Mayor of Melitopol: The occupiers presume their departure from the city and threaten to blow up the infrastructure

The Russian occupiers presume the withdrawal from Melitopol, but threaten to destroy the city infrastructure they have mined.

Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov talked about this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"The occupiers say that if they leave Melitopol, and the fact that they assume this is already good, they say: "If we leave the city, everything will be mined, everything will be destroyed." And it is definitely not about ensuring the security of our infrastructure," he said.

According to the mayor, the military base of the occupiers is located on the territory of Lyceum No. 5. "This is a school in the center of Melitopol. A week and a half ago, they left the institution of vocational technical education — 24 PTU. We know exactly where all their military bases are. But the threat is different: they leave all their military equipment and military objects directly near residential high-rise buildings. And this is a danger because they are shooting, and our troops cannot respond due to threats to the civilian population," Fedorov explains.

• Earlier, Fedorov said that at the Russian checkpoint in Vasylivka, 1,200 cars and more than 5,000 people are waiting to leave for Zaporizhzhia. Five people have already died in the queue.
• Preparations for the Russian pseudo-referendum are underway in the occupied Melitopol of Zaporizhzhia oblast. The occupiers are collecting data in the city, and people with a pro-Ukrainian position are promised to be forcibly deported. Also, a second wave of kidnappings began in the city.