Several hundred Zaporizhia residents led by the leader of the Radical Party, Oleh Liashko, and a group of Radical Party parliamentarians walked into a session room at the Zaporizhia City Council while the council was in session, to demand the resignation of the city's mayor, Oleksandr Sin.
Several hundred local residents picketed the city hall building with national flags and banners which read “Zaporizhia without Sin,” demanding a no-confidence vote in the mayor who is mired in corruption and has links with criminal underworld, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said.
At the entrance to the city hall, the picketers installed a token cage with an effigy of the mayor.
The demonstrators claimed they were not mobsters and not planning to seize power as Sin said the other day.
Radical Party leader Liashko arrived at the picket along with five party members who are members of the local council.
They then helped the demonstrators get into the session room.
At this point, a huge crowd has formed in the room and is demanding in unison that the mayor sign a letter of resignation. They have blocked the rostrum.
There are many police officers in the room, who have been able to keep the situation under control.
The mayor has so far refused to sign the resignation letter.
It was reported that on Dec. 8 Sin said that he had information about a plot to take over the Zaporizhia City Council and urged citizens not to yield to provocations.
“There is a plan to take over the city council building and block the session and to attempt to unseat the mayor so as to appoint their own man at the rally,” Sin said.
The people behind this plot are activists and businessmen financed by Donetsk clans whose goal is to gain control over the city’s lands and property, the mayor said.
