the times | Monday May 23 2022 2GM 13News
The bodies of the two Russian officers
lay on the pavement for an hour in
central Melitopol before the sun rose
and their comrades plucked up the
courage to come and collect them.
A few hours later a hand grenade ex-
ploded next to the building where the
Russians had set up their headquarters.
A daylight gunfight ensued before the
attackers melted away.
The city, in the southern Zapor-
izhzhya region, is the third largest occu-
pied by Russia since the invasion began
in February. A fierce Ukrainian parti-
san campaign, however, has prevented
the Kremlin from asserting full control.
The same day, Wednesday, members
of the resistance blew up railway tracks
ahead of an armoured train carrying
Russian troops, munitions and vehicles.
Before the war Melitopol was a city
famed for its cherry orchards and
honey. Now it has a different reputa-
tion. Since falling to the Russians in
March it has become one of Ukraine’s
most active centres for resistance oper-
ations. This week partisans claimed
credit for the deaths of the two senior
Russian officers, bringing the total
number of killings in the area to 100.
Ivan Fedorov, Melitopol’s exiled
mayor, said that the attacks were di-
rected with the help of the Ukrainian
special forces and military leaders in
Kyiv. “The earth will burn under the
feet of the invaders,” Fedorov said. “The
armoured train is just the beginning.”
Last month the special operations di-
vision of the army established the
Centre for National Resistance to re-
cruit, support and co-ordinate local
partisan groups in occupied territories.
Its website offers advice on subjects
ranging from how to disassemble and
reassemble a Kalashnikov to surviving
a phosphorus attack and stealing and
operating a Russian T-72 tank. A sec-
tion on sabotage advises citizens to put
a few grains of rice or wheat into the fu-
el tanks of enemy vehicles, which will
cause the engine to seize up. Another
section for those wishing to contribute
non-violently recommends makingSummer rain on shallow graves in
Mariupol could lead to a disease epi-
demic among the remaining inhabit-
ants of the ruined city, its mayor has
said.
Thousands of residents killed by
Russia’s bombardment have been
buried by neighbours in the courtyards
of apartment blocks.
Most of the population of 450,
have fled and an estimated 20,000 have
died. Infrastructure has been destroyed
and there is no electricity or running
water.
Vadim Boychenko, the mayor, said:
“A hundred thousand people continue
to live without water, the sewers do not
work and there are chaotic burials all
over the city. During the summer rains
typical of Mariupol, all this will get into
the rivers and springs where people get
their water.”
Drinking water contaminated with
bacteria from decaying corpses canMariupol dead threaten water supply
cause cholera and typhoid. Speaking
from Ukrainian-held territory outside
the city, the mayor called for an urgent
deal that would secure “green corri-
dors” to evacuate those who remained.
Most of those who have stayed in the
city are the elderly or infirm, afraid to
risk the journey out under heavy fire.
To leave occupied territory Ukrainians
must pass through Russian “filtration”
checkpoints where they can be strip-
searched, fingerprinted and the con-
tent of their phones downloaded.
After weeks of worry, Elena Gusov-
ska, 52, managed to re-establish con-
tact with her parents in the city. She told
The Times that after the surrender of
the Ukrainian soldiers defending the
Azovstal complex of factories, the
humanitarian situation had worsened.
“The Russian military left and
humanitarian aid is no longer given out.
The city is in anarchy with unsanitary
conditions, the only work is clearing the
corpses of people and animals and the
rubble of destroyed buildings,” she said.“My parents’ house is still standing but
it has no windows. There is nowhere for
them to withdraw their pensions to buy
food, which can only be found at
informal markets.”
Gusovska said her brother-in-law
was joining dozens of other evacuees
making risky trips to take her parents
cash and supplies, and collect and chop
firewood for them to use for cooking.
Russia has promised to rebuild the
city and turn it into a seaside resort, but
there is no sign of any construction.
Mariupol’s factories and port lie in
ruins. The Azovstal complex is a smoul-
dering tangle of metal tubes, cratered
warehouses and collapsed chimneys.
Russia claims that 2,439 Ukrainian
troops surrendered there last week. In a
statement on Telegram, city officials
warned that damage to an area storing
“tens of thousands of tonnes of concen-
trated hydrogen sulphide solution”
could lead to the “extermination of the
flora and fauna of the Sea of Azov”.
Fall of Mariupol, letters, page 30Maxim Tuckerman, says wife
he remains that,” she said. “His point of
view hasn’t changed, the way he’s wired
hasn’t changed.” She and the couple’s
two children were moved to an undis-
closed location when the war began in
February. Zelensky stayed in Kyiv.
“I woke up from weird sounds from
outside, as probably everyone did,” his
wife said. “It was dark, almost night, and
I saw that Volodymyr was not by my
side. I went to the next room, he was
dressed in a suit, but without a tie.”
