According to Russian and Ukrainian sources, the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in southern Ukraine came under intense shelling over the weekend, but there are conflicting reports on the number of casualties.
After an “evening attack on fascist Russian bases, 200 occupiers were toasted” [killed]” and 300 others were injured, Ivan Federov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, wrote on Telegram on Saturday.
Fedorov later denied these claims, saying instead that “dozens” of people died.
Yevgeny Balitsky, governor of the Russian-installed Zaporizhzhia region where Meliopol is located, confirmed there had been explosions in the city in a Telegram post.
Balitsky posted a video showing emergency services involved in a massive fire on Saturday night.
“Ukraine’s HIMARS was launched on the outskirts of Melitopol,” he said. Two missiles were shot down by the air defenses, but four of them reached their target.”
Balitsky described the target of the attack as an “entertainment center” where civilians and military personnel were “having dinner on a Saturday night”, but he did not name the target.
According to Balitsky, two people died and 10 were injured in the attack.
“Three of them need to be hospitalized, and they are currently being treated as an inpatient at a medical facility,” he said.
On Sunday evening, Fedorov told Ukrainian television that “yesterday the enemy had a disappointing day and a disappointing night in the temporarily occupied Melitopol district”.
He listed three locations that were attacked, including a ‘hotel-restaurant complex on the outskirts of Melitopol – ‘Prival Okhotnika’ [‘Hunter’s Rest’].”
The other two were a checkpoint 20km (12 miles) from Melitopol in Novobohdanivka, and an army unit was “completely annihilated” near the village of Semenivka.
Melitopol is located south of the city of Zaporizhzhia and east of Kherson. It is a major Russian logistics hub and has been in Russian hands since the early days of the invasion.
Some platforms: Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, emphasized the importance of the city in comments sent to local media outlet Feigin Live on Saturday.
“If Melitopol falls, the entire defense system in Kherson collapses, the Ukrainian armed forces will immediately jump to the border with Crimea on the isthmus,” Arestovych said.
The attacks on Melitopol came as Ukrainian forces also attacked a hotel in Luhansk, which is believed to be the residence of a unit of Wagner mercenaries.
