According to local media reports, Putin’s troops based in the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol received the melons from unwitting Russian locals, who received them from the city’s partisan groups.
The Ukrainian 24 Kanal outlet said the watermelons had been given to local resistance fighters who passed them on to the Russians who then sold them to the Russian soldiers.
Following the deaths, a Ukrainian resistance group posted: ‘That’s for you, guys! Thank you for protecting us.’
Pyotr Andryushchenko, an adviser to the exiled mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, said: ‘The resistance movement is actively fighting.’
He added that Russians who had moved to the occupied territories had been hired to deliver the poisoned fruit.
He said: ‘Our people [Ukrainians] do not directly participate in the delivery of such dangerous ‘gifts’ to the Russians.
‘There are always people who come en masse from Russia and want to make money. That is, they want to trade something.
‘The operation was simple. It was clear that watermelons were being purchased for a military base.
‘It was clear who was going to supply these watermelons. These people were sold a batch of watermelons at a low price, which then caused the intended damage.’
Mariupol was captured after a three-month battle following Moscow’s attack on Ukraine in 2022.
