Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The president noted that he is ready to personally meet with every candidate the prime minister names to him.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that Kyiv was insufficiently prepared for the winter and for an intensification of Russian aerial terror. Earlier the capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that any accusations against the city authorities are an attempt to remove him from office, claiming that during the full-scale war the central government has already removed "300 other mayors" in this way, but he will fight if it comes to his dismissal.
Against the backdrop of another escalation in the crisis between the mayor and the president, the latter announced the creation of a special "cabinet" whose task will be to strengthen governance in Kyiv and accelerate the overcoming of security challenges. He said that Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky will implement this plan, Interfax–Ukraine reports.
The new team should consist of experienced managers and business representatives. The president confirmed that the possible involvement of former SBU head Vasyl Malyuk, former infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, and former foreign minister Volodymyr Groysman had previously been discussed.
"I asked the prime minister to assemble a special cabinet for Kyiv — business managers, strong people," Zelensky said. "I am ready to personally speak with those who are named to me and ask them (to work on the situation in Kyiv — ed.). Create such a cabinet and develop solutions. I will do what I can."
UPDATED. Suspilne writes that the president considered Groysman, Kubrakov, and former head of the Recovery Agency Serhiy Sukhomlyn for the position of head of KMVA. All three declined.
In early October Zelensky accused Kyiv authorities of "almost complete failure to take the necessary steps" to prepare for winter, reminding that specific tasks had been assigned to the city. He later announced decisions that would concern a change in the capital’s governance, but did not specify whether this meant dismissing the mayor, instead reproaching Kyiv that frontline and border regions demonstrate better performance in meeting plans than Kyiv.
Klitschko responded. At first he accused the central authorities of attempting to destroy local self-government and said that any accusations against the city authorities are unfounded, and later, during a report to the Verkhovna Rada on winter preparations, called the resilience plans approved earlier this year by the NSDC a "show," accused Bankova of failing to protect energy facilities, and recalled the blocking of municipal funds. But he said nothing about shelters and construction in Kyiv.
Oleksandr Serhiienko, director of the analytical-research center "City Institute," already wrote in the piece "Will Kyiv survive next winter? Under external blows and internal tripwires" that the National Security and Defense Council set an absolutely unaffordable amount for the capital to implement the Resilience Plan — 67,5 billion UAH assuming the entire Kyiv budget is 106 billion. As a result, the city authorities proposed covering only 20,4 billion and taking the rest from the Cabinet’s quota. In addition, in the piece "Who will build shelters — and who is responsible for Kyiv residents’ safety?" Serhiienko noted that it was the district state administrations that did not use 500 million originally allocated for stationary shelters and later for mobile ones. However, KMVA just shrugs over this, and KMDA says these issues are not within its authority.
Overall, this is not the first time that, amid an energy crisis in Kyiv, the confrontation between the president and the mayor has escalated. And, as Serhiienko points out in the article "Kyiv under attacks from outside and within, or Political games during the war," the central authorities have repeatedly shifted blame to the local level when they themselves failed to fulfill their functions: responsibility for protecting the capital’s generation belongs to KMVA, which is subordinate to the president. Moreover, Klitschko said back in January that he had warned then–prime minister Yuliia Svyrydenko about threats and risks that could arise in the event of heavy damage to the capital’s infrastructure from Russian attacks, but received no proposals in response, and a few months later complained about the lack of help in restoring CHP‑5.
Kyiv’s preparation for winter has once again turned into a political confrontation between Zelensky and Klitschko. Will the new "cabinet" help strengthen the capital’s governance, or will it become a tool to pressure the mayor? Read about this in Serhiienko’s new piece "Political ring: the battle for Kyiv on the eve of winter."
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Зеленський доручив Корецькому зібрати "кабінет" для управління Києвом: хто може увійти в команду". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.