Russian occupying forces check schoolchildren's phones in Mariupol - Mariupol official

Dmytro Zabavin, a member of the Mariupol City Council, revealed details of life in the temporarily occupied area, where Russian troops have established strict control over all spheres of life

He shared the information on Espreso TV.

"Given that Mariupol is now such a large military and Russian concentration camp, everything that happens there is controlled by the Russian special services. Imagine, even in the so-called schools, the principal was charged with the functions of controlling students, controlling what they call "dissent", to monitor even the little Mariupol residents, what they think, what they talk about. They took away their phones in order to watch the children's private correspondence," said Zabavin.

According to him, Russia has now introduced a responsible person in educational institutions who will control the so-called threat of possible terrorist acts: "They have gone completely mad, imagine the repressive methods they use there."

"Regarding the overall situation, Russian occupiers still cannot get used to the fact that Ukrainians can show disobedience, protest, and indicate unsatisfaction with the situation, which happens very often, but taking into account the difficult living conditions that remain in Mariupol. The Russians are continuing the story they created last year of the so-called controlled opposition, the so-called people's control, which goes to shops, dumps, criticises the local authorities for poor work and then ostentatiously cleans it all up. They realise that the protest mood among Ukrainians in Mariupol is at the point where they need to let off some steam, so they create a controlled opposition group that filmed some minor problems in supermarkets and then solved them on camera. This shows that the Russians understand that things have already reached a boiling point," concluded the member of the Mariupol City Council.