“If I tried to explain to you all the challenges that I have, we (would) need weeks,” he said.
KYIV, Ukraine — The body armor propped against a radiator, ready for use, the spent shell casing adding to clutter on his desk, the boxing memorabilia and the sign asking visitors to leave firearms at his door: All shout that this is the office of an extraordinary mayor, in extraordinarily difficult times.
That much hasn’t changed. His handshake is crushingly firm, his gaze steely. But the pressures on the shoulders and on the time of the 51-year-old mayor of Ukraine’s capital city are heavier now than they ever were when his fortunes were measured in three-minute rounds that ended with clangs of a bell.As was also the case during his years as a professional prizefighter, the fight for survival he’s engaged in now is primal.
In blacked-out Kyiv restaurants, diners feel their way through meals in near-darkness, served by waiters carrying candles. Residents wake in the dead of night — if that’s when it’s their turn to get a few hours of power again — to shower and do laundry.So what’s the worst-case scenario? How much worse can it possibly get?Part of the answer is out of Klitschko’s very large hands.
Klitschko’s guess is that Putin’s strategy is to heap so much misery on Ukrainians that they give up fighting.“After every rocket attack, I talk to the people, to simple civilians. They not depressed,” he said. “They were angry, angry and ready to stay and defend our houses, our families and our future.”
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