Mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov has said that about 70,000-75,000 people remain in the city, which is occupied by the Russian military, as of April 1 and that they are only being allowed to go freely to the Crimea.
Fedorov announced this during a nationwide telethon, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"The situation in the city is quite difficult because there is genocide. When the ‘Rashists’ failed to gain the support of the citizens, they decided to do as bad as possible to our citizens. I estimate that about 70,000-75,000 people now remain in the territory Melitopol. The occupiers are doing everything to prevent people from leaving the city. We understand that they need hostages. Everyone is allowed only to go to the Crimea. They are saying that you can get there without problems, but our people do not want to go to the Crimea. They want to go to Ukraine," Fedorov said.
The mayor added that Russian forces were constantly terrorizing all the citizens, particularly teachers, because the invaders wanted the educational process to resume on April 4.
According to Fedorov, teachers are refusing to cooperate with the occupiers and the heads of all the schools in the city had written their letters of resignation as of March 31.
The mayor of Melitopol added that the invading forces were holding 29 mayors, deputy mayors, and legislators captive.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Fedorov has said that Russian forces are laying their own internet cables from the Crimea to the city.
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