these shelters. But we do our best to make sure people follow these rules, we do our best to keep them safe, but it’s still up to them.

We were also there two years ago, and compared to that time there were fewer people in Kyiv. Do you have information on the number of those who left?

About 3.8 million people lived in Kyiv. Since the beginning of the war, many people, especially women and children, have left the city. It was like this until this summer, until June.

Eventually, when things became much safer, people started coming back. And now there are about 3.6 million people in the city of Kyiv, but I must state that of this number, 300,000 are temporarily displaced persons.

3.6 million people live in the city. There are quite a lot of them, but as you can see, the atmosphere is quite calm. Cafes and restaurants are open, public transport is open, people are walking on the street.

However, we must not forget that battles are taking place several hundred kilometers away. It’s a real hell, and our fighters are trying their best to protect us.

As for Kyiv’s economy, how did the war affect it? Do you have data, information about this?

The city suffered a lot. Logistics and infrastructure were destroyed. We can’t talk about specific numbers yet, but we are talking about billions of dollars.

But still, with what numbers can you compare the fact that there were dead people and how many people had to leave their homes? We have a large local budget deficit, but Kyiv continues to live, continues to provide the necessary services. Medical care, water supply, everything necessary for the city is provided

Do you have a message for Romanians?

It would be a great mistake to think that the war is far away and that this war does not touch each of you.

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