Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article Melitopol, city, southeastern Ukraine The frontier settlement of Novooleksandrivka grew up in the late 18th century and in 1841 it became the city of Melitopol Melitopol has been the site of engineering plants and light industries Article30 April 2025 Russia jails 5 Ukrainians from occupied Melitopol for up to 14 years over alleged terror plot The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced five residents of occupied Melitopol to between 11 and 14 years imprisonment on charges of planning a terrorist attack in April 2022 reports a Mediazona correspondent from the courtroom the men organised a “terrorist underground” in the city of Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine occupied since the early weeks of the invasion in 2022 and planned to detonate an explosives-laden vehicle near a humanitarian aid distribution point They were charged with participation in a terrorist community and preparation for an act of international terrorism under the Russian Criminal Code all five men belonged to the “Union of ATO Participants of Melitopol” claims that Minko directed the group via messaging apps from the part Zaporizhzhia region remaining under Ukrainian control ATO here refers to Ukraine’s “Anti-Terrorist Operation” the official designation used for military operations in eastern Ukraine from 2014–2018 was the only defendant who remained an active Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman when Russian forces seized Melitopol all five were abducted by Russian security forces the Ukrainians were held in underground prisons in Melitopol where they were beaten and subjected to electric shocks Ihor Horlov testified that when threatened with torture of his family he attempted suicide by cutting his throat so I took a tin can and cut my wrists,” Horlov told the court I rolled up my jacket sleeves and slashed my wrist I repeated this several times without success Then I remembered you need to cut along the inner part of the elbow joint So I took the tin can and slashed my throat but I couldn’t reach the artery—the tin can was a bit crooked it had a hook at the end where it had bent when hammered in With this hook I tore open my throat and reached the carotid artery Then I blinked—I was lying at the entrance with people around me I blinked again—they were pulling me on a stretcher They told me: ‘Calm down.’ I begged them to finish me off.” where their detention was officially processed and they were formally arrested they were transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo detention centre The primary evidence consisted of messenger app conversations found on their phones Russian investigators claimed the accused coordinated activities with local territorial defence leader Volodymyr Minko the conversations included in case materials contained no discussion of terrorist attacks—they primarily concerned Russian troop movements and everyday problems The case also includes confessions signed by the defendants during initial interrogations The defence maintained these could not be considered valid evidence as they were obtained under torture two of the men—Horlov and Zuev—lost their fathers who was just over two years old when he was abducted died due to lack of adequate medical care in occupied Melitopol The case was submitted to court in April 2023 The proceedings were mostly open until late October last year Court officials told Mediazona this was at the prosecutor’s request due to “examination of evidence that should not become public knowledge”—specifically the defendants’ correspondence and technical details about improvised explosive device construction the same court closed proceedings against 18 Ukrainians accused of serving in the Aidar Battalion The state prosecutor justified the request by stating that “this case has received wide public resonance and there are grounds to believe that the safety of trial participants and their close relatives is under threat.” the prosecutor cited a post by Ukrainian blogger Dmitry Gordon: “We know a lot about all these and other ruscist judges Putin’s judges are not for the first time staging show trials of Ukrainians We already have all the data on judges who handed down sentences to the defenders of Azovstal and other captured citizens of Ukraine.” only Ihor Horlov was an active Ukrainian serviceman when captured The former navigator had transferred to an engineering battalion as a sapper shortly before the invasion Zhukov and Zuev were merely territorial defence reservists most barely knew each other before detention Horlov found his unit had evacuated without him He joined the territorial defence organised by Volodymyr Minko remained in the city executing his instructions Russian forces continued sending messages from his phone His mother Iryna only learned of his abduction through Russian state media which showed him making mechanical confessions beside a red car Iryna Horlova eventually escaped to Ukrainian-controlled territory remained behind fearing he wouldn’t survive the journey through checkpoints where Russians held refugees for days A well-known kung fu trainer in Melitopol who ran the “White Tiger” club and headed the city’s Kung Fu Association he briefly served in the border troops before returning to teaching children and joining the territorial defence reserve and he always expressed his position openly,” his wife Olha told Mediazona Russian forces arrived at their home on April 6 threatening to shoot him in the legs and telling his family we’ll release him.” Holubev maintained in court that as a Buddhist since the early 1990s his beliefs excluded violence: “For me to be accused of wanting to kill a bunch of my fellow citizens whom I’ve trained and who know my family because they were receiving humanitarian aid—it’s outrageous.” Volodymyr Minko explicitly wrote that Holubev “knew nothing about the plans” he was only asked to change a tyre on the red Tavria car Olha eventually left occupied Melitopol with their child while his elderly mother remained behind Olha publishes Ukrainian-language poems that Andriy began writing in captivity was seized by Russian security forces the day after Horlov and Holubev “Around 5:30 I looked out the window and saw two cars near our yard and people in military uniform,” his daughter Yevhenia told Ukrainian journalists Zhukov testified that his participation in territorial defence before the full-scale invasion was “passive”—he was listed as a driver in the 115th Battalion he went to headquarters where he met Holubev whom he knew only professionally; he maintained he didn’t personally know Horlov Despite the occupiers’ promises to his children that their father would soon return home he later testified in court that he had been beaten and tortured with electric shocks he had retired about a year before the invasion but belonged to the same “Union of ATO Veterans.” his youngest daughter was just over two years old; she later died due to lack of proper medical care in occupied Melitopol; Petrov received the news while detained in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison Petrov explained that Minko had once asked him to keep several boxes in his garage for “about ten days.” He claimed he neither knew nor asked what was inside When more than ten days passed and Minko stopped responding In early interrogation protocols included in the case file Petrov’s story differed markedly: he initially stated the boxes contained “military cargo” and that before transferring them to Horlov he had opened the packaging to discover mines and explosives inside he explained he had given this testimony under torture His wife and two other children remain in Melitopol Working for a company servicing video surveillance systems and also serving in the territorial defence reserve he may have attracted security forces’ attention because his brother Oleksandr was a Ukrainian fighter “Eight armed occupiers invaded the house around six in the morning and began a very thorough search They immediately declared they knew his brother was a ukrop and ‘terrorist’,” Oleksandr told journalists Volodymyr stated that his brother commanded a territorial defence battalion in Melitopol A divorced father with a school-age daughter living abroad with her mother whom the security forces questioned but left alone and Zuev’s father died,” Iryna Horlova told Mediazona Zuev’s daughter managed to establish correspondence with her father through the Zonatelecom service while he was in detention Mediazona is in a tough spot—we still haven’t recovered our pre-war level of donations If we don’t reach at least 5,000 monthly subscribers soon Nearly 105,000 deaths confirmed by April 25 and Artyom Krieger were accused of producing media content for ACF Antonina Favorskaya says she was transported in coffin‑sized compartments without seatbelts Telegram’s press office claims the channel’s owner likely deleted it due to “unauthorized access” The reported attack comes just days before Russia's Victory Day parade and three-day "truce." MPs will be able to ask questions and learn more about the details of the agreement in meetings with Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko May 6-7 MP Serhii Sobolev told the news outlet Suspilne The ratification vote is scheduled for May 8 Attacks against the border villages of Bilopillia and Vorozhba damaged civilian infrastructure and triggered emergency evacuations the regional military administration reported "I look forward to working with President Erdogan on getting the ridiculous war between Russia and Ukraine ended — now!" U.S Putin's Victory Day truce "doesn't sound like much if you know where we started from," Trump told reporters at the White House on May 5 Far-right Euroskeptic candidate George Simion head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan placed second with 20.99% of the vote and the candidate from the ruling coalition "It requires the continuation of contacts between Moscow and Washington which have been launched and are now ongoing," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said set to operate within the Council of Europe will focus on Russia's political and military leaders up to 20 Russian soldiers were killed and their equipment destroyed The move represents an apparent violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions passed in the wake of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests "We are ready to deepen our contribution to the training of the Ukrainian military," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on May 5 by The Kyiv Independent news deskPhoto for illustrative purposes Two soldiers walk among destroyed trees in the morning fog as the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade 'Edelveys' operate at the zero frontline with infantry holding fire at positions 100 meters below Russian positions (Photo by Kostya Liberov/Libkos via Getty Images)Ukraine's southern counteroffensive on Melitopol in 2023 was sidelined by a push to retake Bakhmut Melitopol, a strategically-located city in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast has been under Russian occupation since the full-scale invasion began in 2022 The Ukrainian military saw its capture as a decisive move — one that could disrupt Russian supply lines and sever the land corridor sustaining Moscow’s grip on Crimea according to the New York Times' extensive investigation into U.S.-Ukraine strategic planning throughout the full-scale war General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was later named Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, was serving as head of the country’s Ground Forces when he reportedly advocated for a shift in strategy — one that prioritized regaining ground in and around Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast from Russian forces reportedly aligned with the U.S.