An apparently significant strike on Russian-controlled Melitopol by U.S.-supplied HIMARS artillery either killed a number of civilians or “hundreds” of Russian soldiers, according to conflicting accounts from Russia and Ukraine.
The strike on the Hunter’s Halt holiday resort resulted in “[m]ore than 200 Russian invaders [being] eliminated “, with the wounded having to be evacuated to Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, due to local hospitals being overwhelmed, according to Ukrainian state media.
But while the Ukrainians say the site had been repurposed to serve as a barracks for Russian forces, Russian state media claims it was still civilian, and that the victims — which they put a much lower figure on — were “patrons and staff”, and citing Russian-backed officials suggesting the strike was part of a wider effort “to make life unbearable for the residents of the newly incorporated Russian territory.”
Melitopol is part of the Zaporizhzhia region, Zaporozhye to the Russians, and is one of four Ukrainian territories annexed to the Russian Federation in October following widely unrecognised referendums.
Russia’s acting governor for the Zaporozhye region, Evgeny Balitsky, said that the Ukrainian strike had killed two and injured ten.
“I want to emphasize that this is civilian infrastructure, a recreation centre… which housed barbecue houses, gazebos and a corner with birds and animals,” Balitsky claimed on Telegram.
“These are the goals of the Ukrainian Nazis. This is their ‘war’ strategy,” he added.
Ivan Fedorov, the Kyiv-backed mayor-in-exile of Melitopol, insisted that the strike’s targets were military, and that hitting the “orcs” at the resort “showed that the enemy cannot live on Ukrainian soil”, further vowing that “it will only get hotter for the occupiers” as the conflict progresses.
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