Russian strikes cut heating to half of the Ukrainian capital on Friday (Jan 9), triggering the mayor to issue an exceptional call for residents to temporarily leave the city with temperatures at -8°C and set to drop further.
Four people were killed in the capital in a massive missile and drone attack that ripped open apartment blocks and also saw Moscow fire its feared Oreshnik ballistic missile at a gas facility in western Ukraine.
The barrage came hours after Moscow rejected a plan by Kyiv and its Western allies to deploy peacekeeping forces to Ukraine in the event of any ceasefire in the war nearing its four-year mark.
AFP journalists in Kyiv saw residents running for shelter as the air raid siren echoed and heard Russian drones exploding into residential buildings and missiles whistling over the capital.
"A clear reaction from the world is needed. Above all from the United States, whose signals Russia truly pays attention to," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media as rescuers sifted through the rubble of widespread damage in the capital.
"Russia must receive signals that it is its obligation to focus on diplomacy, and must feel consequences every time it again focuses on killings and the destruction of infrastructure," he added.
Zelenskyy said 20 residential buildings in Kyiv had been damaged, adding that a Russian drone had damaged the Qatari embassy building.
Around half of all apartment blocks in the capital were left without heat due to "due to damage to the capital's critical infrastructure caused by a massive enemy attack," Klitschko said.
He called on "residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city for places with alternative sources of power and heat to do so."
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