A fragment of a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile shot down near MelitopolMOSCOW, Mar 19Member of the interim administration of Melitopol, deputy of the Zaporozhye Regional Council, ex-deputy of the Rada Yevhen Balitsky, in an interview with the Vzglyad newspaper, appealed to the Ukrainian authorities after the shelling of the city by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Earlier, the official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, said that Russian air defense systems repelled a missile attack by Ukrainian troops in the residential areas of Melitopol. As specified, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired Tochka-U ballistic missiles with cluster warheads at the city.The Ukrainian military was hiding behind residential buildings, said a citizen of the DPR «It all started as soon as the Ukrainian troops left Melitopol, and it happens with a frequency of three missiles a day. But the good air defense deployed by the Russian troops shoots them down,» Balitsky said. The politician stressed that Ukrainian forces are firing at the city, and not at military facilities, which, according to him, are not in the settlement. «My question is — why are you shooting at us? To whom and what do you want to prove? You want to put us on our knees, or do you want to make us love Ukraine even more? A Ukrainian Tochka-U missile flew towards us, and the Russians shot it down. So who should we be grateful for our lives?» Balitsky addressed official Kiev. On February 24, Russia launched a military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. The armed forces say they are only targeting military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops. There are casualties on both sides. Against the backdrop of hostilities in a large number of cities and villages in Ukraine, a humanitarian catastrophe is emerging. The Russian Ministry of Defense lays responsibility for this on the Kiev authorities, who refuse to coordinate the work of humanitarian corridors, as well as local nationalists who keep civilians as human shields. /> The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine admitted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost access to the Sea of Azov
