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War in Ukraine: Mayor of Melitopol in southern Ukraine kidnapped by Russian soldiers

The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, was kidnapped on Friday by Russian soldiers occupying the city in southern Ukraine.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine announced this on Twitter. “A group of ten invaders kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov. He refused to cooperate with the enemy,” the political agency clarifies. When he was kidnapped, the mayor was at the city’s crisis center handling supplies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed this information in a video posted on social media. “Today in Melitopol, the invaders captured the mayor Ivan Fedorov. A mayor who courageously defends Ukraine and members of his community.”

CCTV footage posted on Telegram by the deputy head of the presidential administration of Ukraine shows soldiers leaving the building with a man dressed in black with a black bag over his head.

“Crimes against Democracy”

In this video message, he explains that “this is clearly a sign of the weakness of the occupiers.” In his opinion, “they have moved on to a new stage of terror, in which they are trying to physically eliminate representatives of the legitimate local Ukrainian authorities.”

He called “the capture of the mayor of Melitopol” a “crime”. The crime “is not only against a specific person, against a certain community, and not only against Ukraine. This is a crime against democracy as such,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy assured, adding that “the actions of the Russian occupiers will be equated with the actions of the terrorists of the Islamic State.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Ivan Fedorov is not the only political leader to have been kidnapped. According to the Rada, Leyla Ibragimova, deputy chairman of the Zaporozhye Regional Council, was also abducted, but was released a few days ago.