Powerful explosion rocks centre of Melitopol: Russian occupiers attempt to eliminate collaborator – Mayor

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – SUNDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2022, 20:38

A powerful explosion rocked the centre of the city of Melitopol, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Source: Ivan Fedorov, Mayor of Melitopol, on Telegram; Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RIA Novosti 

Quote: "A powerful explosion rang out in Melitopol. Early reports indicate that explosives detonated in the very centre of the city, in a courtyard on Yaroslav Mudryi Street.

Details: Fedorov later said that the explosion in the courtyard of the Melitopol apartment block was a result of the "clean-up" by the Federal Security Service [of the Russian Federation - ed.].

"Preliminary reports suggest that [the Russians] intended to eliminate one of the collaborator police officers, the Russian-appointed puppet ‘head of the rapid response team of the people’s militia’, as a result of internal strife. Denys Stefankov was one of the 118 police officers [who collaborated with Russian occupiers], whose real estate and personal property we were preparing to seize," Fedorov wrote.

Meanwhile, RIA Novosti claims that a "car with civilians" was blown up in the centre of Melitopol.

"A self-made explosive device detonated; people survived [the explosion]," the RIA Novosti report reads.

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