The residents of Russia-occupied Energodar have staged a protest rally in the city center demanding to free deputy mayor Ivan Samoidiuk.

As mayor Dmytro Orlov reports, townspeople rally with Ukrainian flags chanting ‘Energodar is Ukraine’ and claiming they want to live in a free city.

Protesters also sang the Ukrainian anthem.

The majority of city councilors resigned on March 24 so that their votes would not be used to create an illegal ‘people’s republic’. Three days later, Russian occupiers organized the so-called ‘people’s council’ headed by Andriy Shevchyk from the ‘Opposition Platform for Life’ party. However, this ‘council’ has nothing to do with Ukraine’s legal system.