'Another Gift': Ukrainian Farmers Poison Russian Troops With Cherries, Says Mayor

Ukrainian farmers in Russian-occupied territories continue to resist the invaders by all means. The farmers in a part of southeastern Ukraine have reportedly treated their sweet cherries with poison to sabotage the Russian troops, a local Ukrainian official claimed Thursday.

According to the mayor of Melitopol, a city occupied by the Russians in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast region, the residents are showing resistance by chemically treating their crops to poison the enemy troops. The Russian army has reportedly stolen these sweet cherries, unaware of them being poisoned, to export them to Russia for money, 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," the mayor, Ivan Fedorov said during a television broadcast.

Melitopol, which houses Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, was occupied during the first month of the Russian invasion and the city continues to be under the control of Russian troops, NY Post reported.

"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.

Fedorov also claimed that around 99% of the residents boycotted the celebration of Russian Day on June 12.

"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," the mayor claimed.

Ever since the war began in February, there have been several reports of Ukrainian locals poisoning the Russian army to resist invasion. Two Russian soldiers from Izium, a city in the Kharkiv region were reportedly killed and more than two dozen were hospitalized in April after they ate poison-laced pastries offered to them by civilians in Ukraine.

In the same month, there were reports of around 500 Russian soldiers being hospitalized by alcohol poisoning. However, it is unclear if they were caused by poisoned alcohol obtained from Ukrainian citizens.