My name is Volodymyr and I am the executive Mayor of a small city in the west of Ukraine called Chortkiv, with powers similar to your elected City Mayors in the UK. This is a position I have held for seven years.

I am also a veteran of Russia's genocidal war against my country, having fought in Donbas between 2014 and 2015 when we were first invaded following the Maidan Revolution during 2013-2014. 

My city is roughly the same size as Salisbury in the south of England where, as your readers will know, Kremlin agents attempted to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018. 
I was asked by The MJ if I would give an account of what it is like to run local government while your country is fighting for its very survival. I am delighted to have had this opportunity, which we intend to be the first in a series between now and the end of this year.
For this article I would like to focus on three areas that are a particular challenge and must take priority in wartime. Communicating with local people, supporting our staff, and additional duties.
In my position, we are closer to the people than national government and what we do has a more immediate effect to improve lives. I'm sure this is something which unites all of us in local government whether we are in Chortkiv, Canterbury, Carlisle or Cardiff.

Communication with local people
Communication with residents is, perhaps, the most important part of my work. These are the people who entrusted me with community management, so it is necessary to continually engage with them and understand how and where I can be helpful.
For me, face-to-face meetings with people are hugely important. I make regular trips to villages within the community and I am in round-the-clock contact with residents through digital communication. This is an integral part of my work; it's also ‘who I am'.
We have a Telegram channel called Operational Headquarters of Chortkiv with more than 3,300 people registered. On messaging platform Viber the channel has more than 7,000 members, while the Volodymyr Shmatko ONLINE website has 6,600 subscribers. The Facebook page of the Chortkiv City Council has 24,000 followers, and on the same platform 'Volodymyr Shmatko – a man of action' has 5,400 followers. We also have an online site called ‘Chortkiv unites', where we communicate with citizens who have been temporarily displaced having come from the East and South when they fled the Russian invasion. 
Our press service performs part of the communication, while I take personal responsibility for my own social channels. Put simply, we are in constant contact with as many of our people as possible. It is easier to overcome the massive challenges of a genocidal war together. This is my duty and, above all, my desire to be together with the people of my community.

Supporting our staff
We have a small team, less than 140 full time employees, to provide services for more than 37,000 local people. With the beginning of a full scale invasion, all of us had to learn to live in conditions of constant tension. This is a challenge for everyone, but especially managers. 
It is necessary not only to take care of yourself, but first of all to take care of the team. This is what I believe real leadership demands. We have been able to get on what I call ‘the military rails' and work as a single mechanism. Our goal is clear and everyone is unified; it is the pursuit of victory for Ukraine over our eternal enemy who would wipe out our national identity and hundreds of thousands of our people with it.
We also decided to raise the wages of kindergarten and utility workers by 10%. Such additional expenses from the budget put huge pressure on other services but a big priority is to keep people in Ukraine, to help people fight against inflation and prices that are constantly rising. It's a tough balancing act.
We are also planning a number of events and training sessions with international donors for the staff of the city council, in order to support and boost team moral. This is hugely important. In such stressful times we do everything we can to not only look after our colleagues physically, but mentally as well.
The city is ‘people' first of all, and only resilient and stable people can survive and win the war. As a leader of my community, I am constantly looking for donors, specialists and volunteers who can contribute to conducting psychological training on how to deal with the trauma of war and mental health.

Additional duties
We have duties that are prescribed by law and we have moral duties. 
From the first day of the war, the city council became a central coordination hub. We searched for transportation and drivers to deliver humanitarian aid, sought shelter for fellow citizens fleeing from the war in the East and South, weaved camouflage nets; and procured all sorts of items for the military that were in short supply. For months, dozens of people worked around the clock in shifts at the city council. In addition, to their normal duties. Everyone understood they were needed by the people and the country, no one paid attention to fatigue. 
Unfortunately, these additional duties have now extended to organising the funerals for local people who have been killed in combat. There are already 28 blue and yellow flags flying on our cemeteries and I'm afraid this number will only rise.
During February-March of last year, I personally spent 47 days either abroad, collecting humanitarian aid, or delivering it to the East. I delivered the aid personally because I had promised international donors I would ensure aid reached people in the active combat zone, and I kept my word.
I hope this article has given some idea of the challenges we are facing in war torn Ukraine at local government level. I intend to give more detail and look at other challenging areas, writing further in The MJ in the coming months. 
I would also be delighted to hear from any of you across the UK, tell me what you think and how we might learn from each other. 

Volodymyr Shmatko is Mayor of Chortkiv, Ukraine
If you would like to know more or feel your authority could support Volodymyr and the people of Chortkiv in any way, please contact the mayor directly at volshmatko@gmail.com. Alternatively, you can contact TheMJ at hr.jameson@hgluk.com