The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces reported in its daily military part this Friday of the death by “poisoning” of more than twenty Russian soldiers in the Melitopol district, located in the southeast of Ukraine and occupied by Russia. The circumstances in which the poisoning occurred are unknown, but Russia has previously reported similar incidents. The vast majority, in the same Ukrainian province of Zaporizhia, partially occupied by Moscow.
“The invaders continue to suffer casualties, even hors de combat,” reads the report, which says that these deaths occurred on April 24 “in one of the units” deployed by Russia in Melitopol, in the Ukrainian province partially occupied by Zaporizhia Russia, southeastern Ukraine. The poisoning was caused by “an unknown substance,” said the same source.
Ukrainian and international media have reported on several occasions since the beginning of this war of cases of Russian soldiers being poisoned with food served to them by Ukrainian civilians in occupied areas.
In fact, peasants from the same city of Melitopol, surrounded by 2,000 hectares of cherry trees, poisoned the crops in June last year and when Russian soldiers stole their cherries, they fell ill. The city was the first major city to fall to Moscow, as it was occupied on the second day of the Russian invasion, on February 25, 2022. Its mayor, Ivan Fedorov, who was kidnapped for a few days, described the feat as “the last chapter of partisan resistance in the territory of Melitopol,” he said then at a press conference via Telegram.
And in the same vein, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian troops at the end of July of having poisoned some of its soldiers also in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhia province. Tests showed a toxic substance, botulinum toxin type B, in their bodies, which causes botulism. Ukraine then responded that it could have been caused by Russian forces eating expired canned meat.
