The population of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhіa region increased during the Russian occupation.
Half of the Ukrainian residents left the city since the city was controlled by the invading Russian army. However, in place of these people, the enemy brought about 100,000 citizens of the Russian Federation. Not only the military, but also tourers, guest workers and other foreigners arrived. This was announced on January 20 by the chairman of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov.
The population of temporarily occupied Melitopol has become larger than it was before the full-scale invasion and occupation… The Russians are uprooting Ukrainians, bringing in thousands of tourists from Russia and changing the nation’s gene pool in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the chairman noted.
According to Fedorov, by February 24, 2022, 150,000 people lived in Melitopol. But in the six months after the occupation, more than half of the native inhabitants left for the territory controlled by Ukraine and abroad.
In December 2023, it became known that the Russian invaders of the occupied territories began preparations for illegal “presidential elections”, in which the citizens of the aggressor country will once again “re-elect” the dictator Vladimir Putin. In particular, eight buses of performers were brought to Melitopol and settled in premises selected from Ukrainians.