Russian Invaders Threaten to Destroy Melitopol in Case of Retreat – Mayor

The Russian invaders in Melitopol threaten to blow up the city’s infrastructure, if they have to retreated due to the counteroffensive operation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as Ivan Fedorov, the Mayor of Melitopol, said in his interview for Interfax-Ukraine.

"The invaders threaten to destroy city if they are forced to retreat from Melitopol (actually, it is good that they are considering this possibility in general). They say: “If we have to leave the city, we’ll blow everything in the air. The city is planted with explosives”. They clearly do not care about the safety of our municipal infrastructure”, Fedorov said. 

According to him, now the Russian troops fully control municipal infrastructure of the city.

"We know that they have set up a military base at the School №5. This is a school in Melitopol downtown. Few weeks ago, they abandoned the territory of the Vocational School №24. Today they may accommodate ay one school, and tomorrow that may occupy another educational establishment, they don’t care", the Mayor said.

According to Fedorov, the invaders deploy their military vehicles and facilities in a close proximity to the residential apartment blocks in order to avoid artillery fire by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“This is a serious concern, because they fire, and our troops cannot fire back because of high risk for civilian population”, he summarized.

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