No light, no water in Ukraine
IRINA MIROCHNIK
Cities in the south and east of Ukraine, which are under occupation, are forced to adapt to new realities. The authorities elected in peacetime cannot do their work in full. Some mayors are kidnapped by the Russian military, while others travel to Ukrainian-controlled territory. There are those who go to cooperate with the military of the Russian army.
The city of Kupyansk in the Kharkov region was occupied in the first days of the war. The Russian army hit him with aircraft and artillery. The airstrike destroyed the bridge over the Oskol River. On February 27, a few hours before the explosion, the mayor of Kupyansk, Gennady Matsegora, wrote down an appeal to the residents.
“After the regional department located in the executive committee was destroyed, the duty unit received a call from the commander of a battalion of Russian troops about a proposal for negotiations. Otherwise, the city will be stormed with all the consequences. I decided to participate in the negotiations,” Matsegora said then.
However, when the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office opened criminal proceedings against the mayor of Kupyansk under the article “treason”, he fled to Russia. It was not possible to detain him. Unlike other traitors. For example, the mayor of the city of Yuzhny near Kharkov.
“We will not let a single centimeter of our land be surrendered. The military again warns: it was they who showed loyalty that they were detained,” said Oleg Sinegubov, head of the Kharkiv military administration.
In Kupyansk itself, despite the occupation, pro-Ukrainian rallies continued in March. In response, Russian soldiers opened fire.
By May 9, billboards with St. George ribbons banned in Ukraine were posted in the city. Newborns in the testimonies write: “Kupyansk, Belgorod region.” And Gennady Matsegora was again seen by the locals at the mayor’s office. According to the information of the townspeople who managed to get out of the occupation, he now runs the city along with a female official from Belgorod.
“Now, I understand that they, the occupiers, attribute Kupyansk to the Belgorod region. And the mayor there is a woman. A woman from Belgorod. There is no light, no water, no connection. No. There is no Internet,” says Yulia Ivashchenko, a resident of Kupyansk.
On April 25, the Russian military seized administrative buildings in Kherson. The next day they appointed their “mayor” and “governor”.
“They introduced the so-called head of the Kherson administration Volodymyr Saldo and the head of the Kherson city administration Oleksandr Kobts. I am convinced that these collaborators will bear responsibility after our victory,” said the head of the Kherson military administration, Gennady Laguta.
Alexander Kobets, as the Center for Journalistic Investigations found out, worked in the KGB in Soviet times, and since 1991 in the SBU. I couldn’t find any photos of him online. He lived in Kyiv. And after his resignation, he went into business. At the same time, the investigators write, for several years now Kobets has not repaid a loan of 80 thousand dollars, for which, on the eve of the war, a debt collection case was initiated against him. Residents of Kherson had never heard of him before his appointment.
“This Kobets is an absolutely unknown dark horse. From the word at all. People who are now collaborating with Russian soldiers have always tried to run somewhere, but did not have any real support there. And how would they be in such a status – “when Someday, a truck full of money will overturn on our street,” says Kherson journalist Konstantin Ryzhenko.
Mayor Igor Kolykhaev, elected by the Ukrainians, claims that although he is not in his chair, he continues to perform duties from Kherson.
“And even though now my office is my car, this does not affect the number of issues resolved. Yes, you yourself should see: public transport runs, garbage, although not as active as before, we take out, we mow grass, parks and streets we clean up, we liquidate landfills, the light is on, water is running, gas is observed in the burners,” Kolykhaev notes.
But the mayor of Melitopol had even more difficult. On March 11, 33-year-old Ivan Fedorov was kidnapped by the Russian military. In his place, they immediately appointed their own person – Galina Danilchenko. On her Facebook page – “Immortal Regiment” and Soviet symbols. In 2020, she became a deputy of the Melitopol City Council from the Opposition Bloc party. Residents of the city call her simply – “Galya from the basement.”
“They just took a talking head that fulfills the orders of the occupiers and says what she needs to say. And besides, absolutely everyone in the city does not respect her. Starting, of course, from pro-Ukrainian residents to, probably, the occupiers themselves. And this is not completely stopped by the occupiers,” says Melitopol resident Tatiana Kumok.
Danilchenko is officially the director of the Melitopol Plain Bearing Plant. Its owner is the current deputy of the Zaporizhzhya Regional Council Yevgeny Balitsky, who does not hide his pro-Russian position.
In support of the legal mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, people staged mass actions. Despite the torture, Fedorov did not agree to cooperate with the Kremlin. On March 16, he was traded for a nine th Russian conscripts. And now, as far as possible, he manages the temporarily occupied city remotely.
“Once again, the occupiers, the collaborators failed. They were able to physically seize the branch of our Oschadbank and were going to start paying money in rubles and accepting payments for utilities there. But nothing happened,” Fedorov said.
It is difficult for the Kremlin authorities to find professional managers for senior positions in temporarily occupied Ukrainian cities, military expert Oleksandr Musiyenko says. First, they are looking for those previously recruited by the Russian special services. If there are no such people among the local pro-Russian deputies or collaborators from the people.
“This is generally a paradoxical situation. Since nothing really depends on them, they do not influence anything. But they actually agree to an article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. To a serious article,” says Oleksandr Musienko, head of the Ukrainian Center for Military-Political Studies .
Now in Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Reintegration, the territories of eight regions are in occupation or a zone of active fighting. As of May 1, these are 270 villages and cities.
16-05-2022
Writer Irina Mirochnik is the President at IMMER Group & Doctor of Philosophy in Law(PhD)
Mahabahu.com is an Online Magazine with collection of premium Assamese and English articles and posts with cultural base and modern thinking.