MELITOPOL, May 17. /TASS/. Police defused an improvised explosive device at a gas pipeline in the Zaporozhye Region, the regional emergency services reported on Wednesday.

"At about 6:00 p.m. Moscow time on May 17, 2023, an improvised explosive device was discovered at the gas pipeline in the settlement of Rovnoye north of Melitopol. The timely and professional actions by the personnel of the Zaporozhye Region Main Interior Department helped defuse the explosive," the emergency services reported.

The search for the perpetrators complicit in plotting a subversive act at the gas pipeline is underway. The on-duty and utilities services have switched to the enhanced mode of work, the emergency services said.