Domestic political divide?

Selenskyj criticizes Klitschko's work - Kiev's mayor defends himself

Created: 11/28/2022, 12:06 p.m

By: Franziska Schwarz

Volodymyr Zelenskyj (left) and Vitali Klitschko © Efrem Lukatsky/doa

Kiev Mayor Klitschko now promises residents Christmas trees - but no lights.

The topic of electricity is a constant point of contention with Zelenskyj anyway.

Kyiv - Between Volodymyr Selenskyj and Vitali Klitschko there is obviously a crunch.

"We must not allow Putin to steal our Christmas," the mayor of Kiev shot at the Kremlin chief and warmonger in Ukraine on Monday (November 28).

Klitschko promised the townspeople that Christmas trees would be put up despite the military situation.

Christmas trees would be paid for by entrepreneurs, ex-boxing world champion Klitschko told the Ukrainian news agency RBC.

However, the festive lighting could lead to power outages.

However, it was precisely the electricity and water supply in the Ukrainian capital that caused a dispute between him and the Ukrainian President recently: the repairs were progressing too slowly, the Ukrainian President complained on Friday (November 25).

Klitschko assured that a solution was being worked on at “record speed”.

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Klitschko has been mayor of Kiev since 2014 and warned of political disputes in the face of the complaint: "The key to Ukraine's success after Russia's attack on our country is cohesion, both nationally and internationally," he told

.

But the "civil peace in Kyiv is becoming fragile," wrote a dpa correspondent about the dispute.

"Civil peace" means that there should be no domestic political disputes in Ukraine during the attacks under Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

"In fact, only those points that were set up by the civil protection and at the train station are normally equipped," Zelenskyy reproached the Kiev city administration.

The President therefore sent MPs from his party “Servants of the People” to check the heating points.

Its result: "The city government only passed the crash test with 'bad' and has not drawn any conclusions so far," said parliamentary group leader David Arachamija, according to dpa.

As of Sunday morning (November 27), the electricity supply has been restored in almost all of Kyiv, according to the city administration.

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In its report on the dispute, the dpa also recalled that Selenskyj's administration had already criticized Klitschko in 2019.

The head of the presidential office at the time, Andrij Bohdan, called for Klitschko's resignation with the sentence "He has lost control of the situation in the city over the past five years".

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There were suggestions that the post of elected mayor should be separated from the post of chief of the city administration.

But according to media reports, Klitschko managed to prevent his downgrading through contacts with Selenskyj's confidante Andriy Yermak.

Ermak is now in charge of the President's Office.

Some observers now estimate that Zelenskyj is interested in eliminating Klitschko as a potential opponent in the 2024 Ukrainian presidential election, the dpa reported.