You're reading: Lviv mayor says Ukrainians need to dispel west, east misunderstandings by talking with each other

LVIV, Ukraine -- Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy says that more contact between eastern and western Ukrainians can lessen some of the current misunderstandings and tensions among Ukrainians. He also said, in a recent interview in his office, says he also favors giving regions greater authority over spending and taxes. But he does not favor autonomy, separatism or federalization schemes that would break up the country.

Sadovy said that Lviv hopes to help bridge the communication gap.

“All those problems in the east are caused by the reluctance to hear people,” the mayor said.

Sadovy, 45, has been a mayor of Lviv for more than seven years, was an active supporter of the EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled Viktor Yanukovych as president on Feb. 22.

Sadovy also leads a political party, Samopomich, and owns a stake in a western Ukrainian TV company Luxe. 

He has high approval ratings.

Natalia Bordun, university professor from Lviv, says city did become more progressive with Sadovy. “I know there are questions to him, but whatever you do there would be people with questions, the only difference that our mayor actually answers them,” she says.

Sadovy says communication with constitutients is part of his strategy. “For years people have been fed with some weird phobias and now it is just the right time to finally let people just talk to each other and find out the truth about the history and the present of their country,” he says.

After the Russian Federation annexed Ukraine’s peninsula Crimea on March 16, it was Lviv and Lviv Oblast that accepted the majority of Crimea refugees. Around 1,000 people who left their homes cameto the oblast, most of them were accommodated in the families of local residents, children got help in enrolling the schools while adults got necessary assistance in job search.

However Sadovy says he doesn’t know how many more the city can take. “We just called on people and people helped,” he says. “If the escalation continues in the East and more people would have to leave their homes it would be much better if some state program on their long term accommodation start working, unfortunately one city cannot take all.”

Meanwhile, communication work has already started, the mayor says. “I’ve been to Donetsk a week ago and we agreed on having days of Donetsk in Lviv, I also invite guests here, support student exchanges, organize festivals that attract intercity travelers,” Sadovy says.

The other way to help communication between Ukrainians is taking care of cheap and easy ways to travel from east to west.

“It is hard to talk about tourism now when the country is actually in the state of war, but believe me two or three days of real communication will take away all the problems generated during decades,” Sadovyi says.

Although Lviv Oblast is one of the most stable regions in Ukraine now, city affairs seem to be a big concern as well — and the mayor supports decentralization of powers from the central government in Kyiv.

“Making people wait for the gifts from above when they actually earn a living is just not smart. Leave taxes in the regions, give maximum powers to the local councils and you will get a different country in a couple of years,” the Lviv mayor says.

He does not, however, support federalization or autonomous regions.

However Sadovy says now is not the time to criticize the new government he thinks Ukraine does need more professionals in power rather than politicians. “The speed of making decisions is very important now and having only politicians in power can lead to having professionals out of the game and decisions being made in favor of political ratings,” Sadovy explains.

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]