«Stop domestic separatism and don't divide people into classes», — Sienkevych on the scandal involving the head of the Mykolaivpastrans

Dmytro Danilenko, the new head of Mykolaivpastrans, at a staff meeting on 2 February. Photo: NikVesti

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych responded to reports that the newly appointed head of Mykolaivpastrans, who is originally from Donetsk Oblast, appears in the Myrotvorets databases. The mayor said that even before the full-scale invasion, current Ukrainian officials were crossing the Russian border.

This was discussed during a staff meeting at the Mykolaiv City Council on 2 February, according to NikVesti.

Oleksandr Senkevych began the meeting with this topic, responding to a post by councillor Andrii Yermolaev, which he called «nonsense». In the post, the deputy published screenshots of Dmytro Danylenko's page with a photo in the Victory Regiment frame for 2021, as well as data from Myrotvorets, which states that, according to information from Russian FSB border guards, he visited the Rostov region in 2015-2016.

Screenshot of a post by Mykolaiv deputy Andrii Yermolaev

The mayor noted that until 2022, Ukrainian officials who currently live and hold key positions in Ukrainian politics visited Russia.

«We have all read, I will not call it anything other than 'nonsense', from Mr. Yermolaev, who is our colleague and holds the position of director of the department for combating corruption, internal audit, and so on. He wrote that a director had been appointed who, according to the Myrotvorets database, had crossed the Ukrainian border while in the occupied territory. We can all say how it is here. There are some high-ranking officials in various positions who were also in the occupied territories, crossed the border, and so on,» said the mayor.

The mayor emphasised that both Danylenko and the newly appointed head of the water utility, Hennadii Iziumov, were in Mariupol, which is currently occupied, at the time of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Both left the country and later returned to Ukraine.

«Both of these gentlemen, who were appointed today, were in Mariupol at the time of the full-scale invasion, which is still under occupation today. They left and decided for themselves that they did not want to live in the occupied territory. They left the country and returned to Ukraine, and today they work in Mykolaiv. As for Mr. Danylenko, he has been working as the head of the transport department of the Mykolaiv CHP since 2023,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Using the example of appointed officials, Oleksandr Sienkevych criticised those who try to label people who lived or continue to live under occupation as separatists.

«People who have decided to live in Ukraine need additional support, and we must provide it. I notice that very often people who shout that we must fight for every metre of our land talk about separatists, people who lived in these territories. My personal position is that today we are fighting for the occupied territories, where there are still a large number of Ukrainians who cannot leave this territory for one reason or another. We are saying that we must bring our people back, and this means that the people who are there now will also return. Are we going to divide them into categories? This should not be the case. We must be a united state, not just in words. We must put an end to this everyday separatism. I ask you to support the leaders of these enterprises. When you hear people saying «that separatist» or «that one from the occupation», you must stop these conversations and do your job: support the Armed Forces and say that Ukraine is indivisible. Anyone who wants to live in Russia will go there when the occupation ends. Our task is to develop Mykolaiv,» the mayor emphasised.

We remind you that on 29 January, the former employee of the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant, Dmytro Danylenko, became the new head of the municipal enterprise Mykolaivpastrans. He was born in the city of Donetsk. From 2023, he worked at the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant as the head of the transport department. Prior to that, he held a similar position in Mariupol.

According to his declaration for 2025, his salary was 1.2 million hryvnias, which amounted to more than 101,000 hryvnias per month.