Kyiv mayor reprimanded over state of bomb shelter

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko was reprimanded on Tuesday by the Ukrainian government after city officials criticised him over the state of bomb shelters in the capital city.

The audit came after three people died after they were locked out on the street during a Russian air raid.

The government said it had also approved the dismissal of the heads of two Kyiv districts and two acting heads of districts.

It is however not yet clear if Klitschko, a former boxer, will be punished any further.

Uncertainty about his political future grew after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticised officials in the capital over the June 1 incident, in which two women and a girl were killed by falling debris after rushing to a shelter and finding it shut.

Following the incident, Zelenskyy ordered an audit of all bomb shelters in Kyiv and also ordered personnel changes.

Now in his ninth year as mayor, Klitschko was seen as one of Zelenskyy’s highest-profile opponents before Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and they had a public spat last November when the president accused him of doing a poor job setting up emergency shelters to help people with power and heat.

Klitschko, while acknowledging that he bore some responsibility, said that others were to blame, especially presidential appointees to some districts of the capital.

Klitschko had earlier on Tuesday inspected a Kyiv bomb shelter equipped with an automated opening system, signalling that moves are underway to improve access to such shelters in the capital following the June 1 deaths.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting that the audit ordered by Zelenskyy had found that 77 [er cent of the shelters in Ukraine were fit for use, but that many did not “meet any standards”.

He said the situation was “unacceptable” in some places, and mentioned districts in the Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions, as well as the city of Kyiv.

The government said it had also approved the dismissal of district officials in Zhytomyr, Bila Tserkva and Konotop.

Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin had been appointed to coordinate all questions and processes related to bomb shelters, it said.

With inputs from Reuters

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