Two days before the Russian invasion, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk received a call from the British Ambassador to Ukraine with a simple message: get out of Kyiv immediately.
The call, Vereshchuk recalled, was one of a series of warnings to senior government figures, amid Western expectations that the Russian military would quickly gain control of Kyiv and try to form its own puppet government.
“The Americans and the British warned that there was a list of assassinations and that the main target was the president and his family, and then members of the government,” Vereshchuk said.
“We were told, ‘They will look for you, they will persecute you and they will kill you.’ And I said, “What, they’re going to kill the deputy prime minister on live television?” “Okay, no problem, so we’ll stay here and let the whole world see it,” she said.
The decision to stay in Kyiv began with President Vladimir Zelensky. On the second day of the war, he told European leaders during a conference call: “This may be the last time you see me alive,” adding that he had information that he was on a Russian murder list. He also reportedly rejected a proposal for an evacuation from Kyiv made by US President Joe Biden, saying he “needs ammunition, not transport”.
Vladimir Zelensky’s regular video addresses from Kyiv are a source of inspiration for Ukrainians. Photo: Umit Bektash / Reuters
During the first weeks of the war, Russian state media promoted a number of conspiracy theories about Zelensky’s whereabouts: that videos showing him in Kyiv were fake and that the Ukrainian leader had in fact fled immediately after the invasion.
However, these claims have become more lost as evidence has emerged that he has remained in the capital, and his regular, fast-paced video calls have become a huge source of inspiration for many Ukrainians.
Vereshchuk said Zelensky’s decision to stay is one of the first signs that Ukraine does not mind surrendering to the alleged inevitability of Vladimir Putin’s conquest of Ukraine and has helped lay the groundwork for a lively response that has prompted Russia to leave. give up his pressure on Kyiv, at least for now.
“The Kremlin really hoped that we would be disoriented and run away.” But that was one of the first steps that helped control the situation. Can you imagine people realizing that the president and his team and the government have fled? Of course, that would demoralize everyone, “Vereshchuk said.
For other Ukrainian officials in the occupied territories, the question of whether to follow Zelensky’s example was difficult. Many local mayors and other officials remained in place, sometimes with fatal consequences, while others decided to flee. In several cases, mayors have expressed a desire to work with the Russians and could be accused of treason if Ukraine regains control of their cities.
In the town of Motizhin, Mayor Olha Sukhenko decided to stay. Together with her husband and son, she was detained by Russian troops on March 23. They were later shot and buried in shallow graves, according to Ukrainian authorities.
In many occupied cities, there were reports of Russian soldiers wandering from door to door looking for people with ties to the Ukrainian government. Igor Kostovarov, head of the villages of Stari and Novi Bikov east of Kyiv, said that at about the same time as Sukhenko was abducted, he decided to leave his own village.
“We have received information from our security services that the Russians are sending FSB teams to find and execute local officials. I was here for the first three weeks, but after that information I left, “he said.
Kostovarov said many villagers are furious at his decision to leave, making it difficult to return to the village after his release. Many local officials elsewhere who have decided to leave have also been criticized.
In the Sumy region, which borders Russia and was partially occupied by its troops at the start of the war, Governor Dmitry Zhivitsky says whether or not mayors remain in place has an effect on city defense.
“Krasnopilya fell because the mayor escaped, and Trostyanets fell because the mayor escaped. There was no one to organize the defense, “he said, referring to two cities that the Russians had occupied for a month.
Yuri Bova in his office in Trostyanets. He says he had no choice but to leave. Photo: Anastasia Taylor-Lind / The Guardian
Yuri Bova, the mayor of Trostyanets, said he had no choice but to leave the city, saying there were no Ukrainian army units there to protect him, given that he only had a few rifles to use. against the column of Russian tanks that invaded the city on the first day of the invasion.
“If I had stayed then, I probably wouldn’t have been alive and sitting in front of you today,” Bova said. “Instead, we decided to become guerrillas.” Bova and a group of trustees moved to villages outside the city, he said, and coordinated with the remaining residents and sent coordinates to Russian military positions by telephone.
Zhivitsky, the district governor, remained unconvinced and said there were serious questions about Bova’s decision. “You go to Trostyanets and everyone you see is 15 years old in two weeks, and this man is running around looking fresh,” he said.
In Melitopol, one of a series of cities in southern Ukraine occupied by Russian troops without major battles in the first part of the invasion, Mayor Ivan Fedorov remained in place but refused to cooperate with the Russian military.
He was eventually taken out of his temporary office with a bag on his head, detained for six days and questioned by Russian security services before being released as part of a prisoner exchange.
“If we had left the city immediately, we would have made a present to the Russians, they would have said, ‘Your authorities have fled, we are the new authorities,'” he said. Now, he said, no one can doubt that Russian rule is being enforced alone.
However, he added that he has some sympathy for those who have made different decisions.
“During the occupation, the main thing is to save lives, and the people in greatest danger are the city bosses. If the city is occupied, what should the mayor do, what should the team do? There was no single algorithm. Nobody gave us orders. “Everyone was behaving the way they felt right,” he said.
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