The mayor of southern Ukraine’s Melitopol has been kidnapped by the Russian soldiers occupying the city, President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian officials said, IgbereTV reports
“A group of 10 occupiers kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov,” Ukraine’s parliament said on Twitter.
“He refused to cooperate with the enemy,” it added.
It said the mayor was seized when he was at the city’s crisis centre dealing with supply issues.
In a video message late Friday, Zelensky confirmed the abduction, calling Fedorov “a mayor who bravely defends Ukraine and the members of his community”.
“This is obviously a sign of weakness of the invaders… They have moved to a new stage of terror in which they are trying to physically eliminate representatives of legitimate local Ukrainian authorities,” he said
