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Ukraine's most famous boxer and the leader of the eponymous faction in Kyiv City Council, Vitaliy Klychko, has sent an open letter to dismiss Kyiv's mayor Leonid Chernovetsky. Ukraine's most famous boxer and the leader of the eponymous faction in Kyiv City Council, Vitaliy Klitschko, has sent an open letter to President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov asking them to dismiss Leonid Chernovetsky as Kyiv mayor and call a fresh mayor election and elections to Kyiv City Council.

"The situation in the Ukrainian capital is catastrophic. Rumors of economic chaos, large-scale corruption and blatant unlawful actions by the city's leaders have circulated for a long time not only in Kyiv, but also outside it," reads a letter posted on the official Web site of the Bloc of Klitschko on Friday.

Klitschko said that last winter had helped make an assessment of the quality of work by the city administration led by Chernovetsky, as "thousands of tonnes of snow [not removed from the city], non-operating utility equipment, as well as mud and potholes on the roads are only the tip of the iceberg."

Describing the situation in Kyiv, he said that "hundreds of hectares" of Kyiv's land, forests and parks had been transferred from public ownership. Klitschko said that "almost all non-residential premises in downtown Kyiv have been put up for privatization, representatives of public organizations are being thrown onto the streets, while raiders are seizing bookstores, libraries, and even medical institutions."

"Kyiv is on the verge of a transport, energy, and environmental collapse, as well as a collapse of the housing and utilities system... The capital is in economic decline, the budget was not fulfilled by more than a third, there are problems with the payment of wages, all municipal surcharges were cancelled, while the financing for cultural, educational and medical sectors was reduced," reads the letter.

Klitschko welcomed a government decision to conduct comprehensive checks on the activity of Kyiv City State Administration. He said he hoped that decisions that are to be taken at a council on resolving urgent problems in Kyiv, which was scheduled for March 20 at the Ukrainian president's request, would be effective.

While addressing Yanukovych, Klitschko said: "Kyiv's residents have reacted positively to the fact that you, as Ukraine's president, cancelled the decision taken by the previous head of state on the appointment of Leonid Chernovetsky as a member of the Higher Council of Justice. We hope that other steps will also be taken to bring order not only to the capital, but also to the whole country."

In addition, Klitschko called on executive government agencies "to adopt a consolidated position on a strategy for rescuing the capital." For his part, he also proposed a program of "seven areas of the city's viability," including the adoption of a new master plan, the publication of a report on the city budget, transport reform, bringing order to the housing and utilities sector, the improvement of the environmental situation, a ban on the construction of facilities in the city's historical center and monitoring "the professionalism of the city authorities."

"I'm calling on you to meet the interests of Kyiv residents," Klitschko said.

Kyiv City Council includes 117 deputies who represent seven factions, in particular, the Bloc of Vitaliy Klitschko (15 deputies), the Regions Party (six deputies), the Bloc of Leonid Chernovetsky (43 deputies), the Bloc of Lytvyn (11 deputies), the Public Activists of Kyiv (eight deputies), the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (32 deputies), and the Bloc of Mykola Katerynchuk (two deputies).