Odesa City Hall responds to criticism and will make Mykolaiv column in «Alleys of Unbreakable Cities»

Odesa City Hall will finance the creation of a Mykolaiv column for the exhibition «Alley of Unbreakable Cities». This decision was made after a wave of criticism.

This was reported to NikVesti by Ivan Smirenskyi, an adviser to the mayor of Mykolaiv, after a conversation with Anna Pozdnyakova, deputy mayor of Odesa.

As a reminder, Mykolaiv and Voznesensk, which played an important role in the defence of southern Ukraine, are not represented in the exhibition. This caused public outrage and a wave of criticism from residents and public figures.

According to Smirenskyi, a representative of the Odesa City Hall apologised and stressed that the city authorities were not the organisers of the exhibition. However, Odesa is ready to rectify the situation.

«She apologised and assured that in the coming days Odesa would finance the production of a column with a sign «Mykolaiv» and asked to find a shell to install it,» said Ivan Smirenskyi.

The exhibition is an installation of 15 columns that symbolise unbreakable Ukrainian cities. Each of them has fragments of Russian missiles and shells, as well as notched plates showing how many times the enemy hit each of these cities.

Earlier, Ukrainian theatre and film actor Oleh Filimonov thanked Mykolaiv for its defence on behalf of the whole of Odesa.

«We are doing well thanks to your strength... So, if there was no Mykolaiv in the world, we don't know what would happen to Odesa», the actor sang in the song «Gold of Mykolaiv».

As reported, soldiers of the 406th Artillery Brigade played a key role in the defence of Mykolaiv in the spring of 2022, while the 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade was responsible for the defence of Kulbakyne airfield. Thanks to their work, the enemy failed to occupy the city.

Defence of Mykolaiv

The first explosions in Mykolaiv occurred around 5am on 24 February. On the same day, Russian troops tried to bypass Kherson from the east and continue their attack on Mykolaiv.

The occupiers tried to surround Mykolaiv. When attempting to enter Mykolaiv on 4 March 2023, Russian troops tried to divert the attention of the city's defence forces, Major General Dmytro Marchenko of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told NikVesti. To do so, several units of enemy vehicles entered the territory of Kulbakyne airport, but were repelled by a police group. After the unsuccessful manoeuvre in Kulbakyne, the Russians' attempt to enter Mykolaiv failed.

Since the beginning of the Great War, Major General Dmytro Marchenko, who was in charge of the defence of Mykolaiv, had been ordered to blow up the Varvarivskyi Bridge eight times. However, he managed to persuade the highest command not to blow up the bridge, because then the city could have been completely surrounded — at that time, Mykolaiv was blocked in three out of four directions.

Roman Kostenko, Secretary of the Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence, Colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine, believes that the defence of Mykolaiv is one of the most tragic victories of this war. It helped to protect not only Odesa but also Moldova from the invasion of the occupiers.

Defence of Voznesensk

On 2-3 March, in Voznesensk, Mykolaiv region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the territorial defence fought off Russian invaders who had entered the city. About 700 buildings were damaged in Voznesensk as a result of the hostilities, including 56 high-rise buildings.

Earlier, NikVesti described the battle for Voznesensk in a documentary project.

The journalists visited the site of the battle with the occupiers and learned about the details of the battle from the mayor of Voznesensk, Yevhen Velychko, and a member of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, Vladyslav Neveselyi.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces believe that the fall of Voznesensk in March 2022 would have jeopardised the entire south of Ukraine, opening the way for the Russians to enter Transnistria. After all, the occupiers' goal was to secure access to the right bank of the Southern Bug, gain operational space and then either close the encirclement of Mykolaiv or close the encirclement of the entire south with access to Transnistria, Kyrylo Nehymchuk, a participant in the battle for Voznesensk, told reporters.