Ukraine mayoral campaign head beaten in Zaporizhia

Volodymyr Piskiy, the head of the mayoral campaign of Petro Poroshenko Bloc candidate Mykola Frolov in Zaporizhia, was beaten by three thugs on Nov. 10, Frolov reported on his Facebook page that day. The men shouted “This is for the Donetski” as they beat Piskiy, who is hospitalized, Frolov reported. He said the men represented the campaign of his runoff opponent, Volodymyr Buriak, an executive at Zaporizhstal, which is controlled by Donetsk industrial magnate Rinat Akhmetov.

“The PR machine of Akhmetov portrays my opponent as white and fluffy,” Frolov wrote. “Unfortunately, the Buriak campaign is anything but. It’s fully in the traditional Akhmetov style: threats, blackmail, beatings, smears and buyoffs.” Mayoral election runoffs are scheduled for Nov. 15 in more than 28 Ukrainian cities, including the industrial strongholds of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia.

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Nov. 10 to hold elections in Mariupol, a key port and industrial center, and Krasnoarmiysk, a Donetsk region town, on Nov. 29. The local elections in these cities were undermined by reported procedural errors, particularly in printing voting ballots.

Zenon Zawada: We expected violence in Dnipropetrovsk, where the election could be too close to be conceded by either side, but it has already reached Zaporizhia, where Buriak should emerge as the victor. We expect further such problems in eastern Ukrainian cities, with Western institutions playing them down in order to not undermine the fragile Kyiv government. Regardless of whether Frolov’s accusations are true, what’s apparent is that Akhmetov is not going to pull any punches to retain his control over his assets, which rival oligarchs are encroaching upon.