-backed plan of focusing on the main effort to push towards Melitopol whom President Volodymyr Zelensky ultimately sided with Syrskyi also called for only newly-trained brigades to be used on the Melitopol axis while keeping the experienced brigades initially intended for the southern counteroffensive for his push on Bakhmut Although Ukrainian forces did manage to progress around ten kilometers south on the Melitopol axis they were stopped upon reaching the main line of Russia's network of fortifications built in prepareation for the offensive Bakhmut fell to Russian forces in late spring 2023. It would go on to be described as one of the bloodiest battles of the full-scale war While Ukrainian forces did take back some territory around the destroyed city that summer the offensive ran out of steam still far away from the goal of retaking Bakhmut Ultimately, none of the three axes of the summer counteroffensive, which also included a push in southwestern Donetsk Oblast in the direction of occupied Mariupol managed to achieve an operational breakthrough apart from Ukraine's attempt to cross the river Dnipro in late 2023 and the surprise cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast in August 2024 — both of which ended in withdrawal — Kyiv has been in a strategic defensive posture with prospects for a future counteroffensive slim to none One Ukrainian official told the New York Times that seeing the decision made to attack Bakhmut was "like watching the demise of the Melitopol offensive even before it was launched," and a senior American official claimed that the U.S "should have walked away" from advising Ukraine after the change in plan Ukraine’s pivotal liberation of most of Kharkiv Oblast in the fall of 2022 reportedly played a crucial role in shaping Syrskyi’s position The successful operation not only shifted the course of the war but also reportedly bolstered his standing with President Volodymyr Zelensky cementing his influence in military strategy We are the news team of the Kyiv Independent We are here to make sure our readers get quick essential updates about the events in Ukraine Feel free to contact us via email with feedback and news alerts tortured and held for a year and a half without charges all this time the law enforcers denied that they were holding him Leonid Popov before his captivity (left) and after three months in captivity (right) in July 2023 2023The FSB has opened a criminal case on espionage against 24-year-old resident of Melitopol Leonid Popov he is in custody in pre-trial detention center #1 in Donetsk This was reported to IStories by Alexei Ladukhin lawyer of the human rights organization Every Human Being As follows from the response of the FSB (which is at our disposal), the case was initiated on August 15, 2024. Thus, formally Popov was at large until that date, but he disappeared in April 2023 — just a day before he was supposed to evacuate from occupied Melitopol, IStories reported a year ago For several months nothing was known about him and in June 2023 his former cellmate contacted Leonid’s parents He said that the young man was kept in the basement of the local commandant’s office they were given water once every two or three days and Leonid was constantly lying down and extremely emaciated.  Leonid was diagnosed with undifferentiated schizophrenia he was a gifted child — he played in an orchestra won science olympiads in chemistry and physics The disease manifested itself in adolescence and in 2017 the exacerbation began: Leonid could not study Then he was diagnosed with schizophrenia (the medical report is at our disposal) His mother said that Leonid is kind and naive easily falls under the influence of others and does not understand people’s emotions.  In July 2023, three months after the disappearance, Leonid was taken to Melitopol hospital in a dying condition — he was emaciated (he weighed 40 kg with a height of almost two meters) and poorly aware of what was happening to him. With the help of his roommate he was able to get in touch with his parents. This is how he described his experience in detention a year ago: “Mom I was scared that they would come and choke me again They beat me so hard that I couldn’t use the toilet for four days his mental disorder worsened and he began to lose his memory and sense of reality.  “Lenya is 22 years old, but he’s like a child now,” Anna described at the time and he’s terribly afraid of blood and needles I’m afraid all my blood will drain out.’ Like a little kid.” his father received a call from representatives of the occupation Investigative Committee who said that they were releasing his son for lack of corpus delicti (at that time no charges were officially brought against him) But when his father brought Leonid home from the hospital put a bag over his head and took him away again the young man’s father wrote a report to the “Investigative Committee” of Melitopol on the fact of kidnapping but in December 2023 they invited him to the “Investigative Committee” and showed him a photo of his son which was allegedly sent to them from the FSB On it Leonid holds a piece of paper on which it is written: “Everything is alright with me I refuse to report my whereabouts.” The law enforcers demanded to withdraw the report about the kidnapping since the son was “found,” which the father was forced to do.  nothing has been known about Leonid for almost a year human rights activists from the organization Every Human Being received a reply from the FSB that Leonid had not been detained and there were no investigative actions against him The law enforcers provided confirmation that Leonid had become the subject of a criminal case only a year later and they claim that the case was initiated in August 2024 It is unknown where Leonid Popov was almost a year and a half before and on what grounds he was held.  stating that the young man was not detained stating that a case had been opened) are signed by the same person — A “the first deputy head of the FSB Department in Zaporizhzhya region.” A man with such initials — Anzor Ruslanovich Dzhambulatov — was listed as deputy chief of the FSB Directorate for Chechnya in April 2023.  “They kidnapped a person and held him for a year without applying a measure of restraint or granting him the rights afforded to a suspect,” says human rights advocate Alexei Ladukhin All this time Leonid did not receive treatment prescribed by a psychiatrist It can be assumed that during the year in detention which has passed since his second abduction According to human rights activist Alexei Ladukhin there is little hope that Leonid will be found innocent not a single acquittal for Ukrainian citizens in a Russian court or in a court in the occupied territories is known There is a possibility that Leonid could be released as a result of an exchange the Russian side returns civilian hostages to Ukraine the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights There is still no contact with Leonid Popov.  IStories continues to collect information about the abductions of civilians in the occupied territories. If you know about cases of abductions or those who were abducted but managed to get out, contact us by mail uzhvak@istories.media or by our Telegram feedback bot This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Now their city was occupied by Russian forces others led Tetiana and Oleh away in handcuffs Ukraine has listed more than 61,000 people as missing since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 When troops go missing in action there is a chance they might eventually be included in a prisoner-of-war exchange But civilians are returned very rarely: the Russians don't usually admit to holding them Tetiana was abandoned at a hospital in Melitopol in a coma She had no clothes or medical papers and the soldiers who brought her left no explanation She died without ever regaining consciousness "It's so hard for me to think about what they did to her then everything was cut short," the couple's only daughter something has happened to my father it will kill me." Lyudmila's phone is full of happy memories of her parents She showed them to me on a recent visit to Ukraine where she'd travelled to wind up the family restaurant business and give a DNA sample that might identify her father if a body is ever found It's not something Lyudmila wants to contemplate her parents would send reassuring video messages Just checking in," Tetiana announces in one video then swings the camera round to her husband who waves and grins in his dressing gown There are pictures from life before the war When Russian tanks rolled into their city in early 2022 The entire country was under attack in an invasion that Vladimir Putin had threatened but most could not imagine until the first explosions Lyudmila joined the crowds waving blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and shouting at the soldiers to leave fear is a way of rule: dissent is crushed and critics imprisoned The aim is to punish the few and scare the rest into compliance Now the same principle was being imported to the swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine illegally claimed by Russia those considered loyal to Kyiv were seen as traitors But her mother didn't want to leave her city her own parents or the business she and Oleh had built up She also had faith in the Ukrainian military all the talk was of a counteroffensive in the southeast to take territory back from Russia and Tetiana believed Melitopol would be liberated "She was a strong optimist," Lyudmila smiles maybe you should leave.' And she'd say Tetiana's name had appeared online on a pro-Russian forum a slur for those seen to be 'waiting' for liberation "She definitely donated money and helped [Ukraine] however she could," her daughter tells me "Some people die on the battlefield and others die in occupation Ukrainians in occupied areas were being forced to take Russian passports Russian citizens were brought in to staff schools Eventually Tetiana and Oleh agreed to leave Melitopol if the Ukrainian army hadn't pushed through by November she wrote to every official body she could find demanding answers as her grandmother began searching local police stations and prisons and Lyudmila's gran could visit her in hospital – once she'd been questioned by the FSB security service That's how the family learned Tetiana was being investigated for espionage A nurse later told Lyudmila her mother had arrived in hospital with severe bedsores suggesting she had been immobile for some time So where had she been and what happened to her Lyudmila has gathered a thick file of documents on her parents' disappearance but she says that none of the printed words make sense They claim Tetiana had been passing information about Russian military personnel to Ukrainian intelligence but the criminal case was only opened after she was brought to hospital the papers record that "unknown persons in military uniform" had taken her and Oleh in an "unknown direction" in September 2023 Their whereabouts from then on is officially a mystery But in Russia it is the FSB that handles espionage cases and it was Russian FSB officers who searched Tetiana and Oleh's home "I'd like to believe her health deteriorated because of the poor conditions and lack of proper care but deep down I understand that they tortured her," Lyudmila believes Her view is formed from first-hand accounts of brutality in occupied territory including from a restaurant singer charged in the same espionage case as Tetiana "They were probably extracting information," Lyudmila says "I know they like to use electric shock." The autopsy and a hospital report she obtained show that Tetiana died of pneumonia after a prolonged time on a ventilator But why she was intubated initially isn't recorded Neither is what happened to Lyudmila's father "He is not on the lists of those detained there is no criminal case against him," a letter from the Russian Interior Ministry reads Police have opened a criminal case for abduction but there are no suspects and no clues Lyudmila's suffering is shared by many thousands of Ukrainian families At a hotline in Kyiv run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) most of the calls are from people searching for relatives lost in this war The phone