"City of foreigners": what Melitopol became after the Russian occupation

Melitopol is the territory with the worst criminogenic situation in the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region, said a few days ago Ivan Korzhenko, deputy head of the Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia in the occupied part of the region. According to him, it seems that the highest crime rate was observed in the territory of the occupation investigation department in Melitopol, which includes Prjazovski, Veselivski and Melitopolj districts. According to representatives of the Russian security services, this is where the largest number of serious crimes are committed. He relates this to the large number of people living in the center of the district.

Ivan Fedorov, the former mayor of Melitopol and now the head of the Zaporizhzhya Regional Military Administration, has repeatedly spoken about the pressures exerted by the occupation forces on the population that remained in the city. He pointed out that "terror, abuse and poverty" reign in Melitopol.
How is Melitopolj living in the third year of Russian occupation? How much has the population of the city changed and who is moving into it? How do the occupiers put pressure on the local population and what is their goal? All this was learned by the Radio Liberty project "News of the Azov Region".
Director of the Center for Strategic Development of the Territory from Melitopol Andrij Orlov, referring to the words of eyewitnesses, says that the atmosphere of the nineties with the worst manifestations can be seen in the city. He told "News of Azov region" that there are many people from abroad and Russian propaganda on the streets of Melitopolje.
"Today it is a city of foreigners. Many unknown people appeared on the streets, whom you do not understand, and who essentially flooded this city. The locals feel very uncomfortable because of this. Locals also say that many natives of Melitopolje, especially the older generation, try to go out as rarely as possible, to not even communicate with each other, because spying is flourishing. Or threats to report you and take you to the basement. Social tensions are very high on this issue, and the degree of social mistrust among citizens is very high. Well, in principle, we understand that this is one of the goals of the occupying power, which it is gradually realizing, and the goal of everything is to create the most favorable conditions for the residents to leave that territory," Orlov pointed out.

"The drug trade is booming"
He says that crime is flourishing in Melitopol and various illegal activities are spreading. In general, he says, from the point of view of the average Melitopol resident, the criminogenic situation can be called catastrophic for the city.
"Approximately three levels of the spread of crime can be observed. The greatest activity is local authorities, that is, federal bodies. It is about extortion of entrepreneurs, constant corruption, appropriation of apartments and the sale of those same apartments, mass drug trafficking. This has become an everyday thing, even ordinary residents notice it. The second level consists of active groups from Chechnya or South Ossetia who came alone or on business and brought their relatives to the city, according to their own plans. They deal with "racket" and petty extortion. Abductions of girls and women are not isolated cases. And the third level are petty criminals, many of whom also came to the city from the southern regions of Russia," said Orlov.

Oppression of the population continues and takes various forms by the Russian security forces, says Orlov. According to him, it is now possible to go "into the basement" for careless speech, incorrect holding of the phone, when it may seem that you are recording something.
 "The situation in Melitopol is very difficult and unpleasant. But it works in favor of the local authorities, because let's face it: the goal is the maximum replacement of the city's autochthonous population, the removal from the city of people who remember and know what the Ukrainian government is. These people are simply unnecessary in the city. So, the criminal situation is one of the tools that helps to achieve this goal. They (occupation law enforcement forces) do not include in these statistics the violations and crimes committed by the Russian army. The criminalization of the situation in the city is encouraged by the army of the Russian Federation," added Orlov.
Given the hostilities and the Russian occupation of parts of the southern territories of Ukraine, the editorial office cannot obtain official confirmation of some of the statements made or independently verify them.

