The city had seen little violence since the start of the war a month ago, but bombings were reported there on Friday. The city, about 100 miles north of Kiev near the border with Belarus, was built after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster to house workers at the plant. Oleksandr Pavlyuk, head of Kyiv’s regional military administration, said in a Telegram message on Saturday that the Russians had abducted and then released the city’s mayor, Yuri Fomichev. The governor said hundreds of Slavutych residents carrying a giant Ukrainian flag filled the streets around the hospital to protest the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian city had seen little violence since the start of the war a month ago. Via REUTERS “The Russians opened fire in the air,” he said. “They threw flash grenades at the crowd. “But the residents did not disperse, on the contrary, more of them appeared,” Pavlyuk said. Fomicev spoke to the crowd after his release, local journalists reported. “In captivity, I negotiated with the occupiers,” Fomicev told the crowd, according to a video confirmed by the New York Times. “It was agreed that if it is confirmed that our army is not in the city, everything will be calm.” . The Russians still believe that airstrikes can scare us. “Home!” Slavutych residents shout at pic.twitter.com/2paRghLB5i – Українська правода ✌️ (@ukrpravda_news) March 26, 2022 Armored troops patrol as protesters protest Russia’s presence on Slavutych.via REUTERS “Slavutych remains under the Ukrainian flag!” he said. He added that Russian forces had instructed the people to hand over their weapons and that the national police and the Ukrainian army were no longer in the city, “so we will appoint people on duty to prevent looting, chaos and unrest.” With postal cables