operators gather detailed information which they then send to a tracing database in Geneva Lyudmila has logged her own details here and elsewhere "There are always limits to what we're able to do and we have to be very realistic with families to manage their expectations There's a lot of pain and frustration," ICRC spokesman Patrick Griffiths explains He is also countering criticism in Ukraine that the organisation doesn't push Russia hard enough International humanitarian law obliges all states to report every detainee during an armed conflict It's partly because it sees all civilians in occupied areas as Russian and nobody else's business It's also a display of contempt for the rest of the world's rules The ICRC does have staff in Moscow and parts of occupied Ukraine touring Melitopol to search for secret prisons is not "There are a lot of families who… may never receive the answer they're looking for," Mr Griffiths cautions adding that the ICRC can't "force its way in" anywhere "But the process of dialogue with the authorities Ukraine's own national search squad has even less access The Office for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances amounts to just three police officers based at the end of an Interior Ministry corridor in Kyiv But their powerful facial recognition software can scan websites and media hunting for an ever-growing list of the missing Russian bloggers sometimes post videos of detainees But a search for Lyudmila's father draws a blank "Either he's being held hostage and can't contact relatives," commissioner Artur Dobroserdov explains before voicing the other alternative the bodies of civilians are returned to us along with our deceased soldiers so visual recognition is impossible." That's why Lyudmila gave a DNA sample the abductions have slowed as the full-scale war heads towards its fourth year The interior ministry recorded more than 1,000 new missing people last month but these days many of that number will be soldiers Russia's methods seem brutally effective: the staunchest supporters of Kyiv have either left occupied land Ukrainians who once fled such towns are now returning to live under Russian rule Perhaps that's why I've heard some Ukrainians wonder out loud lately whether such land is still worth fighting for the country is starting to ask some very tough questions: about this war Lyudmila still manages to find some cause for hope Because sometimes the missing do resurface He'd taken a photograph of Russian military hardware was chased down the street by soldiers then disappeared Three months later his father got a call: Leonid had been left at a city hospital The photographs his mother Anna has shared from that day are shocking: the young man's ribs are clearly visible beneath his skin "He told me that he'd been in awful conditions," Anna remembers talking to Leonid that day Leonid had been held and interrogated in multiple locations "They were given plastic plates of buckwheat and a glass of water for about 20 people they were told to shut up or they'd be shot." His parents began making plans to get him out of Melitopol to safety he was detained immediately and disappeared all over again Leonid was officially listed as missing even though he'd been taken away by soldiers It was another whole year before his parents were told he was in pre-trial detention in Donetsk they now worry about his health: Leonid has paranoid schizophrenia "They do not understand that for a person with such a diagnosis it's already deadly just to be in prison without his pills," Anna worries She has begun writing to Russian officials pleading for Leonid to be included on a prisoner exchange list "No one could have foreseen this nightmare," says Lyudmila I can't believe it's real." She hasn't chosen a photo for her mother's grave as if she's stalling her grieving until she can find her father And now Donald Trump is back in the White House but it could force Ukraine to relinquish occupied areas like Melitopol to Russia "Maybe they'll release the civilians if they think they've won?" Lyudmila tries to look on the bright side "Or maybe it will get worse: a dead end." accepting that this land is no longer Ukraine would be very hard." It is the land her parents defended and where they were happy and where Lyudmila believes Oleh could be held in a cold basement or a prison cell even though I tried so hard," she says Byline image picture credit: Jonathan Ford BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below. Kyiv says it struck a drone command centre in border village and insists forces remain inside Russian region Bulgarians Orlin Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova attended an event in the Palace of Westminster, the BBC finds. The festival is being held from 3 May to 18 May at The Folk of Gloucester. In his exclusive BBC interview, the Canadian Prime Minister indicates how he plans to tackle Trump. As Western alliances unravel, Europe is entering an era that seems distant from what VE Day represented, the BBC's Katya Adler writes. Zla Mavka movement – meaning ‘wicked forest spirit’ – drops fake rouble notes bearing pro-Ukrainian images and shares messages of solidarity I want my Ukraine’: women’s acts of resistance against Russian occupationThis article is more than 4 months oldZla Mavka movement – meaning ‘wicked forest spirit’ – drops fake rouble notes bearing pro-Ukrainian images and shares messages of solidarity someone had been discreetly sticking posters to walls and lamp-posts They bore the image of a young Ukrainian woman dressed in a traditional embroidered shirt smashing a bouquet over a Russian soldier’s head This was one of the earliest acts of a women’s resistance movement in Russian-occupied Ukraine that claims hundreds of members from Crimea in the south to the Luhansk region in the east The mavky of Ukrainian mythology are female supernatural beings who tempt men to their doom Using the figure of the mavka is a twofold joke: it is a reference to a popular drama by early-20th-century Ukrainian feminist Lesya Ukrainka; and is a play on the fact that Ukrainians often refer to the Russian military as “orcs” the brutish fighters in JRR Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings “Orc is no match for mavka,” reads one of the movement’s posters The women involved in the network undertake small acts of sabotage and resistance: disseminating a Ukrainian news-sheet; burning Russian propaganda; or dropping fake Russian rouble notes in the streets A woman looking at an exhibition about the Zla Mavka movement in Kyiv this spring Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian“We piss off the occupiers give them a headache and don’t let them forget that they are occupiers here,” one of the founders of the movement said in an interview from Russian-occupied southern Ukraine via a messaging app When curious passersby pick up one of Zla Mavka’s sham 2,000 rouble notes the image of the Russky Bridge that connects Vladivostok with Russky Island in Russia’s far east but instead the Crimean Bridge between Russia and Crimea at the moment it was hit with a Ukrainian bomb in October 2022 The real Crimea-themed 200 rouble note was issued by the Bank of Russia in 2017 three years after Russia’s illegal annexation of the peninsula and shows the archaeological site of Chersonesus near Sevastopol the early 20th-century Monument to Sunken Ships in Sevastopol Bay On Zla Mavka’s fake version, though, a Ukrainian flag is seen rising among the classical ruins. Turn it over and the Russian battleship Moskva sinks into the Black Sea with Ukraine saying it targeted it with missiles Women share photographs of acts of resistance, as well as accounts of their daily life under occupation, on the Zla Mavka channel on the Telegram app The Guardian was not able independently to verify the veracity of the accounts published on the channel but they bear the hallmarks of separate accounts of life under Russian occupation Recognisable landmarks appear in the background of some of the images Word of the movement’s activities is gradually spreading in free Ukraine. Zla Mavka feature in a touring exhibition, Unseen Force highlighting non-violent resistance to the Russian invasion “There are two sides to this,” said the co-founder who asked to be known only as Mavka for safety reasons because without it you can simply go crazy here it really infuriates the Russian occupiers.” Spreading pro-Ukrainian information under occupation is dangerous The proliferation of surveillance cameras in Russian-occupied cities has made putting up posters particularly perilous Diary entries by women in the network are illustrated by an artist in unoccupied Ukraine before being posted to their Telegram channel A selection are reproduced in a touring exhibition Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian“Of course we are afraid,” said Mavka “Everyone understands the risks very well and understands what could threaten them in the event of exposure We try to be very careful and warn all our activists about all the rules Every woman understands what she is doing and everyone makes her choice.” featured a distinctive illustrated character: a long-haired smiling young girl wearing a traditional Ukrainian flower garland accompanied by various slogans: “Let’s take the Russian rubbish out,” for example the action has included the simple Zla Mavka symbol – a triangle surmounted by a sunburst – pinned to the wall of the lobby of an apartment block so that it would be easy to draw in difficult conditions,” said Mavka of the symbol and then we added the sun that would definitely rise over Ukraine when Russia lost.” Women contact the movement by writing in the first instance to a chatbot Material appears on the publicly viewable Telegram channel only after it is checked for authenticity and screened for information that could compromise the women’s identities The diaries published on the Telegram channel are accompanied by drawings provided by a supporter of the movement in free Ukraine The accounts of daily life sent in by the women are revealing posted this October about preparing her apartment for rental foreign magazines about feminist and queer art all this needs to be put away before strangers enter the house,” she wrote Assessing the degree of resistance in occupied areas is difficult schools have now introduced Russian curricula and many families from Russia have moved into the occupied areas One diary describes the proliferation – on public transport the Russian symbol of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine Difficult subjects are raised in the diaries such as Ukrainian men being mobilised into the Russian army and crying,” a woman from an occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region wrote in February this year Told him that he was going to serve in the military … it turns out that he would be treated like a traitor anyway “My conscience punished me severely,” she added and I said I had no one to leave with the cows And I considered myself too old to go anywhere One of the movement’s helpers from free Ukraine said: “They understand each other’s daily problems It has become more and more of a women’s community it is from woman to woman – woman under occupation to women under occupation.” The counterintelligence division of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has apprehended an FSB agent who attempted to assassinate an official from the Melitopol City Council in the Zaporizhzhia region Following instructions from the Russian special service the assassin ambushed the official in the entrance of a residential building and struck him multiple times on the head with a hammer the assailant posed as a utility worker conducting technical work in the apartment building where the official lived the perpetrator was preparing to flee to the occupied area of Zaporizhzhia through EU territory planning to use one of the “schemes for evaders” to cross the state border SSU officers quickly located the hired killer and arrested him during his escape attempt The suspect was a repeat offender residing in occupied