![People queue for provisions in Slavutych, which is behind enemy lines and faces dwindling food supplies](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2022/03/01/TELEMMGLPICT000287887100_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqCtTdlKdYf472s7l1poq9vtkM9MM8VM3G1BxlGUO4L8Q.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Ukraine war ‘much, much worse’ than Chernobyl disaster, warns mayor
In Slavutych, the last city built in the Soviet era, it is ‘only a matter of time before’ before the Russians arrive
![People queue for provisions in Slavutych, which is behind enemy lines and faces dwindling food supplies](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2022/03/01/TELEMMGLPICT000287887100_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqCtTdlKdYf472s7l1poq9vtkM9MM8VM3G1BxlGUO4L8Q.jpeg?imwidth=680)
The war in Ukraine is "much, much worse" than the Chernobyl disaster, the mayor of the city built to house Soviet workers fleeing the 1986 nuclear meltdown said on Tuesday.
Speaking from the city of Slavutych, which is now behind enemy lines and faces dwindling food supplies, Yurii Fomichev said people were armed with guns and molotov cocktails and determined to defend their "beautiful" home.
"This is our land, these are our houses, these are our families – why should we leave?" Mr Fomichev told The Telegraph. He said it was "only a matter of time before" before the Russians came.
"This is much, much worse than Chernobyl," he said. "I was young at the time of the disaster but I knew what it was. It was an accident – this is a war, purposeful killing. Not even war of an army vs an army – it's one army attacking cities and civilians."
![Yurii Fomichev, the city's mayor](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2022/03/01/TELEMMGLPICT000287887090_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq3Z7i_2nUjuO-XXgVmfiyhH4ihL9D5G77hk2Gx25ScXg.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Slavutych, which is surrounded, lies just 30 miles from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, taken by Russian troops in the first hours of Vladimir Putin's invasion.
It was the last city built in the Soviet era and became home to specialists and workers sent to clean up the fallout of the worst nuclear accident in history. Mr Fomichev's mother-in-law worked on the clean-up and his father-in-law was an engineer at the plant.
Before the Russians invaded from neighbouring Belarus, 24,000 people lived there, but at least 5,000 have now fled.
"It's frightening to think about the plant being outside of legitimate control,” said Mr Fomichev, a 46-year-old father of three.
He called for a corridor through Russian-occupied territory to replenish food and water and thanked Britain for the weapons it had sent to Ukraine, adding: "Thank God my two-year-old daughter doesn't understand what's going on."
![Supermarket shelves in Slavutych are rapidly emptying](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2022/03/01/TELEMMGLPICT000287887215_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq7t4Eljyiy6iRMFuEKY2dXA1vLvhkMtVb21dMmpQBfEs.jpeg?imwidth=350)
![People have milk bottles filled as they stock up on provisions](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2022/03/01/TELEMMGLPICT000287887220_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqhwH3IztJrGEFxw__6A0SaMwZgCewa-xkrckcIXHk6m8.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Mykolaiv, 412 miles to the south, is a strategically important city of 470,000 people on the Black Sea with important transport links to Kyiv and Odessa. It repelled two attacks by Russian soldiers and tanks on Feb 26 and 28.
While the Ukrainian army fights Russian troops just 37 miles from the city, civilians are spending the brief calm before the next storm arming themselves and digging trenches. Mykolaiv, the home of Ukrainian shipbuilding, has been bombarded by the Russians and has mined two vital bridges.
Oleksandr Senkevich, the mayor of Mykolayiv, who was born and bred there, said: "I will stay with my people here. You know the captain always leaves the ship last."
Mr Senkevich, a 40-year-old former IT entrepreneur and father of two, said roughly 40 people had died in his city so far but that volunteers aged between 18 and "the old" would "fight passionately for freedom".
"I hope your country will support us with lethal weapons more and more," he told The Telegraph. "If Putin crushes us, he won't stop – he will go further. We are this wall that defends Europe from Russia. Please bear that in mind."