The mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov noted on January 7, 2023, that Russians did not allow Ukrainians to leave the occupation. They turned the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine into a prison.
Source: The mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov
“Russian troops turned the entire occupied territory of Ukraine into a prison, and individual settlements into prison cells: almost a month ago, they closed the exit from the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions towards Zaporizhzhia. Leaving the Russian occupation is like winning the lottery. In a month, only 4 people escaped to Zaporizhzhia from 4 regions of Ukraine, where more than 9 million people lived in peacetime,” explained the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov.
According to Ivan Fedorov, Russian soldiers introduced 24-hour curfews in some localities of the Zaporizhzhia region. People cannot leave the house for several days to get food and medicine. Residents are forced to issue passes to move between occupied settlements.
“The priority is to liberate not only the territories of Ukraine but also hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have become prisoners of the terrorist country of Russia,” added the mayor of Melitopol.’
See also: Russians do not allow Ukrainians to leave the occupied territories in the Zaporizhzhia region