Melitopol having come to the attention of the Russian forces while serving a sentence in a Russian prison for intentional murder before the full-scale invasion he was fully recruited and sent to a special training course at an FSB training center in the temporarily occupied part of the region under the supervision of Russian special service instructors the killer arrived in Zaporizhzhia posing as a displaced person he began tracking the victim’s work and residence addresses the agent constantly changed the addresses of his rented accommodations and communicated with his Russian handler using fictional nicknames in an anonymous chat messenger In exchange for killing the Ukrainian official the Russians promised to transfer a house in Melitopol previously owned by local residents who had been forced to leave due to occupation The suspect is currently in custody and faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property Ukrainian partisans have disrupted the railway logistics of Russian forces in the temporarily occupied city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, according to the Telegram channel of the partisan movement Atesh Agents successfully carried out a sabotage operation in occupied Melitopol which delivered a serious blow to the railway control system used by Russia This precision strike significantly disrupted enemy logistics Atesh noted that Melitopol is a key transport hub used by Russian forces to move ammunition and military equipment to conduct combat operations in the Robotyne and Kamianske directions any delay in supplies critically weakens the occupiers and causes logistical chaos," the statement reads Atesh partisans set fire to a Russian tank in the Donetsk region In addition, partisans targeted a railway line near the Russian city of Kemerovo delaying the delivery of ammunition to a local military facility Atesh agents also destroyed a Lorandit electronic warfare system in the Kherson region Thursday, April 3, a Tigr infantry mobility vehicle belonging to russian invaders exploded on the outskirts of temporarily occupied Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reports It is noted that the vehicle was carrying an enemy crew and a landing party from the russian Akhmat-Vostok unit This unit is under direct subordination to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov The russian losses amounted to at least five personnel The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reminded that every war crime committed against the Ukrainian people will be met with justice Earlier, Defense Express reported that Ukrainian Forces had successfully targeted russian Albatros M5 drone for the first time. [email protected] The organization writes that on August 20, 2023, at least four journalists and news content creators were detained. In October 2023, their arrest was confirmed by Russian propaganda videos in which the journalists were forced to make false confessions – yet no information on their fate or whereabouts has been released since "Russia is holding these media workers illegally moving them from prison to prison in conditions that are much closer to enforced disappearance than legitimate detention," RSF stresses The watchdog investigated and tracked their movement "By persecuting journalists and spreading propaganda Russia is exporting the predatory policies on information that it uses at home to the occupied territories of Ukraine Many citizens of Melitopol have fallen victim to the Russian hunt for journalists RSF will continue documenting their captivity – which constitutes a war crime – and campaigning for their release," says Arnaud Froger the first journalist arrested during the August 2023 roundup was Georgy Levchenko administrator of the Telegram channel Ria-Melitopol a local media outlet with over 80,000 subscribers RSF reports that the Russian forces filmed the arrest and released it two months later and broadcast on Channel One Russia the journalist appears apologetic and frightened in his cell The organization supposes that he was likely still in Melitopol when the video was filmed the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) accused Levchenko of giving information about the Russian military to the Ukrainian intelligence services he was possibly transferred to the pre-trial detention centre in Mariupol but RSF has not yet been able to confirm Levchenko’s exact whereabouts RSF found two content creators for the Telegram channel “Melitopol is Ukraine” in the Mariupol detention centre: Yana Suvorova Both were also arrested in the early hours of 20 August 2023 and filmed for a Russian television report and forced to give a confession that was broadcast on Channel One Russia," writes RSF the two journalists are accused of having “intended to take part in sabotage and terrorist operations” alongside Ukrainian military intelligence agents in the Zaporizhia region of Ukraine The document does not provide any concrete evidence for these accusations the journalists were transferred to multiple detention sites – some of which were improvised as civilian infrastructure in conquered areas is used to hold Russian prisoners – before arriving in Mariupol They were held alongside Russian prisoners who were repeat offenders and found themselves in cells so overcrowded that some prisoners had to sleep standing up Ria-Melitopol journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska had chosen to put her activities on hold since the invasion she too was arrested during the roundup on 20 August 2023 in a DIY boutique turned into a makeshift prison before being transferred to the pre-trial detention centre in Priazovske Hloukhovska has been accused of “terrorism.” According to RSF’s information an administrative region in southwestern Russia While investigating the disappearance of these Melitopol journalists, RSF discovered the case of Yevhen Ilchenko who launched his own Telegram channel to report on the Russian occupation of his city RSF’s investigation discovered that his jailors forced him to dig trenches No less than 30 Ukrainian journalists are currently detained in Russia [email protected] (050) 447-70-63 Ідентифікатор медіа: R40-01250 Reprinting and disseminating our information is allowed but under strictly condition of reference to the source The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the European Union’s diplomatic service the EEAS carries out the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy to promote peace and the interests of Europeans across the globe The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs shapes the standing of the European Union on the global stage in coordination with  the European Union institutions including civilian and military planning and crisis response The European Union has Special Representatives in different countries and 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Campaign pages are created around specific topic and actions. Job opportunities, grants and tenders at the EEAS, EU Delegations and Missions and Operations. Looking for an exciting job in the field of external relations, foreign affairs and security? Find our vacancies Interested in one of the tenders? See how to apply for an EEAS call for tenders. Grants can be awarded as donations to third parties that are engaged in external aid activities. Grants are managed by EuropeAid (DEVCO) or DG Near, the EEAS does not manage any grant. The EU supports projects worldwide covering a range of sectors. Every day, events are organised worldwide by the European Union Delegations and its partners. “The very fact you are a journalist is a direct threat to the occupiers and that is why they are persecuting us” Interview with Svitlana Zalizetska, a journalist from occupied Melitopol. Svitlana, you were an editor working for RIA-Melitopol before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Can you tell us more about the general situation in Melitopol before the invasion, and about your work back then? Did you have any contact with other media outlets? All major media outlets in Melitopol stopped working immediately after the occupation began. Some of them simply could not work because they were seized, for example, TV and radio companies. Newspapers, of course, stopped printing. There appeared to be minor Telegram channels that did continue to write. In fact, we were the only major media outlet in the city that continued to work. You spoke out how you were forced to hand over your passwords and access to your media outlet’s website. Can you describe how this evolved? This is a complicated story. In short, when the DDoS attacks against us began in the first days of the occupation, I turned to external Ukrainian specialists, to whom I gave the passwords and access to our website. Therefore, I had no control over the situation. Although when the occupiers took my father hostage, they demanded that I also give them access to our accounts. You escaped Melitopol during the occupation. What kind of challenges did you and your colleagues face? Can you tell if and how Russian occupying forces try to manipulate journalists into working for them? Why do you think that they try? At the start of the occupation, they had lists of journalists, activists, and well-known people. They needed opinion leaders who would say, ‘We are Russia, follow us’ – and people would be convinced. The only way for journalists to escape this danger is to leave. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for us to help the journalists who are in occupied territory because the occupiers are watching everything. However, the occupiers are still trying to persuade them with bribes: they continue to insist that they switch sides, promising them salaries. The occupiers keep putting pressure on journalists that the situation will get better for them if they collaborate. There are many journalists in Russian custody now, some of whom are your colleagues. Do you have any idea about the situation of these journalists?   For almost nine months now, we have not known the whereabouts of Anastasia Glukhovskaya, a journalist who resigned from RIA Melitopol at the beginning of the invasion, but she was still kidnapped. I also do not know anything about the current whereabouts or health of Irina Levchenko, a retired journalist who was arrested by the occupiers in the middle of the street.  How does the occupation of parts of Ukraine influence the work and the mission of journalists working in Ukraine? Do they still reach their audiences, also in occupied territory? Interviews with people who have been captured there are painful, and it is hard to live with it afterwards. However, if you stop doing this, you feel like you abandoned these people, betrayed them. Therefore, for their sake, you need to carry on. Even now that it has become very hard and dangerous to speak to your audience in occupied territory. After all, they banned Ukrainian content and the occupiers are checking mobile phones for banned content at checkpoints and during searches. Thank you, Svitlana, for the interview. To conclude, one last question: what does press freedom mean to you? It is the ability to write freely about what is happening without any risk of being imprisoned. It means you can tell the truth without being murdered or without your loved ones being jailed for it. When you can write in the Ukrainian language, which has the same effect on the occupiers as holy water on demons. When you can freely choose the yellow and blue colours that drive the aggressors nuts. All this is freedom. It has been established that 70 russian servicemen were killed in night patrols in the temporarily occupied Melitopol from March 20 to April 12, 2022. Invaders, including Kadyrov’s Chechen soldiers, were among those eliminated. Stabs and gunshot wounds are main causes of death among the russian forces on patrol missions during curfew. The occupation administration carefully conceals information on the exact death toll and circumstances of such deaths. There is evidence that this is a result of the efforts by the Ukrainian resistance movement in Melitopol. So far, the units of the occupying forces have failed to identify those involved in the extermination of russian servicemen. In the coming months, the two municipalities will collaborate on how to share assets, resources, and best practices. The City of Hoboken will soon announce applications for the Melitopol Sister City Committee of Hoboken, which will offer an opportunity for residents who wish to assist with steering support efforts for Melitopol. Melitopol is the second largest city in the Zaporizhzhia region, and it is located in the southeastern part of Ukraine near the coast of the Azov Sea. It is a major logistics hub for the country conveniently located near highways of state and regional importance and railway connections with central and western Ukraine. Melitopol is the cultural, logistical, and industrial center of southern Ukraine with a population of 150,000. The diverse city has been home to representatives of more than 100 nationalities for over 200 years before the Russian invasion displaced thousands of Melitopol residents from their homes.   