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The Ukrainian mayor who fights from exile for the residents of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

2022-09-19T10:44:49.736Z


Dmitro Orlov, first mayor of the besieged city of Energodar, had to flee from the Russian occupation, which has now imposed new authorities amid the disbandment of half of the 53,000 inhabitants


Despite the withdrawal of the Kremlin in recent days in eastern Ukraine, the war keeps an important part of the country under Russian boots.

More than 20% of the national territory has become occupied.

The towns in these areas are under dual administration.

On the one hand, the legitimate charges, who try to maintain their functions, in many cases physically displaced from their demarcation.

On the other, the invaders, who elect their new positions as part of the occupation apparatus.

There are squares that, due to their strategic importance, especially attract the attention not only of the parties in conflict but of the whole world.

This is the case of Energodar, a municipality where the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is located, the largest in Europe and under constant bombardment.

The Russians became strong in it once the first week of war was over after the invasion launched on February 24.

Since then, the life of Dmitro Orlov, the mayor, has radically changed by having to work remotely, since he had to flee in March.

Energodar and the power plant form a critical enclave in the course of the conflict.

Both parties consider these facilities essential to their interests.

To try to stop the hostilities, the UN has managed to send two observers from the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) to remain inside the plant's facilities.

The United Nations also calls for an end to hostilities and for a security zone to be declared to avoid the current danger of nuclear disaster.

Orlov, 37, is not particularly optimistic.

“It's good, but the results are not really satisfactory for me”, he laments, desiring, first of all, the end of the armed clashes.

The first mayor of Energodar thought that the "demilitarization" of the area would be achieved.

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It was no use that, as in other cities, the inhabitants of Energodar stood before the Russians as "human shields", explains Orlov in an interview with EL PAÍS in the city of Zaporizhia, the regional capital, on September 5.

His role as mayor is now focused on managing the flow of displaced people – he estimates that half of the 53,000 who lived there before the occupation have left – and organizing humanitarian assistance.

"Our work has changed completely," he points out without wanting to forget those who still remain inside, nor neglecting daily occupations of what was his day to day until February 24, the day the invasion began.

"Our task is also to maintain and finance the institutions, as well as to continue with the budgetary and communal services that remain in the city," he adds.

He says that an added difficulty in recent weeks is the problem they find in internet connections.

Since it was a priority target for the Russians, everything happened very quickly at Energodar and the plant.

“As of March 3 or 4, it was occupied.

Before this happened, the residents stood before the Russian soldiers and tanks with nothing, only with the flags to keep them out," says the first mayor in the Zaporizhia university building, which now serves as an improvised City Hall in the exile A yellow and blue banner, the colors of the national flag, presides over the façade: “Energodar is Ukraine”.

The flag of Energodar, on the left, shines next to that of Ukraine in the provisional headquarters that they have as a City Council in exile in Zaporizhia.Luis De Vega Hernández

Since those first days of March, Orlov says, the Russian authorities have already appointed three different mayors.

The first, the only one Orlov knew, was a former local deputy who is active in a pro-Russian party;

the second, a person arrived from outside and, the third, a charge brought from the Crimean peninsula, a Ukrainian territory that Russia has maintained under illegal occupation since 2014.

The mayor talks with the reporter while answering calls with last-minute information and with steps to arrive on time to open a help center in the same university building where he is.

He assures that the roadblocks of the Russian troops make it very difficult to deliver humanitarian aid to the population that has remained inside.

The idea, says the mayor, is, at least, to centralize the distribution of food and basic products, medical assistance and even the education of those who are escaping from Energodar, on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River.

That half of the population that has remained inside lives with the constant attacks that have been staged in the city and the surroundings of the nuclear plant since the invasion began.

The town has been several times without water and electricity supply due to bombing.

“We don't have data on how many of them approve of the occupation”, the mayor answers seriously when asked if part of the citizens of Energodar are pro-Russian.

And ditch: "The Russian occupiers torture the neighbors, kill them, rape the children and women, loot the belongings of their apartments and take the cars."

Orlov is also worried about the workers at the plant, who are the same local staff that operated before the occupation and who are now under the orders of the Russians.

He sends them a message: “I would like you not to worry about your houses and families.

I want you to think about the security of the station, which is why the demilitarization of the area is so important.”

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-09-19

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