Mayor Ivan Fedorov of Melitopol and an archive image by KirschenFreedom UA/Westend61 via Getty Images
The mayor of Melitopol said Ukrainian farmers there poisoned their cherry crop to protest against Russia.
Ivan Fedorov said it was in response to Russian troops stealing the cherries in the Russian-held city.
Federov called the poisoned cherries a “gift” that was “prepared” for the Russians.
Russian soldiers stole cherries from Ukrainian farmers in the occupied city of Melitopol and were poisoned by them, the mayor said on Thursday.
Ivan Fedorov described this in a Thursday telethon as “the latest type of partisan resistance on the territory of Melitopol,” according to The Daily Beast’s translation.
He said the farmers had “prepared a gift” for the Russian occupation forces in the form of “recently treated sweet cherries that were causing mass disease among those who stole them from the farmers,” reported The Daily Beast.
Russia resumed selling sweet cherries from the southeastern Ukrainian city to Crimea in early June, Russia’s state-controlled Interfax news agency reported. The city, which is in Zaporizhia Oblast, has about 2,000 hectares of cherry farms that produce several thousand tons of the fruit, the agency said.
Ukraine had blocked sales to Crimea after Russia annexed the territory in 2014, Interfax reported.
Last month, Fedorov accused Russian occupiers of Melitopol of sweeping up the city’s cherry crop and paying only when it’s sold in Crimea at rock-bottom prices, Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency reported.
Fedorov called the move a theft. Interfax described it as a collaboration between Russia and Andriy Siguta, the head of the so-called “provisional administration” of Zaporizhia. Ukrainian media have described Siguta as a collaborator with the Russian armed forces.
Melitopol was the first significant settled area captured by Russia in its invasion, taking it a day after Putin sent his troops to Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Fedorov was briefly kidnapped after a protest in March and a puppet mayor, the pro-Russian Galina Danilchenko, was installed in his place. Fedorov was released four days later, but the administration put in place by Russia remains in place.
Read the original article on Business Insider