Atrocities against the Ukrainian people have been taking place in the temporarily occupied territory for more than a year with over 1,000 Melitopol citizens having been captured by Russian forces. Today, approximately one third of the residential population remains in Melitopol and 70 percent of small and medium-sized businesses have stopped their activities. “As Russia continues to wage war on the citizens of Ukraine, it is all the more of a reason to stand with our global neighbors,” said Mayor Bhalla. “I’m proud that Cities like Hoboken will continue to provide unwavering support to the Ukrainian people as they contend with a continued humanitarian crisis.  We are grateful to the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency of International Development for providing a platform to provide this support.”   Through this partnership, which is aided by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), Hoboken seeks to support Melitopol through various channels which may include, but are not limited to cultural exchange, knowledge transfer, volunteerism, developmental assistance, educational partnerships, citizen diplomats, humanitarian assistance and joint infrastructure projects, green energy programs, and rebuilding strategies.   In 2022, the City partnered with the Hoboken Relief Fund and nonprofit Welcome Home to fundraise for the local rent for refugees' campaign which provided housing to Ukrainian refugees living in Hoboken’s adopted sister city of Bialystok Poland.   Following Hurricane Maria in 2017, the City’s Public Safety Department partnered with Villalba, Puerto Rico to provide the municipality with old police vehicles, a fire truck, and local donations. Hoboken City Hall94 Washington St.Hoboken, NJ 07030 Fedorov, who had gone to his office at city hall, was informed about the pullout by phone. “Imagine the situation,” he told me. “I’m a mayor of a city with a hundred and fifty thousand people, three hundred thousand if we include the surrounding region. It’s four in the afternoon and already getting dark. Russian tanks are at the entrance to town and all I have are five garbage trucks, three tractor trailers, and, I don’t know, a metal shovel. That’s it. There’s not a single armed person left.” “I think we’d both agree, wouldn’t we, Clara, that a babysitter’s worth can best be determined by her ability to be discreet?”Cartoon by Emily FlakeCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copied When Putin set out to invade Ukraine, he expected an easy victory. Many experts predicted that, within a week, his fearsome army would overcome all resistance; arrest or, if necessary, assassinate Zelensky; and establish a pro-Russian puppet regime in Kyiv. Instead, with the help of Western arms and intelligence, the Ukrainian military fought back and inflicted heavy losses on Russia. The protesters were undeterred. They gathered every day at noon to march around the city, singing the Ukrainian anthem and calling on the invaders to leave. Russian soldiers responded by firing off smoke grenades and chasing people through the streets. Pokoptsev told me of a day when, amid the chaos, Russian soldiers grabbed a dozen protesters from the crowd, then drove them fifteen miles out of town and left them in an open field. “The goal was to maximally frighten people,” Pokoptsev said. Fedorov was heartened by the protests but worried for the well-being of those who took part. “I know perfectly well how the Russian Federation reacts to protests and those who attend them,” he told me. In one of his video addresses, Fedorov appealed to the city’s residents to remain peaceful and not confront the soldiers. “Our task is to save your life,” he said. “We’re not joking,” one of the soldiers told him. They dragged Fedorov outside and into a waiting van. As they sped through town, Fedorov kept track of how many turns they made, and when. “I know the city well,” he said. Even with his eyes covered, he guessed that he’d been brought to police headquarters, which Russian forces had taken over on the first day of the occupation. When the soldiers removed the bag from his head, he found himself alone in a jail cell. “Ten steps in one direction, four in the other,” he recalled. Few listened. Later that day, more than a thousand people gathered in front of the regional administration building, chanting “Freedom to the mayor!” By then, the Russian troops in town had been joined by a contingent from the riot police and the state security service, the F.S.B. One guard confided to Fedorov, “After every single protest, we get it upside the head from Moscow.” As Fedorov explained, “In their picture of the world, if there are rallies, they should be in support of Russia.” “I wish just once I could pay someone a compliment that doesn’t go wrong.”Cartoon by Frank CothamCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copied For more than a month, Pryima’s wife, Natalia, visited the police station, city hall, the regional administration building—anywhere that had been taken over by Russian forces—in search of her husband. “Write a missing-persons claim,” she was told. She did so, many times, but got no reply. After a week, one of the Russian soldiers in the mayor’s office told her to give up writing her appeals. “We’re sick of reading them,” he said. Natalia was eventually granted an audience with the newly appointed Russian military commandant of Melitopol. He introduced himself as Saigon, a nom de guerre, and told Natalia that his troops had nothing to do with her husband’s disappearance. “This is a matter for those higher up,” he said. An air of menace, even violence, was never far away. At night, Fedorov could hear the screams of people being tortured. The Russian soldiers said that they were Ukrainian saboteurs who had been captured in the city after curfew. At one point, Fedorov listened as a man in an adjoining cell shouted in agony; it sounded as if someone was breaking his fingers. “This was happening one metre away,” Fedorov said. “What would stop them from coming to my cell and doing the same thing?” The occupiers seem especially interested in local military-recruitment offices, where they have gathered the names of veterans who they fear might pose a threat. “All you have to do is find a janitor and order him or her at the barrel of a gun to unlock the room where the records are kept,” Zhuk said. In Melitopol, the records were even easier to access. A Ukrainian officer at the city’s recruitment office switched sides and gave the Russian soldiers lists with hundreds of names. The soldiers marched him to their nearby base, where they slapped and kicked him, and fired a gun next to his ear. They brought him out to a field, handed him a shovel, and told him to dig a grave. Once he was several feet deep, a soldier shot him in the leg. Another soldier slammed him in the head with a rifle butt, knocking him to the ground in the pit he had dug. He briefly lost consciousness. But just as quickly Oleksa’s fate shifted again. He and a number of other imprisoned Ukrainians were hustled aboard a military transport plane and flown to Sevastopol, a port city in Crimea and the site of a major Russian base. The next day, he was driven two hundred and thirty miles to a bridge in Kamianske, the same spot where Fedorov, the mayor, was freed, and let go in a prisoner exchange. Cartoon by Roz ChastCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copied Svetlana Zalizetskaya is a one-woman media institution in Melitopol a gadfly and a muckraker who has worked as a journalist in the city for two decades She’s been a television news anchor and the editor-in-chief of a local newspaper which reports on everything from local crimes to the cherry harvest RIA-Melitopol has also become the main source for news on the occupation When Russian troops first took over the city Zalizetskaya tried to figure out their intentions “No one explained anything—they basically just stuck to themselves,” she said The site has since tracked who among the local population has agreed to collaborate with the Russian-installed administration and exposed multiple cases of corruption and theft such as the three million Ukrainian hryvnia—around a hundred thousand dollars—that Russian troops carted away from a post office in April Before Danilchenko was announced as interim mayor Danilchenko seemed eager to aid the Russian military command “The old city administration didn’t give me a chance,” Danilchenko said She also told Zalizetskaya to think about collaborating with Russia: “If you join us You can rise all the way to Moscow.” Zali­zetskaya balked Zali­zetskaya should meet with the Russian commandant I would not have come out,” Zalizetskaya told me Zalizetskaya slipped out of Melitopol unnoticed decamping to a Ukrainian-­­controlled city that she asked me not to name She has managed to keep RIA-Melitopol going scanning social-media posts and relying on a network of sources in Melitopol But even from a distance Russian authorities moved to silence her Russian soldiers showed up at her parents’ apartment Zalizetskaya could hear the voice of a man with a Chechen accent (Many of the Russian troops in Melitopol are Kadyrovtsy so named for their allegiance to Ramzan Kadyrov and known for their violence and brutality.) “Tell her that she should be here,” the Chechen said “You are holding a pensioner in ill health,” she said Her father had a heart condition and had recently suffered a stroke “I won’t come back and I won’t collaborate with you.” The Chechen hung up the phone Zalizetskaya got another call from her father He started to recite what sounded like a prepared text: “Sveta everything is fine.” She asked if he had access to his medication; he said no She pleaded with his captors to release him She heard a soldier in the background saying “Tell her not to write any more nasty things.” Later that evening she got a call from a man who introduced himself as Sergey Zalizetskaya assumed he was from the Russian secret services He was interested in the workings of her news site: who owned it Sergey said that Zalizetskaya should coöperate with Russian forces or “You know that what you are writing about Russian soldiers is not true,” he told her Sergey offered a compromise: if Zalizetskaya wrote a public post saying that the site did not belong to her and don’t plan to.” But she wrote the post and thirty minutes later she got a text message asking where she wanted her father delivered Zalizetskaya received a photo of her father standing in his front garden as Russia’s occupation of Melitopol stretched into its second month Danilchenko was trying to project an air of normalcy reopening the ice rink and resuming municipal services In an interview with a Crimean news outlet she thanked the Russian Army for entering the city “so gently and carefully” and freeing it from the “Kyiv regime.” She often spoke to residents in a tone that resembled a parent trying to sound sensible and convincing to her children she announced that the city was replacing Ukrainian television channels