City councillors spent a third of the session discussing a fruitless meeting: they decided that «Sanitation» was to blame

A session of the Mykolaiv City Council. Archive photo by NikVesti

Members of the Mykolaiv City Council spent a third of the session discussing the fruitless meeting, ultimately blaming their colleagues from the «Sanation» parliamentary group for this.

This was discussed during today’s City Council session on 14 May, according to NikVesti.

In total, the session lasted almost 1 hour and 30 minutes, of which around 20 minutes were spent by councillors discussing the fruitlessness of the meeting.

During the consideration of land issues, several draft resolutions failed to secure the necessary number of votes for adoption. Following this, Yevhen Pavlovych, a city councillor from the «Propozytsiia» group, stated that, in his opinion, the consideration of these issues was being disrupted by councillors from the «Sanation» group, who had disconnected from the online session.

«I may be mistaken, but we have this strange situation. The «Sanation» group of councillors keeps disrupting our meetings every time. I’m not in a position to speak for all the councillors. But I saw that Serhii Kantor, Andrii Yermolaiev and Tetiana Dombrovska were present. Perhaps there were others, but, I’m afraid, I didn’t pay attention. But I can see that people simply left at the same time. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen such ‘consistent behaviour’,» said Yevhen Pavlovych.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych then took the floor, noting that representatives of this group of councillors had previously insisted on holding city council sessions in person.

«I would like to remind you that it was precisely this group that demanded that we all gather in one place. Some of the people you mentioned were there, perhaps once or twice, whilst others never attended at all,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

«Voters and the country must know their heroes, take note and make a political assessment of such disregard for the interests of city residents. And in fact, we are currently being held hostage,» added Yevhen Pavlovych.

Screenshot of the session on 14 May

The mayor also called on representatives of «Sanation» to resign their seats if they «do not wish to participate in the life of the city».

«I agree with you. Moreover, I can say that all representatives, apart from those from the banned «Sharii's Party» and the «Nash Krai» party who joined this group, if they do not wish to participate in the city’s affairs, may resign and be replaced by other councillors. Because I would like to remind you that these councillors were elected from party lists, which means that people voted for the party, not for individual councillors,» noted Oleksandr Sienkevych.

As a result, the mayor announced a break in the city council session.

The «Sanation» Group

As is known, on 30 September 2025, councillors of the Mykolaiv City Council formed a new group called «Sanation», led by Andrii Yermolaiev, the former director of the city hall’s anti-corruption department.

The group comprises nine councillors:

• Serhii Kantor (elected from «Nash Krai»),
• Andriy Yermolayev («Propozytsiia»);
• Svitlana Babaryka («European Solidarity»),
• Oleksandr Rozumnyi («Servant of the People»),
• Yurii Stepanets («Servant of the People»),
• Tetyana Dombrovska («Servant of the People»),
• Oleksandr Kovtun (elected from the «Sharii Party»),
• Larysa Drobot (elected from the «Sharii Party»),
• Andrii Kucherenko (elected from the «Sharii Party»).

According to Andrii Yermolaiev, the aim of the alliance is to «streamline processes within the Mykolaiv City Council».

Following this, Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration and a city councillor for «Servant of the People», stated that he was unaware of the creation of «Sanation» as a fully-fledged political group. He had been warned that this was necessary to revitalise the city council.

Recently, councillors from the «Sanation» group appealed to the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, asking him to meet urgently with employees of the water utility and publicly clarify the situation surrounding the dismissal of the company’s technical director, Vasyl Telpis.