In the Kiev mayor's office, former heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly
Klitschko moves a stylus pen on a screen on the wall, allowing him to
monitor the power grid and water supply in the event of a Russian
cyberattack.
Klitschko, who has been mayor of the Ukrainian capital since 2014, is now
preparing to defend the city.
He inspects the bunkers of Soviet-era bomb shelters and encourages citizens,
including his brother and fellow heavyweight champion, Wladimir, to become
reservists.
50-year-old Klitschko, known as "Dr Ironfist" in his fighting days in the
boxing ring, said there was no panic in the city.
However, he said citizens still had to be prepared for the worst case if war
broke out. Read also: US intelligence circles are worried about Biden's
strategy regarding Russia "That's why 5,000 bunkers have been prepared in
our hometown.
More than 2,000,000 people can be saved there," he told Reuters at his
office in city hall, Thursday (10/2/2022).
"Regarding the current situation, I'm sure there isn't a single citizen in
our city and country who doesn't talk about the current situation. Of
course, the whole community is quite worried," he said.
"We don't want war. But, if it's about our territorial integrity, when the
question of our independence comes, then we have no other choice. We have to
defend our country, our home, our family, our values," he stressed. Russia
denies planning any military attack.
Western media and politicians continue to blow rumors about the Russian
attack plan. Klitschko said bombing civilians would however be unlikely,
although US officials this weekend said mass civilian casualties could not
be ruled out in the worst case.
Ukraine has also warned about the prospect of cyberattacks on key
infrastructure, either as part of a military offensive or as a way of
destabilizing and hitting the country's financial system.
Russia has denied any role in previous cyberattacks on Ukraine and other
targets.
"We protect all infrastructure objects. Now, we have a detailed plan on how
we can protect all of them from a possible attack on Ukraine," said
Klitschko.
"We have a concrete plan, we have a plan of action for what we have to do.
We hope nothing will happen, but we must be prepared anyway," he stressed.
His brother Vladimir enlisted in the Ukrainian reserve army last week. The
two brothers have longstanding ties to Germany and speak German but Vitaly
has not been shy about criticizing Berlin's reluctance to supply defense
weapons to Ukraine.
He called Germany's recent shipment of 5,000 military helmets a "joke".
"Political support, financial support and defense weapons are very important
to us because we have to defend our country with modern weapons," he told
Reuters, speaking in German.