East Ukraine Town Council Seized, Mayor Forced to Resign

Yesterday, April 30, a group of 30 people armed with automatic rifles arrived in Amvrosievka in six vehicles, broke down the door to the town council and raised the flag of the "Donetsk People's Republic".

One of the vehicles bore the emblem of the Ukrainian State Protection Service [Ukrainian government security unit].

During the attack on the city council, no [staff] were present. The separatists also replaced the flag on the building of the district administration. In both cases, the [Ukrainian] state flag was torn and trampled on.

Five police officers arrived on the scene, and stated that they were “with the people". The separatists decorated them with [Russian] St. George’s ribbons.

Three carloads of separatists then went to the home to the town’s mayor, Igor Sklyarov, who supports Ukrainian unity. They brought him to the town council building, still in the clothes he had on at home. Threatening him with weapons, they forced him to write a resignation letter. There are still some separatists at the town council.

Novosti Donbassa understands that the separatists also tried to extort money from the management of the local water utility company. A representative of the company went to Donetsk to meet with the separatist leaders and persuaded them not to take money from it.

This article republished from Novosti Donbassa with kind permission.

Original article in Russian.