Veterans are demanding the dismissal of the head of the Desnyansk District State Administration over the scandal involving the Alley of Heroes

The Kyiv City Union of ATO Veterans of the Desnianskyi District, active-duty military personnel, and the families of fallen defenders have appealed to the President of Ukraine, demanding that he initiate the dismissal of Desnianskyi District State Administration Head Maksym Bakhmatov due to a loss of public trust. 

They made this statement during a protest outside the district state administration building, signing an official petition with 241 signatures, which was also supported by veterans’ organizations in the Svyatoshyn, Dnipro, Obolon, Darnytsia, and Solomyansk districts of the capital.

The protest and petition were prompted by the official’s ongoing conflicts with the veterans’ community and the recent opening of the Alley of Heroes without the consent of the families of the fallen. Instead of the vandal-proof monuments called for in the project, concrete pillars with small black-and-white photographs were installed at the memorial, and Bakhmatov himself fled when the soldiers’ relatives and journalists tried to ask him questions. Stanislav Ryzhenkov, the Kyiv City Council’s Commissioner for the Rights of War Veterans, highlighted the district head’s systematic disrespect toward military personnel and called for an objective investigation into his actions.

Source: Desnianskyi District Public Council.

On June 30, the Alley of Heroes, dedicated to Ukraine’s fallen defenders, was unveiled in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi District. However, the ceremony turned into a scandal—some families of servicemembers complained about the memorial’s unsatisfactory appearance and began refusing to participate, while on social media, authorities are being accused of disrespecting the memory of the fallen.