Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Highlight
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Melitopol mayor was kidnapped by Russians
- He asked Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz to help secure Meyer’s release.
- Kirill Timoshenko released a video showing a group of armed men carrying the mayor
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that the mayor of Melitopol, whom he alleged was kidnapped, was not only alive but was being captured by the Russian military. Zelensky also said that Mayor Ivan Fedorov’s detention was an “attempt to bring the city to its knees”.
Ukraine’s president asked his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and Greiman chancellor Olaf Scholz to help secure Meyer’s release.
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.
Earlier, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kirill Timoshenko, posted a video on the social media site Telegram, in which he said a group of armed men escorting Mayor Ivan Fedorov across a square.
“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. Russian forces captured the southern port city of Melitopol with a population of 150,000 on 26 February.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of damaging a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv by heavy artillery shelling.
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