Ukrainian Chief Intelligence Directorate: In the Kharkiv region, Russia tries to install its own mobile operator and set up payment in rubles
OLENA ROSHCHINA — SUNDAY, 24 APRIL 2022, 14:29
In the Kharkiv region, Russians are installing equipment of the Russian mobile operator "Megafon", trying to introduce the ruble, and are agitating local residents to go to Russia for their shopping.
Source: Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
Quote: "Russian military personnel and FSB [Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation] officers are trying to demoralise the local population by spreading information that ‘Ukraine has cut off electricity to settlements’, and that ‘Kharkiv is almost occupied by the Russians’.
At the same time, the occupiers are tightening control over telephone and Internet networks. In particular, equipment of the Russian mobile operator ‘Megafon’ is being installed in the Kharkiv region.
Payment in Russian rubles is being introduced, and the local population is being agitated to go to Russia to buy goods and medicines."
Details: According to Ukrainian intelligence, residents of the occupied territories continue to both turn down [Russian humanitarian] "aid" en masse and surprise Russians with self-organisation.
A wide volunteer movement has been launched in the occupied territories of the Kharkiv region. People organise amongst themselves for mutual assistance.
In the Velykoburlutskyi district, volunteers deliver food and necessary medicines to low-income people. Volunteers raise funds on their own, fundamentally refusing Russian "aid".
In the Kupiansk district, where there is no water supply, volunteers have organised the delivery of water for the elderly. The situation surrounding access to drinking water remains extremely tense.
According to the Intelligence Directorate, on 21-23 April, Russian troops confiscated generators from local residents for their own use.
Quote: "The occupiers are surprised by the activity and self-organisation of Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied areas of the Kharkiv region. According to them: ‘In Russia, everything would be different. No one would volunteer."
