Posted on 03/26/2022 10:36:07 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
A mayor in a Ukrainian town occupied by Russian forces has been released from captivity and the soldiers have agreed to leave after a mass protest by residents.
Slavutych, a northern town close to the Chernobyl nuclear site, was taken by Russian forces but stun grenades and overhead fire failed to disperse unarmed protesters on its main square on Saturday.
The crowd demanded the release of mayor Yuri Fomichev, who had been taken prisoner by the Russian troops. A man walks through a bombed-out street in Mykolaiv. Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 31 of the invasion Read more
Attempts by Russian troops to intimidate the growing protest failed and on Saturday afternoon Fomichev was let go by his captors.
An agreement was made that the Russians would leave the town if those with arms handed them over to the mayor with a dispensation for those with hunting rifles.
Fomichev told those protesting that the Russians had agreed to withdraw “if there are no [Ukrainian] military in the city”.
The deal struck, the mayor said, was that the Russians would make a search for Ukrainian soldiers and arms and then depart. One Russian checkpoint outside the city would remain.
The incident highlights the struggle that Russian forces have faced even where they have had military victories.
Slavutych, population 25,000, sits just outside the so-called exclusion zone around Chernobyl – which in 1986 was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. The plant itself was seized by Russian forces soon after the start of the 24 February invasion.
“The Russians opened fire into the air. They threw flash-bang grenades into the crowd. But the residents did not disperse, on the contrary, more of them showed up,” said Oleksandr Pavlyuk, a governor of the Kyiv region in which Slavutych sits.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
True that.
“An agreement was made that the Russians would leave the town if those with arms handed them over to the mayor with a dispensation for those with hunting rifles.”
Okkaaayy...
5.56mm
“Goin’ on a Putin Hunt....”
That's a better deal for gun-owners than is offered in most American cities.
What’s Ukrainian for “My guns were lost in a boating accident”?
Even so, significant bravery was displayed by the locals.
[What’s Ukrainian for “My guns were lost in a boating accident”?]
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4049837/posts
The goal of the Russians is to flush out neo-nazis and neutralize the Ukrainian military. Town by town, city block by city block.
Mission accomplished, the Russians move on, both sides declare victory.
The ukes claim to drive them out, the Russians paint the map as another town “ liberated” and no need to expend forces.
I think you got it. In any other war, a protest against the occupiers would have simply been ‘mowed down’. Russia doesn’t look at this like WW2 and certainly are not fighting in that way.
Didn’t the Germans tell the Jews they would leave them alone if the Jews would only hand over their guns?
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