Underground cities will be used not to protect the civilian population but for the Russian military.

The occupiers are preparing to defend the Melitopol region - they are building several lines of defense, underground cities, and bunkers, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said on the telethon air.

"They are preparing to defend both Melitopol and the occupied Melitopol region. Huge defensive structures are being built. They have already built several lines of defense from Vasilyevka to Melitopol, from Berdyansk to Melitopol. Even from Kherson, they began to build entire underground cities," he said.

Fedorov specified that the invaders are building an underground city in the village of Novonikolayevka: burying sea containers in the ground and trying to build bunkers there.

According to Fedorov, the occupiers also carried out an inventory of all the bomb shelters in Melitopol, and public utilities were instructed to make repairs there. They will not be used to protect the civilian population but for the Russian military.

He noted that the occupiers were also accumulating forces and military. Not only buses with "Wagnerites" are imported to the Zaporizhzhia direction, but also "Kadyrovites".