As the war grinds on and billions of dollars in international aid pours in, cracks and prewar tensions are beginning to emerge between Ukraine's central government and local leaders.
“It’s a dangerous slope,” said Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program of the London-based think tank Chatham House. “For Ukraine to win this war, it has to be built off this idea [that] mayors are not competition but viewed as part of the team … where there is central command at the time of war, while at the same local governments can address the problems as they see fit.
The war has boosted Zelensky, who now has wide public support. The president’s nightly addresses from the capital are credited with bolstering Ukraine’s morale, Lutsevych said wars tend to bring out “new heroes,” and in Ukraine’s case it’s very likely that some of them will become mayors.Among the most critical of Zelensky has been Vladyslav Atroshenko, the mayor of Chernihiv, which borders Belarus and was one of the cities near Kyiv most damaged by Russian forces.
Six days before Atroshenko posted the video, a Ukrainian border guard prevented him from leaving the country to attend a conference in Switzerland about Ukraine’s recovery. Atroshenko, pacing back and forth in an interview with The Post, said it was the second time in recent weeks that central government agents had barred him from traveling for an aid-related event.Ukraine has barred all military age men from leaving the country since Russia’s Feb. 24 full-scale invasion.
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