Nikita Gorelov, the mayor of the town of Sosnovka and a graduate of the presidential personnel program “Time of Heroes” for participants in the war against Ukraine, was dismissed, he announced on his Telegram channel.
Gorelov was mobilized to fight in the war against Ukraine in September 2022. He served two years as a sniper, after which, on the recommendation of the Kirov region’s governor, he received an offer to head Sosnovka, the independent Russian news outlet Verstka reported. In October 2024, he took office as mayor and soon began accusing “crooks from previous administrations” of corruption. By December, he had already received orders to return to the front.
The order angered local residents, who held a public rally in Sosnovka in his support. 4,000 people signed a petition backing him. In the end, Gorelov kept his post, but the Kremlin called his case the “most unsuccessful” example of appointing a war participant to a leadership position.
Gorelov’s final dismissal was formally the result of a local government reform. In November 2025, authorities in the Kirov region passed a law abolishing municipal districts and creating new districts in their place, and Sosnovka, a town of about 8,400 people, lost its own administration as a result. Deputies in the newly formed Vyatskiye Polyany municipal district decided to remove Gorelov from office.
Gorelov said he had been under pressure for two years and that officials had now decided to get rid of him “quietly.” As mayor, he secured a criminal case against the city council speaker over violations in the construction of housing for resettled residents and collected signatures opposing the local government reform.
Gorelov accused regional authorities of using war participants for their own PR. “In essence, they use us like toy soldiers for hype, and then write us off,” he wrote.
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