The journalist of the American newspaper The New York Times, Andrew Kramer, with the permission of the Ukrainian military, spoke with a partisan with the call sign "Svarog". He spoke about his activities in the occupied Melitopol of the Zaporizhzhia oblast and about the main goal of the partisans — to show the occupiers that they will not be able to sleep peacefully.
After the invasion, “Svarog” spoke, he was directed to a hideout in a warehouse outside Melitopol, where he found explosives, detonators, Kalashnikov assault rifles, a grenade launcher and two pistols with silencers. Melitopol, where “Svarog” operates, has since turned into a center of resistance. Attacks in the city have been going on for several months.
Ukrainian partisan "Svarog".
David Guttenfelder / The New York Times
During one of the attacks this spring, “Svarog” told, he and several members of the Melitopol cell made their way through the city at night to replace a car in a police station parking lot. Armed with nippers, ribbons and sticks, the partisans moved through yards and alleys to avoid Russian roadblocks. First, they cut the electric cable, turning off the street lamp, then quickly rushed into the darkness, where they planted a bomb in the wheel arch. The line was glued to both the inside of the wheel and the detonator so that the bomb would explode as the wheel rotated. As a result, the explosives killed one policeman and wounded another one.
During the attack last week, a colleague of "Svarog" detonated the car of a collaborator of Oleg Shostak, who is responsible for propaganda. “Svarog”, who noted that he was not involved in that mission, said his team planted a bomb under the carʼs driverʼs seat, set to explode when the engine was started. As a result of this operation, Shostak was injured, but survived.
According to “Svarog”, it doesnʼt matter if the people they attack live or die. What matters is the signal they send with each strike: "You will never be safe."
Separately, a journalist from The New York Times spoke via video link with two partisans operating in the occupied southeast of Ukraine. They told about an underground cell called "Yellow Ribbon" that conducts non-violent actions — partisans put up leaflets and paint graffiti.
Another military official told The New York Times about the poisoning in the Zaporizhzhia oblast, which killed about 15 Russian soldiers, and about the sabotage of an elevator in the Kherson region, thanks to which the Russians were unable to steal 60 thousand tons of grain. Partisans were also behind the explosion on August 13, which disabled the railway bridge connecting Melitopol with Crimea. This stopped the supply of Russian military equipment to the Zaporizhzhia oblast.
The Ukrainian underground in the occupied territories considers police officers, municipal and regional civil servants and teachers who agree to work under the Russian educational program to be traitors. Doctors, firefighters and utility workers do not fall under this definition. Now the partisans are focusing on teachers who agreed to teach according to the Russian propaganda program. The guerrillas have said they will not attack the teachers, but will try to publicly humiliate them in leaflets they stick on power poles.
The Ukrainian military began training partisans several months before the invasion. In parallel, the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine were forming a more structured and secretive program that included instruction in sabotage and explosions. The activity of the partisans became especially noticeable in recent weeks, when Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive in the south. Operations behind enemy lines are monitored by two units of the Armed Forces: the Military Intelligence Service and the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine.