Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko has told residents to consider leaving the city if there is a complete blackout.
Vitali Klitschko has told residents to consider leaving Kyiv
Ukrainians have been left without electricity and water as vital infrastructure has been targeted in air strikes by Russian forces.
Urging residents to "consider everything" in a scenario where the capital loses power and water, Klitschko confessed that he could not rule out the prospect of a total blackout.
In a television interview, the former boxer said: "If you have extended family... or friends outside Kyiv, where there is autonomous water supply, an oven, heating. Please keep in mind the possibility of staying there for a certain amount of time."
Klitschko accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of trying to "freeze" Ukraine into submission.
He said: "His task is for us to die, to freeze, or to make us flee our land so that he can have it. That's what the aggressor wants to achieve."
Klitschko says that the authorities are doing "everything" to keep the lights on and water flowing in Kyiv but is making preparations for the worst.
40 per cent of Ukraine's energy system has been damaged or destroyed by Russian attacks and President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the Russians could be "concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of mass attacks on our infrastructure, energy in the first instance".