Kyiv City Council backs Kyiv dpty mayor Bondarenko's resignation

At a meeting on Tuesday, the Kyiv City Council supported the statement submitted by Deputy Mayor, Secretary of the Kyiv City Council Volodymyr Bondarenko about the dismissal from his post after he did not support the early termination of his powers on the same day.

During the secret ballot, in which 96 city council deputies and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko took part, only 34 votes (less than 50%) were cast in support of the decision to dismiss the deputy mayor, 23 voted against and 38 deputies abstained. Accordingly, the decision was not made.

After this, Klitschko stated that Bondarenko should nevertheless resign from his post and wrote a corresponding letter of resignation. "The deputies did not support the secretary's resignation by secret ballot (according to the regulations). At the same time, I believe that he should resign from his post. Bondarenko wrote a letter of resignation about this. Before this, I removed him from preparing and chairing meetings. And I am doing this myself - as the mayor," Klitschko wrote on Telegram.

According to the capital's mayor, he made this decision because of the land corruption case in Kyiv. "We must admit and correct mistakes. Seven officials have been fired because of the ‘land case.’ The cleansing of the city government will continue. And, although Bondarenko has the status of a witness in this case, the story is, to put it mildly, unpleasant ... And no matter how some forces try to unbalance the system of governance in the city, the Kyiv City Council must draw conclusions and work," Klitschko noted.

Following this, the Kyiv City Council supported Bondarenko's application to resign from his post and took it into account by 81 votes out of 83 at the same meeting on Tuesday.

As reported, in February, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) put former Kyiv City Council deputy Denys Komarnytsky on the wanted list, suspected of deals with capital land. Klitschko said that officials involved in the case of the seizure of capital land would be dismissed from the Kyiv City State Administration.

On March 10, Bihus.Info published an investigation citing tapes from Komarnytsky's office, collected by NABU as part of an investigation into land corruption in Kyiv. It also featured a number of other officials, including Bondarenko. Head of the Kyiv City Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko, demanded the immediate dismissal of all those involved in the investigation, and later welcomed Klitschko's decision.

On March 14, Bondarenko wrote a statement about his removal from duties in connection with the investigation of a high-profile case of land corruption in Kyiv, in which he was a witness. "To avoid any speculation, I have addressed Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko in order to remove me from my functional duties related to the preparation and holding of plenary sessions of the Kyiv City Council for the duration of the pretrial investigation of the high-profile case," he wrote, adding that Klitschko himself will prepare and chair the following plenary sessions of the Kyiv City Council, the presidium and the conciliation council of the heads of parliamentary factions.

Однако позже более 40 депутатов подписали требование к городскому голове поставить на голосование на ближайшем заседании вопрос досрочного прекращения полномочий Бондаренко в связи с "пленками Комарницкого" и расследованием НАБУ в рамках дела "Чистый город" о коррупционных действиях и земельных махинациях в столице. Внеочередное заседание Киевсовета по этому вопросу было назначено на 8 апреля.