How Russia forced Ukrainians to become mayors in the occupied territories: report

The ZMINA Human Rights Centre presented the report "Become a Mayor or Break Your Legs?", which documented mass and systemic persecution of representatives of local self-government in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The presentation took place on 27 June at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Centre and was accompanied by the participation of analysts, human rights activists and representatives of the affected communities.

The report covers 133 cases of repression recorded in Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions. The research is based on in-depth interviews with victims, as well as on the analysis of open sources.

Pressure on the authorities as an element of the occupation policy

According to the author of the report and ZMINA analyst Borys Petrunyok, Russia purposefully used repression against local authorities as a means of seizing control over the occupied territories. Not only city mayors were targeted, but also headmen, directors of communal enterprises, teachers and deputies who remained in the occupation to maintain life in the communities.

These people epitomised legitimate Ukrainian authority. That is why the occupiers saw them as an obstacle and resorted to the usual methods - threats, kidnappings, torture and even murder," Petrunyok emphasised.

Testimonies of victims

Andrei Solopov, the chairman of the Priazovska settlement community in Zaporizhzhya region, told how, after the start of a full-scale invasion, the Russians seized his community on 25 February 2022. Despite the threat, he organised humanitarian aid and refused to cooperate with the occupants. For this he was kidnapped, taken to Melitopol, beaten, kept blindfolded on the floor and interrogated.

They wanted me to sign a cooperation agreement. I refused. I was summoned "for a talk", after which I was taken away, beaten and interrogated. It lasted for several days," Solopov recalled.

Examples of other victims

Among those illegally detained by the occupants to date remain, according to ZMINA:

• Mykola Masliy - deputy of the Kupyansk city council (Kharkiv region);

• Oleksandr Babich - mayor of Golaya Prystan (Kherson region);

• Vladimir Nikolaevenko and Igor Kolykhaev - former and current mayors of Kherson;

• Igor Protokovylo - deputy of the Novokakhovsky City Council;

• Oleksandr Zarovnyi - Head of the Humanitarian Department of the Kherson Rayon State Administration.

Separately, the report mentions cases that ended in deaths. These include the brutal murder of the head of Motyzhyn village, Olga Suhenko, her husband and son; the murder of the head of Gostomel, Yuriy Prilipko, and Oleksiy Vinnichenko, the head of Grebennikivka village. The body of Dniprorudnyi Mayor Yevgeny Matveev was returned to the Ukrainian side only at the end of 2024 - almost two years after his abduction.

The aim is to crush resistance and impose control

ZMINA legal analyst Onisia Sinyuk said the repression was part of Russia's strategy to impose its own administrative vertical. Among the methods were kidnapping, torture, enforced disappearances, illegal "referendums" and substitution of local governments.

The persecution of local authorities was not chaotic - it was a calibrated strategy of intimidation. This was Russia's way of destroying the legitimate Ukrainian authorities on the ground, replacing them with its own proxies," said Sinyuk.

Recommendations and appeals

The authors of the report insist on the need for:

• systematic documentation of offences against representatives of local authorities;

• creation of protocols of actions for officials under occupation;

• informing and supporting the families of victims;

• international qualification of these acts as crimes against humanity.

Yelizaveta Sokurenko, ZMINA's Head of Documentation, emphasised: "Russia's war against Ukraine is not only about shelling and invasion. It is also an attempt to erase the very system of local self-government and deprive communities of political autonomy."

The full report is available on the ZMINA website in Ukrainian and English. The project was prepared with the support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

Earlier Socialportal wrote about the story of Ukrainian human rights defender Maksym Butkevych, who spent more than two years in Russian captivity. Maksym was sentenced to 13 years in the Russian Federation on a trumped-up case that claimed he was an extremist who ran a group of far-right radicals. These charges shocked everyone who knew Maksim. He was a human rights activist for decades, co-founder of the organisation Without Borders, and one of the few people in Ukraine who cared about the fate of asylum seekers, refugees, and foreign students who faced arbitrariness, rudeness, and intolerance. He also helped political refugees stemming from authoritarian regimes, primarily Putin's.