A Ukrainian mayor was kidnapped by Russian soldiers in the south of the country on Sunday, two days after another city official was kidnapped.
Sunday on Telegram, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Olexandre Staroukh, alerted of a second kidnapping of aedile in two days. “Today, March 13, at 8:30 a.m., the army of the Russian Federation captured the mayor of the city of Dniprorudne“. Friday, the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, had already been arrested by Russians who occupy this city located halfway between Mariupol and Kherson, and about 80 km south of Dniproroudné. This because he “refused to cooperate with the enemyaccording to the Ukrainian President and the Parliament.
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“The EU strongly condemns the kidnapping of the mayors of Melitopol and Dniprorudne by the Russian armed forces. This is a new attack on democratic institutions in Ukraine and an attempt to establish illegitimate alternative government structures in a sovereign country», denounced the head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell on Twitter.
The President of the European Council Charles Michel also condemnedin the strongest terms Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Ukraine as well as Russia’s kidnapping of the mayors of Melitopol and Dniprorudne and other Ukrainians“.
“These kidnappings and other pressures on Ukrainian local authorities constitute another flagrant violation of international law.“, added the President of the European Council, representing the Twenty-Seven. “Russia’s military and political aggression against Ukraine must end“.
Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky had asked French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday to help free the mayor of Melitopol.
SEE ALSO – War in Ukraine: Zelensky asks for help from Macron and Scholz to free the mayor of Melitopol