Blinking back tears, she said: “I asked
him what was going on. And he said, ‘It
has started.’ I can’t describe the emo-
tions, anxious and overwhelmed. He
told me this and left. After that we didn’t
see each other for a very long time.”
Ukraine’s first lady has welcomed her
US counterpart, Jill Biden, to Ukraine
and drawn attention to the plight of
children. She said: “After victory, we
will remember the heroism of our
Ukrainian women.”
Meet the dancer lover of Putin’s
daughter, Times2, page 9News
moves in on eastern city
Resistance partisans
kill Russian officers
Tom Ball threatening anonymous phone calls to
Russian bases.
A manifesto for the organisation
states: “Together, we will quietly de-
stroy the enemy. We will do it where he
does not expect it, where he feels safe.
We will teach you to conduct recon-
naissance and gather information
about the enemy. Yes, we are at war
with a strong enemy, he outnumbers us,
he can temporarily capture a city. But
he will never be able to keep it, because
we will be waiting for him in every
house. And we will liberate every metre
of our land, step by step.”
Older members of Russia’s military
leadership will remember how costly
guerilla warfare was for the Soviet oc-
cupation of Afghanistan. In an attempt
to suppress a similar resistance move-
ment in Ukraine the Russian security
services, working with local collabora-
tor governments, are waging a cam-
paign of intimidation and conditioning.
Last week Chusa Ruslan, 35, an inte-
rior designer, was abducted from his
home by officers of the Federal Security
Service (FSB). Ruslan, who had been a
member of the local volunteer defence
unit, was believed to have been taken to
the Russian headquarters and has not
been heard from since, Ria Melitopol, a
local news service, reported.
Billboards have also appeared
around Melitopol celebrating Pavel Su-
doplatov, the Stalinist agent who orga-
nised Trotsky’s assassination in 1940
and who was born in the city. The strap-
line reads: “He knew what to do with
banderites!”, a slur used to describe
Ukrainian nationalists.
FSB officers carried out house-to-
house searches on Thursday. Girls
were subjected to humiliating body
searches, local news reported.
Russian troops have also handed out
leaflets with instructions on how resi-
dents should behave during the “special
military operation”. Ukrainians were
told to keep away from Russian soldiers
and their armoured vehicles and to give
them the right of way. To avoid “propa-
ganda and disinformation from Kyiv”,
the leaflets said, Melitopol’s residents
should watch Russian state television.GLEB GARANICH/REUTERSPuppet mayor
hurt in blast
The Russian-appointed head of an
occupied Ukrainian town next to
Europe’s largest nuclear power
plant was in intensive care last
night after being injured in an
explosion on Sunday, according to
a Ukrainian official and Russia’s
RIA news agency. Andrei
Shevchuk was made mayor of
Enerhodar, where many of the
town’s 50,000 residents work at
the nearby Zaporizhzhya nuclear
power plant. Dmytro Orlov, whom
Ukraine recognises as mayor of
the town, said in a post on the
Telegram messaging app: “We
have accurate confirmation that
during the explosion the self-
proclaimed head of the ‘people’s
administration’, Shevchuk, and his
bodyguards were injured.” He
added that Shevchuk, who is
understood to have been a local
councillor for the pro-Russia
OPZZH party before the
occupation, had been taken to the
Russian-occupied city of Melitopol
for treatment. Ukrainian media
reported that the explosion was a
targeted attack on his home.
Russia’s occupation of the plant
has raised concerns of the risk of a
nuclear disaster. (Reuters)Davos ‘house of horror’
Russia would normally have a
“house” at the World Economic
Forum this week as a showcase for
business leaders. This year the
space on the dressed-up main
street in Davos, Switzerland, has
been transformed by Ukrainian
artists into a “Russian war crimes
house”, portraying images of
misery and devastation. Visitors
are confronted by images such as a
badly burnt man in Kharkiv after
Russian shelling and a film made
up of thousands of pictures of dead
civilians and bombed houses. “This
is a place where all influencers and
all decision-makers of the world
come together,” Bjorn Geldhof, the
artistic director of the Pinchuk art
centre in Kyiv, said. (Reuters)Dzyuba leaves club
Artem Dzyuba, the Russia
national football team captain,
announced yesterday that he was
leaving Zenit St Petersburg, after
asking to be left out of the
national squad at the start of the
conflict in Ukraine. “Saint-Pet’,
thank you for everything!” he
wrote on his Instagram account.
The club is sponsored by
Gazprom, the state energy giant.
He did not specify whether he was
staying in Russia or going abroad.
In mid-March Dzyuba, 33, missed
a gathering of the national team,
which he has captained since 2018.
The absence was linked to the war
in Ukraine, where the striker has
relatives. “I will not go to the
national team camp, not for
political reasons, but for family
reasons,” he said at the time. (AFP)ukraine in brief