The peaceful life of the resort village of Zatoka in the Odessa region was disrupted after 30 men in camouflage, balaclavas, and armed men, led by Odessa lawyer Oleksandr Pogorely, seized the Zatoka village council building on the night of September 16. Now, unknown "little green men" are preventing village council employees and the legally elected secretary, Galina Baranovskaya, from entering their workplaces, thereby paralyzing life in the village.
The purpose of such illegal actions is to seize power and install Natalia Vernigora, a protégé of an Odessa lawyer, as secretary of the village council.
"Pogoredny practically opens every door with his foot and boasts about his personal acquaintance with the governor, while insulting us in every way," said a local resident. "We support Galina Baranovskaya and understand perfectly well that this gang simply wants to grab prime resort land and develop it."
According to Roman Romanenko, a lawyer for the Zatoka Village Council, this story began on May 16, when unknown assailants kidnapped the current secretary, Vyacheslav Bokiy, and attempted to force him to resign, but to no avail. In August, Zatoka held a legal election for secretary, and the majority of local deputies voted for Galina Baranovskaya.
Contrary to the law and common sense, Baranovskaya still cannot take up her post due to obstacles from Natalia Vernigora.
"We can't register the secretary in the unified register of legal entities, and we have documentary evidence that Vernigora is blocking this process. She submits provocative requests to the unified register: the village council, she claims, has changed its type of activity, or changed its phone number. The application is reviewed for 15 days, and before that, it's impossible to make any changes to the register," explained Roman Romanenko. "After the review period expires, she submits a new application, and so on ad infinitum."
It's worth noting that both the village council staff and local residents support the duly elected secretary and refuse to tolerate the lawlessness that is perpetuating Zatoka. To draw the authorities' attention to the problem, residents twice blocked the Odesa-Reni highway, but this had no effect. Even a meeting with Odesa Oblast Deputy Governor Solomiya Bobrovska, who was briefed on the situation, yielded no results. Meanwhile, the raiders who seized the village council are intimidating villagers and threatening those who dissent.
"They're trying to silence us in every way possible because we support the legally elected secretary of the Zatoka village council, Galina Baranovskaya," said local resident Lyudmila indignantly. "And lawyer Pogorely's people are threatening us with the idea that if we speak out, we'll all be jailed."
On September 16, during the latest standoff between the "little green men" and village residents, one local suffered a broken nose, and another had his phone smashed for filming the incident. Meanwhile, law enforcement is turning a blind eye to the situation, turning a blind eye. Desperate for justice at the local level, residents have already filed appeals to higher authorities: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, and Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.
Local residents, many of whom have lived in the village for 20-30 years, insist they have no intention of surrendering without a fight, and if the central government doesn't listen, they will take further steps to protect the village from raiders.
Mila Savina
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