Ukrainian resistance poisoned 17 Russian officers as they celebrated how great their military is, killing at least 2, official says Story by tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter) • 3 August 2023
A Russian serviceman walks near a sign reading "Mariupol", which has been painted in Russian flag colours, at the entrance of Mariupol on June 12, 2022 YURI KADOBNOV/AFP via Getty Images
© YURI KADOBNOV/AFP via Getty Images
> Ukrainian resistance reportedly poisoned 17 Russian military officers, a report said. > The resistance has launched attacks deep behind Russian lines. Russia has sought to make the reconstruction of the devastated city of Mariupol a symbol of its occupation.
> Putin was told Mariupol was a 'paradise' during his night-time visit. Daylight photos show how it really looks.
1 of 17 Photos in Gallery©Getty Images/Russian Pool/Insider
Putin was told Mariupol was a 'paradise' during his night-time visit. Daylight photos show how it really looks.
> Vladimir Putin paid a visit to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol over the weekend.
> He tried to portray the visit as a triumph for Russia's efforts to rebuild the city it destroyed.
> Yet pictures show buildings on Putin's route through the city still devastated by Russia's bombardment.
> On Saturday Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the occupied city of Mariupol, which Russian troops devastated in a months-long attack.
He saw a children's playground, a renovated theater, and new housing. Locals described it to him as a "little piece of paradise."
Notably, the trip took place after dark. Footage of Putin driving around showed nothing further than a few feet away. But daylight tells a different story.
Ukrainian resistance forces poisoned 17 Russian military officers at a celebration in the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, according to an advisor to the mayor of the city.
Ukrainian partisans used cyanide and pesticides during a Sunday Russian Navy Day event to poison the Russian military service members, killing two, Petro Andriushchenko said on Telegram.
The other 15 were admitted to the hospital in serious condition, he said.
Russian military forces occupied Mariupol in Spring 2022 after a brutal siege that obliterated much of the city and killed thousands of civilians.
City officials fled into exile and were replaced by a Russian puppet government.
The Kremlin has since sought to portray the reconstruction of the historic city as one of the triumphs of its invasion of Ukraine, with Russian President Vladimir Putin making a visit in February, where he inspected a new apartment complex.
It has become an important base for the Russian military as they defend territory they've seized in south Ukraine from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Ukraine has a network of resistance fighters operating in territory occupied by Russia, many of whom are ordinary civilians.
In Mariupol, >according to reports, civilians have adopted the " Ї " as a symbol of resistance, scrawling the letter around the city in defiance of the Russian occupiers (the letter is not found in the Russian alphabet.)
The city's resistance movement has claimed credit for other attacks, claiming to have set fire to a building housing Russian military personnel last October, Ukrainian media reported.
According to a report by UK think tank The Royal United Services Institute, the Ukrainian resistance's main mission is to collect intelligence on the Russian military or help Ukrainian forces target Russian positions.
It notes that Ukrainian forces have engaged in sabotage missions, but that direct attacks on Russian forces such as the one reported by Andriushchenko are rare as they often require specialist training.