with Russian ones we feel an acute shortage of access to reliable information,” she said “Reconfigure your TV receivers and get accurate information.” Ukrainian authorities tried to dispatch humanitarian convoys with food and medicine but Russian soldiers intercepted them and seized their contents An open-air market still operated every day a particular problem for pensioners who get their monthly payments on bank cards Danilchenko promised a transition to Russian rubles but little of the currency was available in town Gasoline was scarce and expensive; Russian soldiers and speculators moved to corner the black market selling cannisters of fuel by the side of the road especially those in the city’s agricultural sector Russian troops broke into the showroom of one company and made off with more than a million euros’ worth of farm equipment trackers showed that the stolen items were in a rural part of Chechnya the new authorities have been forcing grain producers to give up much of their harvest and moving it across the border to Russia by the truckload Residents took to standing with their phones outside long-closed cafés whose Wi-Fi connections were still active the publisher of a local newspaper called the Melitopol Vedomosti had been held briefly by a contingent of armed Russians He was taken from his apartment to the Russian military headquarters for a talk with officers from the F.S.B “They asked me for ‘informational coöperation,’ ” he remembered officers pushed Kumok to use his newspaper to produce “favorable coverage of events” in town “I don’t see anything favorable going on here,” he said “And you won’t allow me to write about what is actually happening.” Rather than publish lies things could get even worse for me,” he said the Russian occupiers began printing counterfeit copies of Kumok’s paper which they used to distribute propaganda around town One issue featured a portrait of Danilchenko on the front page “Melitopol is getting used to peaceful life,” she said in an accompanying interview The occupying authorities devoted particular attention to the city’s schools which had been closed for in-person classes since the first day of the invasion Many students and their families had left town; others were studying online joining lessons conducted elsewhere in Ukraine The basements of a number of schools had been turned into bomb shelters Reopening the facilities would be a way to signal to Melitopol’s residents that life was returning to normal It would also provide a forum for a central aspect of the invasion—namely installing Russia’s preferred version of Ukrainian history and ideology the director of a performing-arts school in Melitopol told me that he was visited by an officer from the F.S.B. “You are governed by fascists,” Vladislav told him and we are Slavic brothers.” Shulyatyev replied that he didn’t think there were any fascists in Melitopol “You don’t understand anything,” Vladislav said “You don’t know about the global plans of fascists.” He then asked if the school had a library and whether it carried the collected writings of Lenin Shulyatyev said that there wasn’t any Lenin on hand why should a performing-arts school have his works Vladislav moved on to his main point: it was imperative that the school resume in-person classes Shulyatyev said that this wasn’t possible—it wasn’t safe “It doesn’t interest us what you want,” he said “What matters is what we want.” Vladislav urged Shulyatyev to think about the proposal: “We will be waiting for you to inform us of your decision.” Shulyatyev and their two children packed their things and left Melitopol The first destination for families fleeing southern Ukraine is the parking lot of a big-box store in the city of Zaporizhzhia a regional capital eighty miles north of Melitopol.Danilchenko appointed Elena Shapurova Shapurova assembled the city’s school principals for a meeting at the college The educators who attended had conferred beforehand and decided to submit their resignations—none of them were willing to work with the city’s occupying authorities Shapurova implored them to resume classes and repeatedly motioned for them to come inside trailed by men in masks carrying Kalashnikovs and tried to herd the group inside the building “We just turned around and left,” one of the principals told me “Then we’ll have you all sent the fuck out of town!” The educators planned to meet the following day to decide how to respond news went around: four of the principals had been taken from their apartments One of them later told me that they were held in an unheated garage where they could hear the sounds of a man being beaten through the walls they were driven twenty miles outside of town so therefore you are punished,” a military officer told them “You are deported from Melitopol and prohibited from returning.” at least to a degree: Melitopol’s schools were officially reopened in April but only a few of them have actually held any classes Shulyatyev said he heard that around twenty students are coming to his school these days compared with more than five hundred before the invasion Danilchenko has announced that “pseudo-historical books propagating nationalist ideas” would be removed from Melitopol’s central library and only “books that tell the true version of history will appear on the shelves.” In a segment that aired on pro-Russian propaganda channels a onetime powerlifter who had been appointed head of a grade school held up a copy of “Ukraine Is Not Russia,” written by the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma as an example of the kinds of books that should be banned nearly half of Melitopol’s population has left the city “I understand those who are leaving perfectly well,” Fedorov told me “We are used to living in a different city and a different set of freedoms and values And they are trying to force new ones on us.” the first destination is the city of Zaporizhzhia a regional capital eighty miles north of Melitopol an Epicenter—a Ukrainian big-box store specializing in home improvement and gardening supplies—has served as a one-­­stop welcome-­and-processing center for those coming from occupied territories in the south looking for pro-Russian collaborators and saboteurs Leaving cities under Russian occupation has been a tricky affair where as many as ten thousand people have been killed Russian forces guarantee safe passage in only one direction: to Russia Those travelling to Ukrainian-held territory are forced to brave roads under constant shelling with Russian troops frequently shooting in their direction I saw a number of cars arrive at the Epicenter parking lot with shattered windshields and bullet holes strafing the sides But even the route out of Melitopol passes through the front line with tank shells and rocket fire occasionally striking cars Russian soldiers make male passengers lift up their shirts looking for nationalist tattoos and bruises from the recoil of a Kalashnikov While hanging around the Epicenter’s parking lot I met the members of a convoy of buses and cars that had managed to depart Melitopol Space on the buses was so limited that some people rode in the cargo holds of tractor trailers Just about every car was stuffed with more people than it could sensibly fit; parents had held their children in their laps as they jostled along the road Many drivers had taped handmade signs reading “CHILDREN” to the windows after the Russian-backed militias took over They came to like the city’s parks and schools but it became hard to breathe,” Yulia told me They were now planning to head to western Ukraine “We’re ready to go back to Melitopol,” Yulia said I came across two mothers and their teen-age daughters “It’s like the nineties have returned,” Larisa she hauled bags back from the open-air market She had adopted a nickname for the armored vehicles that Russian soldiers drove around town often with a big letter “Z”—the symbol of the Russian invasion—painted on the side: zalupa mashiny or “dickhead mobiles.” “We understood that it won’t be like this for one or two months to pass a checkpoint on the outskirts of Melitopol Fedorov had also made his way to Zaporizhzhia He set up an office at the headquarters of the regional administration a concrete Soviet-era structure on the main square with a Ukrainian flag standing in a corner He hadn’t done much to make the space his own; he was only going to be there a short time “Our next interview will be in Melitopol—Ukrainian Melitopol,” he said a mantra that sounded not all that dissimilar to the traditional prayer from Passover Seder: “Next year in Jerusalem.” Fedorov spends his days as he previously did There are meetings with the water department concerned citizens—only now they take place by phone or videoconference Hundreds of city employees still technically report to him; a number of municipal expenditures require his signature is a peculiar challenge: “We do everything we can so that our enemies don’t ever feel comfortable Fedorov continues to record video addresses to the residents of Melitopol sharing news of the city’s occupation and the wider war effort The Ukrainian Army has managed to recapture some villages near occupied Kherson as many as a hundred Russian soldiers have been “liquidated” by partisan fighters given the geography and the military realities of the region it may be some time before a full-scale operation is mounted to retake the city have tried to entrench their hold on Melitopol which commemorates the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany that the Ukrainian flag on the main square would be replaced with a Soviet Red Army flag Red Army stars appeared on buildings in the city center; a banner declaring “Glory to the Victors” went up on the city’s historic archway was to undo Ukraine’s policy of “de-Communization,” in which following the outbreak of fighting in the Donbas and street names were removed from cities across the country “The Nazi Ukrainian regime has sabotaged our ability to celebrate this holiday,” she said in a video address “Everything that we loved and held dear—they have destroyed it But we will restore it all again to how it was.” brought a bouquet of white roses to the city’s memorial for the Second World War and a peaceful sky above your head.” Later that day the city held an “Eternal Regiment” procession in which hundreds of people marched with portraits of their relatives who fought in the war Soviet flags in the crowd were interspersed with the Russian tricolor; many attendees wore an orange-and-black St originally a symbol of the Soviet victory over Nazism has been co-opted as a talisman for Russian nationalism and militarism residents were treated to a fireworks salute the sound of explosions echoed across Melitopol’s dark sky How Ukrainians saved their capital A historian envisions a settlement among Russia, Ukraine, and the West How Russia’s latest commander in Ukraine could change the war The profound defiance of daily life in Kyiv The Ukraine crackup in the G.O.P. A filmmaker’s journey to the heart of the war Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. [email protected] While investigating into disappearances of several Ukrainian journalists in the Russian-occupied Melitopol "Reporters Without Borders" (RSF) learned of Yevhenii Ilchenko who was arrested for creating a Telegram channel that reported on the Russian occupation of his city Ilchenko has endured torture and forced labour, including digging trenches for his captors, writes the RSF Before the Russian invasion of 2022 Ilchenko was a lawyer in Melitopol Yevhenii launched a Telegram channel called @Mitopol He stated his intentions clearly with the very first message events and facts." llchenko took a great personal risk to keep the public informed despite his lack of previous journalistic experience demonstrating a real commitment to reporting on the day-to-day life of his city and its inhabitants llchenko’s reports were almost exclusively devoted to local news as he covered supply problems in supermarkets the presence of occupiers in the streets of Melitopol and the corruption of certain local