Ukraine: a policeman who collaborated with the Russians killed in an occupied area

BET À DAY

A policeman who collaborated with the Russian authorities was killed Thursday by an explosive device in Melitopol, one of the main towns in the occupied areas of southern Ukraine, the Russian administration announced. 

Melitopol is the capital of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhia region.

The explosion occurred early in the morning in front of an apartment building, the antenna said. of the Russian Interior Ministry in this region which Russia claimed for annexation last September.

Two police officers were injured and hospitalized, one of them later died in hospital, according to the administration's website, which released a video showing a van and a car damaged by the explosion and bloodstains on the ground nearby.

The mayor-in-exile of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, claimed on Telegram that the man killed was a “collaborator”.

According to him, he s t is about Oleksandr Michchenko, the former police chief of a locality near Melitopol who “not only went over to the side of the enemy himself but also convinced his colleagues to become traitors”.

With a pre-war population of around 150,000, Melitopol was conquered shortly after the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022 and now lies around 65 kilometers to the rear of the frontline further north.

The Zaporizhzhia region is one of four Ukrainian territories – along with those of Donetsk (east), Lugansk (east) and Kherson (south) – for which Russia has claimed annexation in 2022 even if its army does not fully control them.

Last year, several Russian-linked officials died in attacks in occupied Ukrainian areas.