‘They want to kill us’: mayor Vitali Klitschko plans for the worst as Russia tries to freeze Kyiv

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said: ‘They want to freeze the civilian population. They want … to have a Ukraine without Ukrainians.’ Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

In his office in Kyiv’s city hall, mayor Vitali Klitschko is planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

The previous day, in the middle of the sixth mass Russian missile strike against Ukrainian cities that had sent Kyiv’s resident to the bomb shelters and metro stations, no rockets had made it through to hit the capital.