Russia is abducting the mayors of major Ukrainian cities in a bid to tighten its grip on the south of the country, with Ukrainian officials announcing a second kidnapping on Sunday.
Soldiers arrested Ukrainian mayor, Yevhen Matveyev, head of the city of Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, according to foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.
‘I call on all states & international organizations to stop Russian terror against Ukraine and democracy,’ he said on Sunday.
Vladimir Putin’s occupiers have also installed a new mayor of Melitopol after kidnapping the first mayor earlier in the week.
Galina Danilchenko, a former member of the city council, was announced as the new mayor on local TV on Saturday, according to the Zaporizhzhia regional administration website.
Galina Danilchenko, a former member of the city council, as the new mayor on local TV on Saturday, has reportedly been installed by Russia as the new mayor of Melitopol
The elected Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov, was allegedly kidnapped by Russian forces
Yevhen Matveyev is now the second mayor to have been allegedly abducted by Russian forces
CNN and Sky News reported Danilchenko was introduced as the acting mayor on local TV without an election, replacing Ivan Fedorov, the elected mayor of Melitopol.
Danilchenko said her main task is to ‘take all necessary steps to get the city back to normal’, in a televised statement the administration posted on Telegram.
She claimed people in Melitopol would try to ‘destabilize the situation’ and ‘provoke a reaction’.
‘I ask you to keep your wits about you and not to give in to these provocations,’ Danilchenko said. ‘I appeal to the deputies, elected by the people, on all levels. Since you were elected by the people, it is your duty to care about the well-being of your citizens.’
She then proposed the creation of a ‘People’s Choice Committee’ to help administer the Melitopol region.
CCTV footage, posted on Telegram by the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, appeared to show a group of men escorting Mr Fedorov out of a building and across a square.
CCTV footage appears to show Russian forces apprehending Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol, a city in southeastern Ukraine that fell under Russian control during the invasion
The footage purports to show the mayor being escorted by soldiers with a bag over his head
Ukraine’s parliament claimed Mr Fedorov was kidnapped by 10 armed men, who placed a plastic bag over his head. Russia has not commented on the fate of Mr Fedorov.
The clip, which has been shared widely by Ukrainian media, is believed to have been filmed in Melitopol’s Victory Square in southeastern Ukraine.
Video footage, shared by officials, appeared to show crowds of defiant residents carrying Ukrainian flags as they gathered near an occupied administration building.
Ukrainian officials claimed that Melitopol’s mayor had been kidnapped after he ‘refused to co-operate with the enemy’.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded the release of Melitopol’s mayor after his alleged kidnap by Russian troops.
Zelensky also called on Russian forces to heed the calls of residents in the occupied city who protested to demand that Ivan Fedorov be freed.
Zelensky described the alleged detention of Fedorov as an attempt ‘to bring the city to its knees’.
He said the acts of Russian invaders would be treated as ‘terrorism’, describing Mr Fedorov’s alleged abduction as a ‘crime’ against ‘democracy’.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in capital Kyiv, said the mayor of southern Ukraine’s Melitopol was kidnapped by Russian soldiers and demanded his release
‘The capture of the mayor of Melitopol is therefore a crime, not only against a particular person, against a particular community, and not only against Ukraine. It is a crime against democracy itself… The acts of the Russian invaders will be regarded like those of Islamic State terrorists,’ he said.
Zelensky also accused Vladimir Putin’s troops of ‘moving to a new stage of terror’ due to a lack of support for the invasion in Ukraine.
Following the alleged kidnapping, Ukrainian officials said 2,000 people took to the streets of Melitopol to protest.
Huge crowds ignored Vladimir Putin’s occupiers demands to stay away as they gathered outside the building where the city chief was last seen being dragged away by Moscow’s troops.
Other protestors were pictured enthusiastically waving placards calling for the mayor’s release.
Ukraine’s premier heaped praise on the citizens of Melitopol who ‘did not surrender to the invaders’.