The mayor of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv has called on Boris Johnson to seize the villas of Russian oligarchs living in London and to use them to accommodate Ukrainian refugees fleeing Vladimir Putin’s invasion and military onslaught.
In an interview with the Guardian, Andriy Sadovyi said the UK and other Nato member countries had to establish an immediate no-fly zone over Ukraine in order to save “millions of lives”.
“If it happened we could avoid humanitarian disaster,” he said.
The country was facing a “David and Goliath” struggle against one of the world’s most powerful armies, he added, saying: “Ukraine personifies David.” Asked if Ukraine could win, he said: “We have to win. What we have done so far has surprised the world.
“It’s already part of victory. Can you imagine the same morale and combat spirit in any other country? We are experiencing historic times for humankind. Putin will go down in history side by side with Hitler and other war criminals.”
The city of Lviv, about 40 miles (70km) from the border of Poland, has been flooded with refugees since Russia’s attack on Ukraine six days ago. The Kremlin has not targeted the Unesco-listed city famed for its ornate classical and baroque buildings – or its now-closed civilian airport.
Sadovyi said it was only a matter of time before Russia began targeting Lviv, Ukraine’s sixth biggest city. He said: “Putin has not bombed us so far. He’s committing genocide in Kharkiv, Kyiv and elsewhere. But I think his plan is to occupy the whole territory of Ukraine and to recreate the USSR. He’s taken Belarus. Now he wants us.”
There are long queues of cars stretching dozens of kilometres of desperate Ukrainians trying to cross into Poland. Sadovyi said Lviv and western Ukraine could accommodate 3 million people displaced from fighting in other parts of the country. “The enemy has entered our land. It’s killing our kids,” he said.
He said he had just got off a call with other Ukrainian mayors including Vitali Klitschko in Kyiv and Vadym Boichenko in Mariupol. The eastern port city on the Sea of Azov was encircled and under heavy attack, Sadovyi said. “Its mayor told me 20 minutes ago Russian marines are landing,” he said.
Sadovyi was scathing about western leaders and their failure to taken action against Putin before last week’s invasion. “They expressed deep concern. We heard a lot of blah, blah, blah. We need less talk and more action,” he said, adding that EU nations had allowed Russia to modernise its army by paying it “billions and billions” for oil and gas.
He added: “Joe Biden was US vice-president when Putin took Crimea. What we need now is for Boris Johnson to start freezing the bank accounts of Russian oligarchs in London and to seize their luxury villas. It would be better to use them to house Ukrainian refugees,” he said. “Johnson needs to call Putin and say: ‘Sorry Volodya, things have changed.’”
Other Ukrainians made the same point on Tuesday. At a press conference in Poland, a Ukrainian journalist asked the prime minister why the children of Russian oligarchs were still allowed to live in London at a time when Ukrainian children were sheltering in basements under Kremlin bombardment.
Incredibly powerful moment at Boris Johnson’s press conference in Poland pic.twitter.com/QHgWfjjrHv
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) March 1, 2022
Compared with other Ukrainian cities, life in Lviv is still relatively normal. Air raid sirens sound several times a day. Armed soldiers guard government buildings, with sandbags in place. Molotov cocktail factories have sprung up, following a patriotic appeal by the mayor to make bombs. There is a 10pm curfew.
But under the surface, anxiety about the war is everywhere. One mother had pasted a home-made sign in blue crayon on the front and back windows of her car. It said: “Children” in Russian. All non-essential shops are shut and cash is in short supply, with queues outside banks. Supermarkets have run out of some goods.
Sadovyi, 52, was a presidential candidate in 2019 and is the former leader of Ukraine’s Self Reliance party. He said he understood Russia well because he had lived in Moscow in the late 1980s while doing Soviet military service. Five years ago, he visited York to do a course on emergency planning, he said.
Putin’s decision this week to put Russia’s nuclear forces in a state of high alert raised further questions about his mental health, he said, adding: “Right now he’s trying to blackmail the world.” There were rumours Putin had chosen to invade on 22 February – 22 02 2022 – because of its mystical significance, he said.
The mayor continued: “Lviv has always been a safe city. If he decides to bomb Lviv we can compare him to the Taliban. We are talking about world cultural heritage. Any such move would be crazy.
“It’s our land. Russia wants to turn us into slaves. By God’s will we will remain a free people.”
