MELITOPOL, January 28. /TASS/. Most residents of the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporozhye have left abroad or have been called to arms by the territorial recruitment centers, (the Ukrainian equivalent of military enlistment offices), leaving only a third of the population, a former serviceman of the Ukrainian armed forces, call sign "Pukh" from Zaporozhye, who surrendered to the Russian Armed Forces and joined the Martyn Pushkar Detachment, told TASS.
The detachment's volunteers are currently fighting alongside Russian troops in the Zaporozhye Region. "There are no people left there, especially men, very few at all. I climbed into a minibus, there were 17 seats, of which 15 were occupied by women, and two men, and they were either schoolchildren or children. Otherwise, about a third of the people remained. They went abroad, and the men were all taken by officers of the territorial recruitment centers, or they’re hiding somewhere, dispersed to villages, and sitting there so as not to fight," the volunteer fighter said.
On January 27, Chief of the Russian General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov stated that forward units of Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr were just 12-14 km from the southern and southeastern outskirts of Zaporozhye. "Battlegroup Dnepr formations are advancing in the general Zaporozhye direction. Forward units are 12-14 km from the southern and southeastern outskirts of the regional center," Gerasimov said.