Unable to capture Zaporizhzhia, Russians decide to make another city regional capital
Russian occupiers and collaborators, who were unable to capture Zaporizhzhia Oblast but have declared it occupied, have decided that the temporarily occupied city of Melitopol will be the centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast instead of the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia.
Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RIA Novosti
Details: The occupiers have decided that Melitopol will be the centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
This decision was "signed" by Yevgeniy Balitskiy, the Russian-appointed governor of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
The collaborators also decided that the temporarily occupied cities of Berdiansk and Enerhodar will become cities of regional significance, and there will be 13 districts in the oblast.
In 2020, the 20 districts in Zaporizhzhia Oblast were replaced by 5 - Zaporizhzhia, Berdiansk, Melitopol, Vasylivka and Polohy - each with an administrative centre.
Background:
- On 30 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts in Ukraine.
- However, a large part of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts was under Ukraine’s control at the time and remains so.
- The city of Zaporizhzhia, the oblast centre, has always been under Ukraine’s control.
- In autumn 2022, Ukrainian forces liberated part of Kherson Oblast and the city of Kherson from the occupiers.
Previously: On 30 September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the "agreement on the accession to Russia" of the occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and declared that henceforth, residents of these territories would be citizens of the Russian Federation.
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