Kyiv Mayor claims "central government" is putting pressure on him

Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko has said that the capital's administration, and Klitschko personally, are experiencing political pressure, and intimated that it was the "central government" that was exerting this pressure.

Source: Vitalii Klitschko on Telegram

Quote from Klitschko: "There is a fierce campaign to discredit the Kyiv city government and me personally. Relentless searches paralyse the work of city [administration] departments and services. Chaos is being introduced into the capital’s wartime management, and critical infrastructure facilities are not able to keep up with their normal workload. The same documents are being requested again and again…

They are trying their best to ruin Klitschko’s reputation, but they won’t be able to find anything against me, so they are handing suspicion notices to my subordinates and loudly accusing them of being guilty. But when those cases crumble in court, we won’t be offered any apologies."

Details: Klitschko mentioned the arrest of Roman Tkachuk, director of the Municipal Security Department of the Kyiv City State Administration, suspected of gross negligence that entailed grave consequences.

The Kyiv mayor said he was outraged with Tkachuk’s arrest, particularly given the fact that "not a single district head [in Kyiv] responsible for setting up shelters and in charge of allocating and disbursing [government] funds has been affected".

Klitschko stressed that district heads are accountable to the central government [rather than Klitschko himself and the city administration – ed.] and asked: "So how can we be talking about objectivity and the absence of political motives [in pursuing charges against the Klitschko administration officials, rather than the officials accountable to the central government – ed.]?"

However, Klitschko did not clarify who he thought was responsible for recent political intimidation against him.

Quote from Klitschko: "Someone wants to establish control over the capital once again. Have we already won [in the war against Russia]? Is Klitschko now [Ukraine’s] biggest problem?"

Background: 

• On 15 June, Ukrainska Pravda reported that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may soon remove Vitalii Klitschko from the office of the head of the Kyiv City State Administration. Under such circumstances, Klitschko will still remain the mayor of Kyiv.
• The President’s Office is likely considering appointing Oleksandr Kamyshin, the Minister of Strategic Industries, as the new head of the Kyiv City State Administration.

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