KYIV. May 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko has called the searches at municipal utilities companies as pressure on the capital's authorities and suppression of local government, as well as personal pressure against him.

"As for the events around the city authorities, over the past two days, law enforcement officers and tax authorities have literally been nightmares for the capital's authorities. This was not the case in Ukraine even in Yanukovych's bloody times! They are breaking into public utilities and conducting unbelievable raids!" Klitschko said, according to his press service.

The mayor recalled that the searches took place in Kyivzelenstroy, Spetszhilfond, in Kyiavtodor, Kyiv Institute of Land Relations, Kyivhorsvet and in the departments of land resources and social policy.

"Today, at six in the morning, they burst into the home of the chief architect of Kyiv. We also came home to the chairman of the executive committee of the UDAR party. They are looking for corruption?! How is it possible to start these 'cases,' which do not withstand any legal scrutiny, all at once? What is happening is pressure on the city authorities and suppression of local self-government. This is pressure on me personally!" Klitschko said.

The mayor said Kyiv is studying the issue of introducing executive committees, which is why the authorities put pressure on him.

He said this was the reason for the deployment of a "dirty campaign of searches, streams of lies and manipulations, in an attempt to destabilize the work of the city authorities."

"In such cases, they turn to the guarantor of the Constitution to ensure compliance with the rule of law. But here it is clear that such actions are approved at the highest level. I appeal to law enforcement agencies. When you follow someone's orders and instructions, these are criminal orders, and you know that. - remember that sooner or later you will have to answer according to the law! Therefore, you should not violate it so rudely. And for those who want to 'train' me, so to speak, I say this: I was still in training when you went to school. I was in excellent shape," Klitschko said.

The mayor also stressed that such actions in relation to the city authorities will not go unnoticed and assessed by international partners.

"Because what kind of democracy and local self-government can we talk about? This soap opera does not improve the image of Ukraine as a European state. The scenario is unprofessional, it must be corrected," he added.

On May 12, the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office announced searches in several departments of the Kyiv City State Administration (KSCA) and utilities in six unrelated criminal cases at once, in some of them with the tax police, and in some with the National Police.

In addition, the head of the executive committee of the UDAR Vitali Klitschko party, ex-MP Artur Palatny, said prosecutors and law-enforcement officers searched his apartment and the apartment of his ex-wife, whom he divorced for more than 20 years.

According to the prosecutor's office, in particular, searches in the Department of Social Policy of the Kyiv City State Administration were carried out in a case initiated upon the seizure of UAH 13.5 million of budget funds as a result of contracts concluded in 2017-2019 with an unnamed enterprise for the purchase of personal hygiene products at inflated prices.

In addition, investigative measures took place in Kyiv enterprise Kyivhorsovet and contracting enterprises in the framework of criminal proceedings initiated on the fact of deliberate tax evasion during the work on replacing lighting in the capital in the amount of more than UAH 12 million.

Searches also took place in the office premises of Spetsproekt-Invest LLC and in the residential premises of its officials in the framework of a case initiated on the fact of deliberate tax evasion during the construction of the Podolsk Bridge over the Dnipro in the amount of UAH 9 million.

The premises of the Kyivavtodor were also searched within the framework of a criminal investigation on suspicion of causing damage to the state by an official by exceeding his authority. In addition, a criminal case is being investigated against officials of Kyivavtodor and related structures on charges of tax evasion for UAH 18.6 million.

Another case and searches, according to law enforcement officials, are related to the Department of Land Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration and a private enterprise, the director of which, according to the investigation, in 2013, having acquired real estate on communal land, deliberately did not enter into a land lease agreement and did not pay almost UAH 19.5 million.

The prosecutor's office also conducted searches in the office of the Spetszhilfond and in the premises of contractors in the framework of criminal proceedings initiated upon the seizure of funds in the amount of over UAH 10.5 million.

A day earlier, the office premises of the Kyivzelenstroy utility company and its contracting enterprises were searched within the framework of criminal proceedings initiated on the fact of deliberate tax evasion during the reconstruction of the capital's parks in the amount of more than UAH 30 million. According to the materials of the investigation, LLC Eurotechnologies Group, Budmontazhservis 1 and Prombudmekhanizatsiya in 2019-2020 commissioned the construction and reconstruction of recreation parks Natalka, Sovki, Raduga, Kurenevsky and others and allegedly evaded taxes through transactions with enterprises.