Mayor of occupied Slavutych: no compromises, the Russians set one condition

OLENA ROSHCHINA — SUNDAY, 27 MARCH, 2022, 12:13

Yurii Fomichev, the mayor of occupied Slavutych, said he had not compromised with the Russian military, but the town’s defenders could no longer fight them without exposing residential neighbourhoods to destruction and civilians to danger.

Source: the Mayor of Slavutych on air during a national news marathon 

According to Fomichev: "This is Ukrainian Slavutych, under Ukrainian flags. Yesterday (26 March - ed.) Russian occupying forces entered the city. We had been defending it for two days, our guys stood firm to the last. The territories around the town have been occupied for a long time, so there was simply no way that the Armed Forces of Ukraine could join us in this battle.

We were very well-supported by artillery, but when the Russians approached the town, it was decided that the artillery should not operate there. Our artillery is not operating in our town, we are not hiding behind civilians.

Therefore, a conscious decision was made to redeploy our soldiers and our territorial defence units to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the town started a peaceful protest. More than 5,000 residents expressed their attitude to the occupiers: ‘This is our land, this is our territory, and we solve our problems ourselves here.’"

Details: Fomichev debunked fakes: "We are not cooperating with the occupier in any way."

"We have set the conditions of the town's existence during the occupation, but we do not need any humanitarian or other aid from the occupiers. We have been solving our problems on our own for some time now. We have experienced power outages. We will definitely win and break through", the mayor said.

He described a conversation he had with the Russians on 26 March.

According to Fomichev: "There were no compromises. When the occupiers came to the residential area, it was decided at the level of the Armed Forces to stop the resistance in the city, not to go to the city. There are no Armed Forces here: Slavutych was defended only by territorial defence units. Support from the artillery could be only from afar, and the Armed Forces simply could not shoot at their own homes, their own towns. We do not do that anywhere. And we no longer had any weapons or means to defend ourselves in the town.

That’s why we took this decision. It was not a compromise with the enemy. We saved our boys and our civilians.

We did not accept any of the occupiers’ demands. The only thing they clearly demanded was that they would search the town for weapons. The town went on a peaceful protest.

These were the only agreements: that we govern ourselves on our own land, live according to Ukrainian laws, according to the Ukrainian Constitution, and under the Ukrainian flag - they have no influence on this and should not have any. As for the weapons, that is their initiative; we cannot deter them from such actions today."

Details: On Sunday, 27 March, Russian occupying forces entered the town, and they continue to search buildings for weapons. But there are no weapons in the town: the military took them with them, Fomichev assured his listeners.

He added that the authorities are working on "green corridors" to evacuate civilians and to bring in Ukrainian humanitarian aid.

"Yes, we are under occupation, but we are not accepting any items from the occupier," the mayor stressed.

Previously: On 24 February, the first day of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, Russian troops occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and soon Slavutych was isolated, although there was no fighting in the city.

On 26 March, Russian troops entered Slavutych - and the town found itself under de facto occupation. Locals gathered for a protest, the occupiers opened fire, and the mayor was forced to talk to the occupiers.