"They drive to the Moscow Patriarchate"
In the meantime, not a single evangelical church remained in Melitopol, as in other occupied settlements. This was said by the chaplain and youth pastor of the Melitopol Christian Church, Mark Sergeyev, during a speech at a hearing in the US Congress on July 24. According to the pastor, the churches in the occupied territory of Ukraine are "loyal to Moscow, not to God."
In a comment to "Novosti iz Azov", Sergeev said that only those churches belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate can work in the occupied territories.
"They are the last ones, I remember from Melitopol, who were thrown right on the demarcation line, that was my friend, whom I know well. He is a Greek Catholic priest, he served for a long time in Melitopol, he had a congregation, they were building a new, Catholic, modern church for young people. And he is the last to be kicked out with his belongings for some personal reason. It was about a year ago. That is, now there is no functioning church. Because they force everyone to go under the Moscow Patriarchate or simply close the churches. As for Melitopolj itself, the largest Protestant churches that were on the territory of Melitopolj, all their buildings were confiscated. They started with the largest and little by little already clean house groups, conditionally," says the pastor.
"The church was taken, the cross was cut down"
Sergeev noted that the building of the church where he served was occupied by the Russian army for its own purposes. The church itself had 1,500 parishioners, 168 home groups, and 400 children visited the church every Sunday.
"They (occupiers) occupied the church building in the summer of 2022 and cut down the cross. Everyone who has been there knows that if you enter the courtyard of the church, you realize that it is a church. Now it looks like a concert hall where Chicherina (Russian singer Yulia Chicherina, who actively supports the policy of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine - ed.) holds her concerts. The army there holds events for itself, if we speak culturally," said the pastor.
Now the occupiers continue to put pressure on the priests who did not cooperate with them, Sergeev added. He specifically spoke about a woman who is the leader of a group of believers in an apartment and was imprisoned by the occupiers a few months ago and still has not been released.
"She is a wife, a mother. She was taken away and has been in prison in Donetsk for the second month. Because she is a Christian and leads home groups. Of course, they find various things there, like we are spreading some bad information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In general, they purge as much as possible people who believe, in their understanding, in a different way. Why do Russians treat Protestants so aggressively? Because, in my opinion, Protestants are active until the last. That is, conditionally, if you ask how many people you have who come to church services on Sundays, I can clearly tell you - 1000 people. Similarly, in relation to the country, if they are patriots, they love their country, they show it with their lives. That's why the Russians are afraid of them, they understand that they are active, they resist, and they still stick to their opinion," added the pastor.

"They are not allowed to leave"
"Novosti iz Azov" also spoke with the coordinator of the "Yellow Ribbon" movement about the situation in Melitopol. The activist said on condition of anonymity that the occupation authorities are constantly introducing new and new restrictions for the local population.
"This refers to movement, I mean leaving the city or leaving the district, because roadblocks are everywhere. Without a Russian passport, without the permission of the local command, you cannot leave. You cannot get a job without a Russian passport. All these restrictions make life extremely difficult for people under occupation. In addition, Melitopolj is a little far from the front line. The military headquarters is located in the city," he said.
The further it is from the front, the more secure the Russian army feels and therefore behaves more freely, says the "Yellow Tape" coordinator.
"We constantly have cases of drunkenness, rape, raids, robberies. All this greatly worsens the social situation in the city. That is, when you go out to buy groceries or go for a walk, you should take into account that there will be roadblocks, patrols of the FSB, the National Guard of the Russian Federation, they can stop you, separate Russian patrols - you can also be stopped by the military police, check the registration, do you have a Russian passport, check your phone - do you read Russian channels, which is very important, to see if you have a Ukrainian channel in your search history", says the interlocutor.
"The Biggest Torture in the South"
According to the data of the resistance movement, it is precisely in Melitopolje that people are tortured the most compared to other settlements.

"We personally receive the largest number of reports about torture chambers in the city itself and outside the city - on the outskirts. This is the highest number of applications compared to other regions. The information we receive there is the most terrible in terms of the number of people in captivity, about the methods and means of torture, it is there the most cruel", claims the representative of the movement.
In general, Melitopolj is now in complete stagnation, says the activist. In the city, buses may not run on routes, late payment of wages or none at all, businesses are either forced to register under Russian legislation or are completely confiscated. Life seems to have stopped after the Russian occupation in Melitopol, he added.
Melitopol, a city in the Zaporozhye region, was occupied by Russian troops at the beginning of the war. Since then, explosions have regularly occurred in the city and its surroundings, as a result of which people have been killed, including those whom Russia placed in the occupation administration.