Ivan Fedorov, Mayor of Melitopol, Ukraine
Highlight
- Russia has kidnapped Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the city of Melitopol, allegedly Zelensky.
- Zelensky compared it to the actions of ISIS terrorists.
- A group of 10 captives kidnapped Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov, Ukraine’s parliament said.
Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky has alleged that Russia kidnapped Melitopol city mayor Ivan Fedorov, reports AP news agency. Zelensky compared it to the actions of ISIS terrorists. “They have moved into a new phase of terror, in which they try to physically destroy representatives of Ukraine’s legitimate local authorities,” Zelensky said in a video address Friday evening.
Ukraine’s parliament said on Twitter: “A group of 10 captives kidnapped Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov.” He refused to cooperate with the enemy. It said the mayor was seized while he was in the city’s crisis center dealing with supply issues.
Ukraine’s parliament also said that a few days ago, the occupiers kidnapped a participant in a rally against the occupation, Serhi Kyrychuk. Melitopol is under the temporary control of Russian troops.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kirill Timoshenko, posted a video on social media site Telegram that he said showed a group of armed men carrying Mayor Ivan Fedorov at a crossroads.
The prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel zone in eastern Ukraine, said on its website that there was a criminal case against Fedorov. They have alleged that Fedorov was involved in “terrorist activities” and financed the nationalist militia right sector to commit terroristic crimes against Donbass civilians.
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