You're reading: Popov says he was on business trip in Vienna during snowfall emergency

Head of Kyiv City State Administration (KSCA) Oleksandr Popov was on a business trip in Vienna (Austria) on the night of March 23, when the extreme snowfall in started the capital city. 

“Indeed, I was on a business trip. At five o’clock in the afternoon, I flew off to Vienna. There I had talks with business community and our ambassador, who represents Ukraine. The subject of the talks was the days of Kyiv in Vienna and some cultural programs we are planning to do here. At seven o’clock in the morning, I got on a plane, and at ten o’clock on Saturday I was in Kyiv,” Popov said on the Shuster Live talk show.

He also said that during the trip he was accompanied by his wife.

“You know, I cannot afford to spend working time to go abroad to resolve the issues that really need to be solved. I did it because this was weekend, you know. And this was scheduled beforehand,” Popov said.

He stressed that at the time of his departure from Kyiv, “the situation was very different.”

As reported, Kyiv saw a record snowfall on March 22-23, which paralyzed the traffic in the city. According to Director of the Ukrainian Hydro-Meteorological Center Mykola Kulbida, a snowfall of this kind has not been observed in the city since 1881. He said that 60 mm of precipitation had fallen in the last few days (with the monthly rate being 47 mm).

First Deputy Head of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Mazurchak, who had to deal with the situation in Popov’s absence, tendered his resignation and Popov accepted it.

However, the opposition is blaming the mayor for the failure to cope with the cleaning up of the aftermath of heavy snowfall and demands his dismissal. Popov, however, believes that his team was able to restore the municipal services’ work and the proper functioning of the city within short time.