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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Protest against the mayor of Uman is being organized by the same people who gathered signatures for her recall?
Since the end of September, the center of Uman has hosted an open-ended protest against the mayor, Iryna Pletnyova. Participants oppose her return to office after the court suspended the recall decision. The organizers present the action as the voice of the community. However, the composition of the organizers and the chronology of events point to a close link between the protest and the national deputy Anton Yatsenko and the campaign that he publicly supported.
A forecast that came true
At the beginning of September, Anton Yatsenko stated: if the court stops the recall of Pletnyova, a revolutionary situation could arise in Uman and a long Maidan could begin.
16 In September the court temporarily stopped the action of the party 'For the Future' on recalling the mayor. Pletnyova continued to perform the duties of mayor, and Yatsenko's lawyers began to seek the lifting of this restriction.
Subsequently, the deputy addressed the townspeople with a call to come on Saturday, 26 in September, at 12:00 for what he said would be the start of the Maidan in Uman.
Hundreds of people and an open-ended status
26 In September, demonstrators gathered in the center of Uman. About a hundred people spoke out against Pletnyova’s return to office, and the organizers announced the action to be open-ended.
The action was not without sharp moments. In footage from the scene, part of the crowd is heard shouting 'Shame' at a war veteran. One attendee reproached the protesters that the war has been going on for 12 years, and they are playing into Putin’s hands.
Pletnyova herself calls what is happening political revenge by Yatsenko and a manifestation of his personal ambitions.
The same faces
Among the co-organizers of the protest is Olena Krainyeva. She was part of the initiative group that collected signatures for Pletnyova’s recall in the summer. So people who ran the recall campaign are now organizing and conducting a street action.
Valentin Khitruk, who leads the same initiative group, also invites people to the 'maidan.' He urged townspeople to come on 10 October at 12:00 to the central square with placards.
Khitruk, according to the registry on the Verkhovna Rada website, is Anton Yatsenko’s assistant on public grounds. The secretary of the initiative group, Rostyslav Abramovskyi, is a staff assistant-consultant to the deputy. On his Facebook page, Khitruk essentially duplicated Yatsenko’s posts.
The deputy himself argues that townspeople organized themselves independently, and he only supports their decision. In the summer, when announcing the signature collection, he invited those who wished to call him personally and promised to coordinate them with the organizing committee, which, according to him, had been created by Uman residents.
How it got here
The protest is a continuation of a months-long standoff. Pletnyova and Yatsenko were once allies, but, according to the mayor, their relationship deteriorated with the start of the full-scale invasion due to a dispute over funding for the Armed Forces and the Territorial Defense. Yatsenko denies these accusations.
The events then unfolded as follows:
11 May 2026 year, the Cherkasy regional organization of 'For the Future' did not support the recall of eight Uman city council deputies.
25 In May, Yatsenko took over the organization.
31 In May, during new meetings, the recall of eight Uman city deputies and seven regional council deputies was already being discussed.
11 In June, the deputy announced the intention to collect signatures for recalling Pletnyova herself.
18 In August, the initiative group handed over to the TEC 6710 the signatures.
7 In September, the TEC sent documents to the party.
8 In September, the party congress adopted a decision to recall the mayor.
Members of the TEC state that during the collection and verification of signatures the procedure was violated. Member of the commission Ihor Domanetsky says that, according to data from the State Register of Voters, nearly 99% of the verified sheets did not contain complete information, but the commission still recognized them as valid.
The city council’s response
24 In September, two days before the start of the protest, the Uman City Council held an extraordinary session. Deputies adopted four appeals regarding Anton Yatsenko’s actions: to the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, NABU, and SAP. They raised the issue of possible political pressure on local self-government and asked to check the deputy’s actions for possible corruption offenses and abuse of power.
The square or the court
The legality of recalling Iryna Pletnyova must be determined by the court, and the main hearing is ongoing. In the meantime, the confrontation that began in party offices and continued near the tents for collecting signatures has moved to the city’s central square. The organizers promise the action will continue indefinitely.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Революція на замовлення? Хто стоїть за "майданом" проти мера Умані". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: StopKor.
