Melitopol locals face new eavesdropping capabilities as Russians install mobile-monitoring towers
Russians have installed mobile phone towers to listen to Ukrainians' phone conversations in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Oblast, Mayor Ivan Fedorov announced on Telegram on Sept. 10.
The Russian occupation authorities in Melitopol are closely monitoring "dissenting" locals. First, they deployed video cameras around the city, and then installed towers. Fedorov said.
"They were unable to reconfigure the Ukrainian towers, so they set up their own. But with a (caveat): to eavesdrop on conversations," said Fedorov.
He noted that one Russian tower had recently been installed near the hospital campus, and another in the neighborhood opposite the 24th school.
At the same time, Fedorov recalled that during the year-and-a-half of occupation, the Russians have not taken care to provide stable communications and Internet access for the public.
"Enemy towers are only for hostile purposes," the mayor said.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff reported on Sept 9. that the Ukrainian Defense Forces were continuing their offensive on the Melitopol section of the front in the south of the country, inflicting significant losses in manpower and equipment on the Russian invasion forces, and forcing the enemy to withdraw from their positions.
At the same time, the Russian forces are redeploying the most combat-ready airborne military units to this sector and are trying to retake lost positions.
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