Russian soldiers were seen leaving Melitopol, a town in the southern part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia province, exiled mayor Ivan Federov said on social media. “The occupiers ran from Melitopol to the temporarily occupied Crimea,” Federov said on the Telegram messaging app. He added that “columns of military equipment” from Melitopolis were seen passing through Tsonhar, about 70 miles southwest and bordering Crimea. “That was to be expected – Ukraine’s rapid attack leaves them no chance,” Federov said. Reports of retreating Russians came hours after multiple explosions were reported in Melitopolis near the local airport, where occupation troops had set up a makeshift base. There were no further details on those explosions on Tuesday — but Melitopol has been a hotbed of Ukrainian rebel resistance since it fell to Russian troops early in the war. It was unclear whether Ukrainian troops had advanced on the city, but the liberation of Melitopol, which lies between the occupied cities of Kherson and Mariupol, would deal another blow to the Russian supply network inside occupied Ukraine. A damaged building near Melitopol amid Ukrainian forces liberating the city on September 12, 2022. Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities have announced that around 150,000 civilians have so far been freed in Kiev’s northeastern push from Kharkiv. Nadia Khvostok, a 76-year-old resident of Verbivka said she and her neighbors welcomed the Ukrainian troops “with tears in our eyes”. “We couldn’t be happier. “My grandchildren spent two and a half months in the cellar,” he said. Two miles from the Russian border, in the recently liberated town of Vovchansk, Ukrainian troops were seen burning Russian flags. A Ukrainian soldier holds up a burnt Russian Izium flag in the Kharkiv region on September 13, 2022.AP Photo/Kostiantyn Liberov However, the battle continued on the outskirts of Kharkiv province. “The fighting continues [in the Kharkiv region]Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said. “It is still too early to say that it is fully under control [the] Kharkiv Region”. Russia is still estimated to control about a fifth of Ukraine — and has continued to shell the city of Kharkiv from afar. Ukraine’s defense ministry said it shot down an Iranian-made Russian drone over Kharkiv on Tuesday – blowing holes in Tehran’s denials that it supplies the Kremlin with weapons. The ministry released a photo of a broken drone wing, with markings in the Cyrillic alphabet used by both Russia and Ukraine. The fin is similar to those used by Iran on the Shahed-136 drone.
A Russian drone was shot down by Ukraine in the Kharkiv region. The Directorate of Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine/Briefing material via REUTERS Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iran’s capital in July amid rumors that its military is running low on precision munitions. US intelligence suspected the leaders discussed an arms deal involving drones, but the presence of Iranian UAVs in the Russian quiver was an open question. In Washington on Tuesday, the White House said it would announce another aid package to Ukraine in the “coming days.”