The Russian occupants are sending civilians from Melitopol to the occupied Crimea and blocking the exits from the city. This was reported by Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov on one of the TV channels.
"They only send everyone to the Crimea. They say you can get there without problems, but our people don't want to go to the Crimea," Fedorov noted.
According to the mayor, about 70-75 thousand people remain in the city. The occupiers are doing everything to prevent peaceful people from leaving.
"According to my estimates, almost 70-75 thousand people remain in the city. The occupiers are doing everything to keep them from leaving. The road from Zaporizhzhya to Melitopol in normal times is an hour. In my understanding, in wartime it is four hours, but now it takes two days. The occupiers deliberately delay everything in order not to let people out and occupy the city," he said.
Also, the mayor of Melitopol said that some heads of condominiums are looking for accommodation for the occupants. To do this, the heads of associations of co-owners of apartment buildings make lists of those who have left the city. This was reported by Fedorov on Facebook.
"Some heads of apartment buildings decided to interact with the occupiers: make lists of apartments in their houses and write out where Ukrainian servicemen lived, where officials lived, where no one lives, because people have left. And the occupants, Russian servicemen occupy these apartments," said the mayor.
He stressed that the Ukrainian city authorities are fixing who cooperates with the Russian occupiers. According to him, they will not be able to avoid criminal responsibility. The police of Zaporizhzhya region have already opened a criminal case on these facts.
All the principals of the city schools have written applications for dismissal and showed that they do not intend to work with the invaders.
"Today a difficult, but absolutely correct decision was made: all without exception, school principals have written applications for dismissal as a sign of protest and unwillingness to work with the occupiers," the mayor Ivan Fedorov said on Facebook.
He also asked Galina Danilchenko, whom the Russian invaders appointed "acting mayor," not to turn the children into "human shields" or hostages.
