after heavy fighting by 1 March. Mayor Ivan Fedorov pledged noncooperation, and locals took to the streets to protest the Russian occupation. On 11 March Fedorov was abducted by the Russian military and released five days later as part of a prisoner swap. In the meantime, the Russian forces had attempted to install former councilor Halyna Danylchenko of the Opposition Bloc party as acting mayor. The Melitopol City Council declared that this was an attempt to "illegally create an occupation administration" and appealed to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to launch a pre-trial investigation into Danylchenko and her party. On 23 March 2022, now-exiled Mayor Fedorov reported that the city was experiencing problems with food, medication, and fuel supplies, and that the Russian military was seizing businesses, intimidating the local population, and holding several journalists in custody. On 30 May, a bomb exploded in central Melitopol during a humanitarian aid transfer between local residents and Russian personnel, injuring at least three people, according to the Russian investigative committee's website which referenced "Ukrainian saboteurs" as the possible perpetrators. In a statement from exile, Ivan Fedorov alluded to the possibility that the bombing was connected to local Ukrainian resistance fighters. On 30 September, in a move unrecognized internationally, the city was annexed by Russia as part of the Russian annexation of Zaporizhzhia oblast. Russian occupation authorities instituted a policy of Sovietization of the city, including restoring Soviet names to Melitopol's streets, although these names are not historical and were invented by the Bolsheviks in the 1920s. Climate Melitopol has a humid continental climate that borders on a humid subtropical climate (Dfa bordering on Cfa according to the Köppen climate classification). The temperature is slightly below freezing in winter and hot in summer, with January, the coolest month, having a mean of and an average low of , although February has a lower average low of . July is the warmest month, with a mean of and an average high of . Melitopol receives of precipitation annually. Precipitation is distributed evenly year-round, with no wet or dry season, although some months are wetter or have more precipitation days than others. June is the wettest month, receiving of rain on average. October is the driest month, receiving of rainfall. There are a similar amount of precipitation days each month, with August having the least with 4.3 days and December and January having the most