Mayor: High concentrations of Russian troops near occupied Melitopol

There are "powerful concentrations" of Russian troops near occupied Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, city mayor Ivan Fedorov said on Ukrainian national television on April 24.

According to Fedorov, one of the concentrations of Russian troops is in Kyrylivka, an urban type settlement located south of Melitopol on the coast of the Azov Sea, "where the enemy has seized a huge number of recreation centers, hotels, etc."

Russian forces are allegedly using this position to ship military cargo and heavy weapons. There is also a smaller Russian military base in the nearby village of Prymorskyi Posad, Fedorov said.

Fedorov went on to say that the Russians are preparing to forcibly relocate civlians from the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and that "in Enerhodar, they are aiming to collect all the data about our children by the end of the week, and starting from May 5, they will announce the evacuation of children and take them somewhere in mainland Russia, or at least to temporarily occupied Crimea."

Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov said on April 11 that Russian occupying forces had ramped up mine placement around the city. The city is home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant which now serves as a military base where Russian forces launch attacks against Ukrainian-controlled territory across the Dnipro River.

Ukraine's planned counteroffensive will allegedly focus on several areas, with speculations that Zaporizhzhia Oblast is among them.

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Kyiv IndependentAlexander Query