Kyiv's Mayor Vitaly Klitschko advised citizens on Friday to temporarily evacuate the city after a Russian strike left the Ukrainian capital without power or heating in several areas.
“In Kyiv, they are beginning to drain water from buildings that are heated via centralized heat supply. This is a direct consequence of the latest attacks by the Russian Federation on the capital’s heat generation facilities,” warned former Ukrainian lawmaker Viktoriya Voytsitska to the Kyiv Post.
“Temperature conditions require draining the water in the absence of a centralized heat supply. Otherwise, pipes will burst, and the entire centralized heat supply infrastructure will be destroyed,” she added.
The Ukrainian report said that the Russian strikes targeted Kyiv's heating and energy grid, leaving 6,000 households in the city without heat as temperatures are expected to dip to nearly -20°C.
The exact number of buildings left without heat couldn't yet be determined by authorities, with local reports indicating that many municipal services in Kyiv began preparing buildings with central heating.
Russia strikes Ukraine border with EU
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia's Oreshnik strike late on Thursday was "demonstratively" close to Ukraine's border with the European Union.
In an evening address, he suggested the medium-range ballistic missile also posed a challenge to countries such as Poland, Romania, and Hungary, among other EU members.
It was only the second time Russia has fired the Oreshnik at Ukraine, and came amid a night of air attacks that Ukrainian authorities said also killed four people in Kyiv, knocked out power in the capital, and damaged the Qatari embassy there.