authorities in issuing traffic permits @Mitopol's last report was posted on 10 July 2022 which llchenko filmed the day before with his cell phone show the long queues to obtain administrative documents that have become commonplace since the invasion "The reality of occupation in the absence of Ukrainian authorities,"read Ilchenko’s caption four Russian soldiers in uniform came to Ilchenko's home was arrested in his garden on his return on accusations of "terrorism." Messages that Ilchenko managed to send to one of his relatives described how he was first detained for several weeks in Melitopol with some 15 other Ukrainians for a mock execution before being brought back but not everyone is as strong," he wrote to his contact after the Russians had suffered months of military setbacks Yevhenii Ilchenko was subjected to forced labour Photos sent by Ilchenko during his captivity show that he was forced to help build trenches for the Russian forces and clean their soldiers' weapons for several months Ilchenko was held a few dozen kilometres from Melitopol near the Ukrainian village Verbove in the Zaporizhzhya region Ilchenko also managed to send a photo of a fellow Ukrainian who was sentenced to 13 years in prison a few months after the photo was taken says that this is the first case of slavery recorded by the organization in the forty years of defending journalism tortured and then enslaved… This is the first time in nearly forty years of defending journalism blogger or whistleblower subject to total slavery and forced to participate in a war effort against their own country Because this man chose to keep the public informed he has not only been held captive for two years but forced into hard labour We have gone from arbitrariness to barbarism Yevhenii Ilchenko must immediately be released," says Froger Yevhenii Ilchenko returned to prison after several months of digging defensive lines for his captors An ex-prisoner in Taganrog told RSF that walks are only allowed once every two months and that the lights are always on in order to torture the prisoners [email protected] Reprinting and disseminating our information is allowed, but under strictly condition of reference to the source [email protected] The Russians are holding journalist Iryna Levchenko, whom they kidnapped in May 2023, in the temporarily occupied Melitopol (Zaporizhia oblast). The fate of her husband Oleksandr is unknown, reports the journalist's sister Olena Rudenko to the Radio Liberty project "Pryazovya News" take her out for a walk and to the toilet twice a day and they have something akin to a bed for women Because he has been sick lately," says Olena Rudenko The journalist's sister added that Russia does not confirm that the Levchenko couple is detained Iryna Levchenko with her husband Oleksandr Photo by the Investigative Journalism Center We will probably learn something when they are released Coming to that territory is absolutely impossible now Only two out of every hundred people can come there You can immediately be thrown into prison as well No one will look into the details there," she noted Local journalist Iryna Levchenko and her husband Oleksandr were kidnapped in temporarily occupied Melitopol (Zaporizhia oblast) in May 2023 This information was confirmed by IMI's own sources in the city Iryna and her husband have been retired for several years The occupiers detained the couple on the street first keeping them together and then separating them Iryna Levchenko has been a journalist since 1981 She worked for large-circulation newspapers for the Melitopol district newspaper "Novy Den" was a correspondent for regional and national printed media Oleksandr Levchenko worked at the Melitopol tractor hydraulic units factory and an engine factory [email protected] Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker The enemy in the temporarily occupied city of Melitopol has begun implementing the Kremlin's program to militarize Ukrainian children called "I Serve the Fatherland." Russian army militants are actively involved in this effort according to the National Resistance Center (NRC) the head of the regional association of so-called veterans of the "special military operation" (or is creating specialized military-style classes for senior students in local schools "Russian invaders are doing everything to turn our children into a future mobilization reserve preparing them for service in the Russian army," the statement says The NRC emphasized that through such "educational" initiatives Russian authorities are trying to create a new generation that will be loyal to the occupiers and ready to participate in wars for the Kremlin's interests Recently, it was revealed that the Kremlin's occupation authorities plan to double the number of students in military training schools by the end of this academic year This will primarily take place at the Nakhimov Naval School in Mariupol Russia is recruiting students from the occupied town of Starobilsk, Luhansk region, to fight against Ukraine Flyers being distributed promise financial rewards for joining Russians are fleeing from the temporarily occupied Melitopol in Zaporizhzhya Oblast in the direction of Crimea mayor of the city Ivan Fedorov wrote on his Telegram channel on Sept 13 “The invaders fled from Melitopol towards the temporarily occupied Crimea,” he wrote “Columns of military equipment have already been recorded at the checkpoint in Chongar This was expected – the rapid Ukrainian offensive leaves them no chance.” [email protected] [email protected] FB: @uwcongress Explosions were heard in the temporarily occupied Melitopol It is currently burning in three locations The largest center of smoke is closer to the Kakhovka highway Ambulances can be heard rushing through the city," the Ukrainian social network said in a statement The information about the strikes is also confirmed by a statement by collaborator Vladimir Rogov Earlier, the Russian militants smuggled another batch of Ukrainian grain from the port of temporarily occupied Mariupol RBC-Ukraine reported that the enemy in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine came up with a new scheme to "legally" take away housing from residents Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war Isabel joined Newsweek in 2021 and had previously worked with news outlets including the Daily Express You can get in touch with Isabel by emailing i.vanbrugen@newsweek.com or by following her on X @isabelvanbrugen either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Russia is reportedly ramping up its defenses in preparation for possible street battles in Melitopol, a city in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia oblast, which President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in September said in its daily update of the war on Sunday that Russian forces are placing dragon's teeth anti-tank defenses in the city The development was first announced by Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov on his Telegram channel "[They] are placing concrete cones in the very center of Melitopol for the second day already," Fedorov wrote the occupiers got so frightened that they are already preparing for street battles." "Russian 'dragon's teeth' are placed closer to civilians – in the middle of central streets and residential neighborhoods," he added The mayor published a photo that purports to show the concrete structures set up in the middle of a street The move comes after Ukraine last week claimed an attack on a key bridge used by Russian troops to transport military equipment into Melitopol It appears to be part of an effort by Ukraine to ramp up its counteroffensive efforts in the Zaporizhzhia region Ukraine said it destroyed the key bridge that Russian forces used to transport military equipment across the Molochna River The bridge connects the city of Melitopol and the village of Kostyantynivka in Zaporizhzhia Fedorov boasted about the attack in a Telegram post at the time the bridge that connected the city with the village of Kostyantynivka was 'tired,'" he wrote "This is one of the strategically important objects after the 'fatigue' of the Crimean bridge It was through [the bridge] that the occupiers transported military equipment from the eastern direction." the ZSU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] is already nearby Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti said an explosion on the bridge was triggered by explosives planted in the bridge's abutments and that traffic across the span had been suspended Two days later, Ukraine targeted and destroyed two Russian ammunition depots Ukraine's military has claimed to have inflicted serious damage against Russian forces in other parts of the Zaporizhzhia region The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on its Facebook page that its troops on December 14 destroyed units of military equipment and inflicted multiple casualties in the city of Tokmak "The Defense Forces destroyed up to 10 units of military equipment of different types About 180 enemy soldiers were injured," it said the General Staff of the Armed Forces also said that Ukrainian forces targeted the region's Polohy and Berdyansk settlements Newsweek reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all Zoe Strozewski is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and global politics. Zoe joined Newsweek in 2021. She is a graduate of Kean University. You can get in touch with Zoe by emailing z.strozewski@newsweek.com An explosion at a key bridge in Ukraine's partially-occupied Zaporizhzhia region on Monday may be hinting at where Ukraine could focus its offensive against Russian forces during the winter months The bridge in question was a crossing over the Molochna River between the city of Melitopol and the village of Kostyantynivka The Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, citing regional authorities, reported Monday that explosives had been planted at the "support" for the bridge, which survived the blast but suffered some damage. Traffic across it was also suspended, according to RIA Novosti Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov appeared to brag about the attack in a Telegram post on Monday It was through him that the occupiers transported military equipment from the eastern direction." Newsweek was not able to independently verify the details of the Russian state media reports and reached out to Russia's Defense Ministries of Russia for additional information and comment Ukraine's Defense Ministry was also contacted for confirmation on any potential involvement in the explosion can strongly degrade Russian soldiers' willingness to fight and defend their territory He noted that the bridge explosion could precede another offensive by Ukrainian troops in the area "But I've said before that if you can keep the Russians cold and keep them from serving their guys hot food the cold weather will do most of the work for you," Spoonts added also told Newsweek that he is seeing "indicators of potential offensive this winter" from Zaporizhzhia south toward Melitopol The administrative center of the Zaporizhzhia region is a city with the same name The city of Zaporizhzhia is located north of Melitopol is whether Ukraine has the capacity to conduct this offensive "Your best window is going to be from probably early January through the end of February," Soller said "That really just depends on the weather and whether the rivers and things freeze up in [Ukraine] That will make it easier for them to conduct offensive maneuvers." seen before the Russian invasion and reported looting Photo via Wikimedia Commons The stories of museums under Russian occupation in the Ukrainian cities of Melitopol and Mariupol encapsulate the grim wartime choices facing museum workers and their impact on Ukraine’s cultural heritage since Russia invaded on 24 February was released but then kidnapped again and has not been seen since Galina Kucher, a curator at the Melitopol Museum of Local History who has reportedly not been heard from since she was kidnapped for the second time Photo via Facebook