President Zelensky claims that Russia kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol, Ukraine
President Zelensky claims that Russia kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol, Ukraine
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Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russia kidnapped Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov, according to the Associated Press. Zelensky compared it to the conduct of ISIS militants. “They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they strive to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local government,” Zelenskyy said in a video speech Friday evening.

“A group of ten occupants kidnapped Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov,” Ukraine’s parliament declared on Twitter. He refused to work with the enemy, it was added. It was said that the mayor was apprehended while dealing with supply concerns at the city’s crisis centre.

The Ukrainian Parliament also stated that the invaders kidnapped Serhiy Kyrychuk, a participant in a march against the occupation, a few days earlier. Melitopol is temporarily under Russian administration.

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Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, shared a video on the social media site Telegram showing a group of armed men taking the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, through a square.

The prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel enclave in eastern Ukraine, announced a criminal case against Fedorov on its website. They claim Fedorov was involved in ‘terrorist actions,’ and that he funded the nationalist group Right Sector to conduct terrorist acts against Donbas people.