Energodar Mayor Dmitry Orlov wrote in his Telegram channel that the russian occupiers were kidnapping people, looting empty apartments, and the city had almost no Internet or communication.
Orlov reminded that June 4 marked exactly three months since the city of Energodar got under occupation.
"The short results are as follows. Physical and psychological pressure on citizens has increased. The number of kidnappings of city residents has increased significantly. Not only activists, participants of Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone [ATO] and those who resisted on the checkpoint during the capture of Energodar are now being taken into custody. Ordinary citizens who do not belong to the above categories are in captivity. People are held captive for weeks," the mayor said.
He also noted that the cases of looting have increased. Mostly, the occupiers rob empty apartments of those who left the city.
"The occupiers are artificially exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. Prolonged blocking of the Internet in the city leads to the fact that it is almost impossible to pay by bank transfer in shops and outlets. There are very few shops where you can pay at the terminal by bank card. Due to the lack of mobile Internet or its low quality, it is almost impossible to make payments as people have adapted over the past 3 months - by transferring funds from card to card through Privat 24 [UA bank app]. Even if you manage to "catch" the Internet, the transfer time or rather waiting for payment confirmation sometimes takes up to 15-20 minutes per customer. As a result, there are huge queues under the few stores where you can still pay by card," Orlov added.
He also noted that the residents of Energodar have almost no cash. The interest rate for withdrawing funds has risen again.
"There are such offers, but the demand is much higher. And preference is given to those who try to cash in large sums. At the same time in many outlets and markets there are double price tags - in UAH and rubles. The cost of products, household chemicals and all necessary for life is through the roof. Only seasonal vegetables are cheap because they simply do not have other markets, "- said the mayor.
Instead, russian drugs began to appear in the city. However, medicines are sold simply on the street, in the market, all day in the sun, without adhering to any rules of medicines storage. That is why Energodar still has a huge demand for Ukrainian medicines. But it is increasingly difficult to deliver them to the city.
At the same time, russian propaganda channels cynically write that communication and the Internet are blocked by the Ukrainian side. In fact, the occupiers are preparing people to switch to russian mobile operators and providers.
President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting on the current situation in the Zaporizhia region. He got information from the Head of the Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh, as well as the military command and the leadership of the National Police in the region. Starukh reported that almost 60% of the region's territory was temporarily occupied by russian troops, with some fighting continuing.