Videos by Russia’s official RIA Novosti news agency and on other pro-Russian channels identified only as “a senior researcher” and the museum’s new Russian-appointed director showing off objects from its collection and saying they were saved from previous management’s plans to spirit them away to western Ukraine Gorlachev said the works were found “thanks to the military administration” and museum staff The“researcher” held what he said was the Cossack saber of a Soviet colonel who had helped liberate Melitopol from the Nazis “stolen” from the museum in March by unidentified “scum who certainly wanted to sell not only it but our entire historical heritage” which commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany has become sacred under Russian president Vladimir Putin who has claimed as justification for the invasion that Ukraine is run by fascists Ibrahimova and Kucher spoke of the Scythian gold collection with pride when it was exhibited in 2017 and 2021 “For the first time what was found on the territory of Ukraine remained in Ukraine,” said Ibrahimova of gold artefacts found during a 1954 archeological dig of burial mounds in Melitopol “Before that everything was sent to Moscow or Leningrad.” She described the Melitopol museum’s collection as “priceless” and said it was “very securely stored” which is near Melitopol and was annexed by Russia in 2014 A Scythian gold bow case dating from the 4th century BCE that was discovered near Melitopol in 1954 Photo via Wikimedia Commons a now-common term combining the words Russian and fascist including a “Gospel from 1811 created by the Venetian printing house for the Greeks of Mariupol.” Artworks by Arkhip Kuindzhi said to have been stolen from the Mariupol Museum of Local History by Russian forces Via Telegram Kapustnikova became director of the Mariupol museum in 2017, selected in a competition run by the Ukrainian government. In her speech for the post she spoke Ukrainian. many of which were in Crimea when it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 news5 August 2024Ukrainian worker manages a wrecked museum in exileMariupol museum’s Oleksandr Hore is documenting losses and monitoring looting news11 November 2022Ukrainian forces win back Kherson region—but Russia has reportedly looted its art collectionThe Ukraine territory is one of four illegally annexed on 30 September with decrees by Russian President Vladimir Putin news1 February 2023Special investigation: Serious concerns over fate of Ukraine’s museum works taken by RussiansThe Art Newspaper probes the complex issues arising from the removal of the Kherson Museum’s collection David Brennan is Newsweek's Diplomatic Correspondent covering world politics and conflicts from London with a focus on NATO David joined Newsweek in 2018 and has since reported from key locations and summits across Europe and the South Caucasus This includes extensive reporting from the Baltic David graduated from the University of Cambridge having specialized in the history of empires and revolutions You can contact David at d.brennan@newsweek.com and follow him on Twitter @DavidBrennan100 Footage of a new apparent clash between Russian forces and their Chechen allies is spreading around Russian and Ukrainian social-media channels amid continued reports of morale and discipline problems among Moscow's forces in occupied Ukraine The video, shared by several high-profile pro-war Russian military bloggers and Chechen channels purportedly showed a violent confrontation between regular Russian and Chechen forces at a checkpoint in the occupied and heavily fortified southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol Newsweek cannot independently verify the footage and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email to request comment the commander of the Chechen Vostok-Akhmat battalion was reportedly involved in the confrontation accused of attacking a Russian soldier in anger at being stopped at the checkpoint After an unidentified Russian serviceman questioned the paper orders produced by Khambulatov Chechen soldiers with the commander appeared to beat the soldier and threaten him with a pistol The Visionary Telegram channel said the video of the skirmish is generating a scandal in Russia "Vakha Khambulatov...and his subordinates are beating military police officers who stopped their motorcade without justifiable reasons," the channel wrote "The hot 'Chechen topic,' which cooled down during the New Year holidays, is again rising to the top of the military-political agenda," the post added. Subsequent developments, the channel said, will reveal a lot about the current tensions developing between the Chechens and their Russian comrades. The ultranationalist Voenkor Telegram channel posted an angry reaction to the video "It is impossible not to react to this," the popular blogger wrote Are these exactly the defenders who are entrusted to protect the people of the Russian world?" went as far as to call for violent retribution The channel said that Russian soldiers manning checkpoints should face down armed Chechens then you need to take your machine gun off the safety and discharge it into an ugly referring to the characteristic full beards worn by Muslim Chechen fighters Kadyrov's rule has enabled Moscow to quiet the restive region Chechnya played host to two brutal secessionist conflicts in the 1990s and 2000s who was assassinated in 2004—fought the Kremlin in the First Chechen War but switched sides to back Moscow in the second Ramzan Kadyrov sent his forces to Ukraine early in the full-scale Russian invasion of the country. However, the Chechen units were widely mocked by Ukrainians and Russians alike for their performative but ineffective showings in combat. Such behavior won them the "TikTok Battalion" nickname a reference to the many social-media videos produced by the Chechen fighters Known as "Kadyrovtsy" or "Kadyrovites," they have repeatedly clashed with their Russian comrades. "Relations between conscripts and occupation forces from the Chechen Republic on the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast remain strained," the Ukrainian armed forces said in November 2022 in which three occupying soldiers were reportedly wounded Kadyrov himself has also engaged in the Kremlin backbiting that has accompanied Moscow's full-scale invasion When Prigozhin launched his ill-fated coup in June 2023 Kadyrov offered his Chechens to put down the mutiny After Prigozhin's death in August 2023, Kadyrov lamented a "great loss for the whole state." he added: "I asked him to leave his personal ambitions behind in favor of matters of paramount national importance.. with his iron character and his desire to get what he wanted right here and now." Complex reportedly struck by Himars rockets may have been a stronghold of Wagner mercenary group that fights for Kremlin Ukraine has attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties According to witnesses 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties. Video footage posted on social media showed what was claimed to be a Russian barracks in the southern city engulfed in a fierce blaze with some claiming the site was being used by the Wagner mercenary group. Another video showed rescue workers in the ruins with several bodies visible. The site, a former resort and hotel complex next to a church in the city known as the Hunter’s Halt, was being used as a barracks with most of the casualties apparently in a mess hall when it was hit. The strike on Melitopol – reportedly with Himars rockets – was one of several overnight on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported overnight in the Russian occupied Crimea including Sevastopol and Simferopol. A senior official in eastern Ukraine said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had attacked a hotel where members of Russia’s private Wagner military group were based, leading to “significant losses”. Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, said forces launched a strike on Saturday on a hotel in the town of Kadiivka, west of the region’s main centre of Luhansk. Photos posted on Telegram channels showed a building largely reduced to rubble. “A huge number of those who were there died.” Russia’s defence ministry was not immediately available for comment and his claims could not be verified. Read moreThe strike on Melitopol came as all non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power after Russia used Iranian-made drones on Saturday to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people cut off from electricity. “The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “Unfortunately, the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity … It doesn’t take hours, but a few days, unfortunately.” In Melitopol the pro-Moscow authorities said a missile attack on Saturday evening killed two people and injured 10, while the exiled Ukrainian mayor said scores of “invaders” were killed. Reuters could not independently verify the reports of the attacks or deaths. Read more“Air defence systems destroyed two missiles four reached their targets,” Yevgeny Balitsky the Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region He said a “recreation centre” where people were dining was destroyed in the Ukrainian attack with Himars missiles said on his Telegram channel that the attack hit a church that Russians had turned into a gathering place another Moscow-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia said a fire caused by the strike engulfed the recreation centre He posted a video of a structure in flames Himars multiple rocket launchers have been among Ukraine’s most effective weapons in the war delivering precision fire on hundreds of targets the United States said it was sending more aid to Kyiv to strengthen its air defences and defeat drones The city of Melitopol is seen as the next major objective for Ukrainian forces in the south of the country since Ukraine retook the major city of Kherson With Ukrainian forces now operating on the east bank of the Dnieper River and with their forces now able to place Himars rocket systems on the west bank Russian forces in the city have come under an increasing threat a major industrial and transport centre occupied by Russia since March “All logistics linking the Russian forces on the eastern part of the Kherson region and all the way to the Russian border near Mariupol is carried out through it,” Arestovych said in a video interview on social media the entire [Russian] defence line all the way to Kherson collapses Ukrainian forces gain a direct route to Crimea.” There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian army about the attacks the central command of Ukraine’s armed forces said it had been conducting strikes on Melitopol by Kateryna DenisovaRussian soldiers patrol a street in occupied Melitopol (Getty Images)The explosions in occupied Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast killed Russian soldiers and destroyed their military equipment according to Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) HUR claimed to have orchestrated a joint attack with local resistance against a group of Russian serviceman in the city on March 22 The alleged footage of an attack on Russian forces in occupied Melitopol on March 22, 2024. (Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR)/Telegram)Melitopol a city with a pre-war population of about 150,000 people The Ukrainian resistance has been active here since then targeting Russian military personnel and facilities "According to preliminary data, about 20 Russian soldiers, two Kamaz trucks and a UAZ Patriot pickup truck were at the epicenter of the explosions," the agency wrote on Telegram saying that the losses are being clarified The Kyiv Independent couldn't verify these claims Military intelligence occasionally reports on resistance forces' operations in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Several cases of explosions at Melitopol's railway infrastructure have been reported since Russia occupied the city Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.