Russians kidnap mayors
Zelenskyj recognizes “new level of terror”
03/12/2022, 01:25 am
With a black sack over his head, the mayor of the occupied southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol is probably kidnapped by Russian units: President Volodymyr Zelenskyj condemns the kidnapping of Ivan Fedorov as a “crime against democracy” – and sees it as a weakness.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russian soldiers kidnapped the mayor of the occupied southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol. Ivan Fedorov was abducted by a group of “ten occupiers” during a visit to the Melitopol crisis center when he wanted to deal with supply issues, the Ukrainian parliament said on Twitter. “He refused to cooperate with the enemy,” the Twitter message said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyj confirmed the information in a video message in the evening. “This is obviously a sign of the weakness of the invaders (…). They have moved to a new stage of terror in which they are trying to physically eliminate the representatives of the legitimate local Ukrainian authorities,” the president said. The kidnapping is not only a crime against an individual and Ukraine, but a “crime against democracy as such”.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Kirillo Tymoshenko, published a video on Telegram, showing soldiers coming out of a building some distance away, leading a man dressed in black, his head apparently in a black sack.
Melitopol had a population of just over 150,000 before the February 24 Russian invasion. The city is militarily under Russian control, but there are repeated protest marches by the population against the Russian occupiers.
The city is around 120 kilometers south of Zaporizhia, whose nuclear power plant was also occupied by Russian troops. According to the parliament in Kyiv, the deputy chairwoman of the Zaporizhia regional council, Leyla Ibragimova, was kidnapped a few days ago and later released.