Luhansk Regional Administration: Rubizhne Mayor hands over pro-Ukrainian activists to Russian occupiers

Iryna Balachuk – Wednesday, 6 April 2022, 10:23

Serhiy Hortiv, the former Mayor of the city of Rubizhne, has not only sided with the Russian occupying forces, but has been passing on information about Ukraine’s supporters to the occupiers. However, his efforts have been thwarted. 

Source: Serhiy Haidai, Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, in an interview with Dom TV channel

According to Haidai: "This incident with the Mayor of Rubizhne. It’s really bad down there. In the sense that the Mayor – besides siding with the occupiers – is actively collaborating with them to uncover Ukrainian activists. He just hands them over. He is a 100% traitor like that, handing people with a pro-Ukrainian position over to the occupiers."

Details: Haidai also added that Ukraine was able to "slightly thwart the occupiers’ plans which entailed curating an image in which the Mayor of the city gives the keys to the city to the occupiers, who are happily greeted there."

He explained that he appealed to the President of Ukraine, who signed a decree establishing a military-civil administration in Rubizhne. Accordingly, Haidai said that "the Mayor is now nobody" and no one needs him, not even the occupiers.

Background:

• On 1 April, it became known that the mayor of Rubizhne, Serhiy Hortiv, had betrayed Ukraine and sided with the Russian military. A video was published on the internet in which Hortov sided with the Russian propaganda in calling the Armed Forces of Ukraine "nazis," and called for Ukrainian troops to lay down their weapons.
• On 3 April, Haidai reported that four village and city heads in the Luhansk region turned out to be traitors: in Rubizhne, Stanytsia Luhanska, Milove, and Markivka.
• Since the first days of the war, there was no communication with Hortiv, and on 4 April Haidai appointed Roman Vlasenko, the head of the Sievierodonetsk Regional State Administration, the Mayor of Rubizhne.