Zelenksy’s biggest fight… his duel with the mayor of kyiv, former boxer Vitali Klitschko

In a sign of simmering political tension within Ukrainian ranks, Volodymyr Zelensky clashed with Kiev mayor and former boxer Vitali Klitschko after three residents were killed in a missile attack because they couldn’t get into a bomb shelter.

There is no love lost between the pair, who have clashed since the war began, and in a scathing attack on Klitschko, Zelensky said that in addition to facing the Russian enemy, “we also have internal enemies.”

A furious Zelensky said that if local Kiev officials were unable to protect residents by keeping bomb shelters open, they would be prosecuted and face a ‘knockout’ punch in a thinly veiled dig against the former heavyweight boxing champion. heavy.

Police have opened a criminal investigation after a nine-year-old girl, her mother and another woman were killed in a Russian missile strike on Thursday after the bomb shelter they were heading to failed to open.

Zelensky, in his late-night video message, said that the shelters “must be kept accessible. We should never see a repeat of the situation that happened last night in kyiv again.”

This was “very clearly” the duty of local authorities to “ensure that shelters are available and accessible 24 hours a day.”

‘It is painful to see the neglect of this duty. It’s painful to see casualties. And if the duty is not fulfilled on the ground, it is the direct responsibility of law enforcement agencies to prosecute.’

In earlier comments to journalists in Moldova, Zelensky said that in addition to facing the Russian enemy, “we also have internal enemies.” He said the answer could be a ‘knockout’ punch, a hint at Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion.

‘People will answer for the fact that there were those who could not get into the bomb shelter and, unfortunately, died. As if it wasn’t enough to have Russia as an enemy, we also have internal enemies,’ Zelensky said visibly angry before adding, ‘there could be a ‘knockout’.

Zelensky and Klitschko have clashed since the war began.

In December, the Ukrainian president criticized Klitschko and his city officials for not doing enough to provide enough emergency shelters to help Ukrainians without electricity or heat after Russian attacks on the energy system.

‘Unfortunately, local authorities have not performed well in all cities. In particular, there are a lot of complaints in kyiv,” Zelensky said at the time.

“To put it mildly, more work is needed,” he said, adding that the level of services available in many kyiv centers was not good enough.

‘Please pay attention: kyiv people need more support… a lot [them] they have been without electricity for 20 or even 30 hours. We expect quality work from the mayor’s office.’

Klitschko later dismissed criticism of the winter preparations, saying he believed they were politically motivated and seemed “strange” to foreign governments supporting Ukraine.

“It seems strange when we are united against a single enemy, but we started fighting inside the country,” he said.

“Our foreign partners say ‘you have a common enemy, but you can’t work things out between you.'”

“I am convinced that politics is behind this, because representatives of a political group started running around trying to find fault (in kyiv),” Klitschko said at the time.

Within Zelensky’s circle, Klitschko, who was elected mayor of kyiv in 2014, remains seen as a serious political rival.

The Kiev mayor is reportedly planning to resurrect his UDAR political party and could become the leader of an alliance of disgruntled regional elites, according to the think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“As Ukrainian politics begins to revive, the conflict between the presidential administration and the Kiev mayor will only grow,” said researcher Konstantin Skorkin.

Klitschko, now in his ninth year as mayor, was seen as one of Zelensky’s highest-profile political opponents before the Russian invasion and they often clashed over political issues.

Klitschko is an ally of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, leader of the European Solidarity opposition party, and both could pose a threat to Zelensky’s leadership.

In 2019, Klitschko lashed out at Zelensky, accusing his government of an “illegal” attempt to rein in his powers as kyiv mayor.

Zelensky controls a majority of Ukraine’s parliament and if he were to remove Klitschko as the city’s mayor, it would mean he could put an ally in charge of the capital. And in July 2019, the Ukrainian president asked Klitschko to lose some of his powers.

At the time, Klitschko accused the Zelensky government of trying to “eliminate me and appoint a person who was not chosen by Kiev residents.”

According to the law, the elected mayor of kyiv must also perform the administrative role, Klitschko said at the time, accusing Zelensky of wanting to establish “direct presidential rule” in the capital.

The renewed political dispute comes as Ukrainian forces in Kiev said on Friday they shot down more than 30 Russian missiles and drones overnight and injured two people from falling debris, before authorities lifted airstrike alerts. in most of the country.

Russia has launched around 20 missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian cities since early May.

kyiv military authorities, writing on Telegram, said that Russia had launched drones and cruise missiles at the same time.

“According to preliminary information, more than 30 air targets of various types were detected and destroyed in the airspace over and around Kiev by air defense forces,” they said in a statement.

Klitschko, who previously reported on two separate waves of attacks, wrote on Telegram that there were no calls to rescue services.

Ukraine’s military said Russia had launched 15 missiles and 18 drones.

Authorities in the kyiv region said two people were injured as a result of falling debris, including a child.

“In addition, the fall of debris damaged five private houses,” the state administration said on the Telegram messaging service.