Cherkasy mayor locks horns with the government over early ease of quarantine

The mayor of Cherkasy, Anatoliy Bondarenko, is facing mounting pressure after easing the shutdown in his city on May 1, two weeks before the date set by the government for May 11.

On May 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky personally addressed Bondarenko, during a speech to the nation on Facebook, saying the mayor’s move would have “relevant legal consequences.”

“For future reference, this applies to all local government officials who confuse the words ‘decentralization’ and ‘autonomy’. Individual initiatives that endanger the safety of people are unacceptable,” Zelensky said.

This reaction highlights growing tensions between Cherkasy’s local authorities and the national government over the premature ease of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions in this city, the provincial capital of 279,000 people located nearly 200 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.

Late in the evening on May 1, Bondarenko published a photo of a text that he claimed to have received from the first deputy head of the President’s Office, Sergei Trofimov. In the text, Bondarenko is told that he’s being given a “final warning” and that “next time, there will not be greetings but action.”

The publication caused a stir on social media, but the President’s Office immediately dismissed the claim on its Telegram channel, saying Trofimov did not send the text to Bondarenko, and it was a “prank.”

However, the same message stated that Bondarenko and the city council will still face “proper legal assessment” for not respecting the government’s decision.

On April 30, Cherkasy’s city council voted to ease quarantine restrictions in the city for small and medium businesses and reopened parks to the public, prompting a swift response from the national government.

Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov criticized the decision, on the ministry’s Telegram Channel, on May 1, and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov took to Twitter, writing that “the response will be tough, to which Bondarenko answered in a Facebook video that “he will not be intimidated.”

On May 1, law enforcement initiated a criminal case against Cherkasy’s local authorities, on the grounds of contradicting the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision. The statement also said police officers would “carry out preventive work among representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, in the event that they ignore the ban and fail to comply with legal requirements.”

The same evening, local entrepreneurs and representatives of the far-right National Corps party staged a protest under the office of Cherkasy’s police in support of local authorities and demanded that businesses be allowed to operate.

Speaking on April 30, Stepanov called on citizens to comply with the quarantine, a day after several hundred entrepreneurs rallied in front of the Cabinet of Ministers building in Kyiv demanding the reopening of small businesses and equal working conditions with some large businesses that are still operating.

“I understand that it’s hard to be in lockdown for six weeks, but nobody would keep it in place or keep small businesses closed if there were no reasons for it,” he said. “When you violate the quarantine, think of your loved ones.”

The quarantine, initially put in place on March 12, was extended until May 11. The measure shuttered everything except hospitals, supermarkets, pharmacies, banks, gas stations, and other critical enterprises. Health officials said the quarantine was responsible for Ukraine’s relatively limited rate of infection compared to many other countries.

The government recently outlined a plan to gradually ease quarantine restrictions.

As of May 2, the number of officially confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 304 in the Cherkasy region, and 11,41 in Ukraine. In total, 279 people have died from the disease in Ukraine and 1,498 patients have recovered.