Ukrainian farmers poison Russian troops with cherries

Ukrainians in territories occupied by Russian forces are said to be using all means at their disposal to sabotage the invaders, including by poisoning cherries, a local official said Thursday.

Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, revealed during a television broadcast that subversive Ukrainian farmers were able to take occupiers out of commission with the help of contaminated stone fruit.

Fedorov said Russian soldiers had stolen a crop of sweet cherries from local farmers, reportedly to export it to Crimea for profit, unaware that the fruits had been sprayed with chemicals, Ukrainian News reported.

“Our farmers have prepared another gift for the [Russian fascists] – freshly treated sweet cherries, which caused a mass disease among the [Russians] who stole it from the farmers.

“And this is another kind of partisan movement, resistance, which exists today on the territory of Melitopol district. You shouldn’t steal anything from us, it was all grown with the hard work of our farmers,” Fedorov said.

The mayor claimed that 99% of the people who remain in Melitopol are now part of a resistance movement targeting Russian troops.

“Melitopol residents completely ignored the celebration of Russia Day. The whole country saw — last Sunday only 15 people out of 70,000 residents who stayed in the temporarily occupied city stood in line for [Russian] passports,” Federov said.

Melitopol has been occupied since the first days of the war, now in its fourth month. Much of the surrounding region, which is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, is currently under Kremlin’s control.