Photo: SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP / Getty Images
Hundreds of Ukrainian citizens have taken to the streets to demand the release of a mayor kidnapped by Russian troops occupation.
Ivan Fedorov was filmed being dragged by Russian forces, with a plastic bag on his head in the city of Melitopol, in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s parliament says Fedorov “refused to cooperate with the enemy” and was kidnapped from the southern city’s crisis center, where he was dealing with supply problems.
But soon a large crowd gathered outside the building from where it was seen that the Russian soldiers took him out.
Some of those who defied the occupiers of Vladimir Putin carried banners demanding the release of l mayor.
“A group of 10 occupiers kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov”, the authorities wrote on Twitter.
“During the kidnapping of Fedorov, they put a plastic bag over his head”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the kidnapping on Friday night and described it as as a “sign of weakness of the invaders” and compared the Russian soldiers to “ISIS terrorists”.
He also praised Fedorov as “ a mayor who bravely defends Ukraine and the members of his community”.
“They did not find collaborators who would hand over the city and power to the invaders ”, Zelensky said in a video message.
“Therefore, they have changed to a new stage of terror when they try to physically eliminate the representatives of the legitimate Ukrainian authorities cales”.
“The whole country saw that Melitopol did not surrender to the invaders, and that is not going to change by pressing the mayors or kidnapping mayors.
“The capture of the mayor of Melitopol is, therefore, a crime, not only against a particular person, against a community in particular, and not only against Ukraine. It is a crime against democracy itself.
“The acts of the Russian invaders will be considered as those of the terrorists of the Islamic State”.
Fedorov was captured by some 80 Russian soldiers and taken out of the government building when he allegedly refused to hand over the city to his captors.
Russian troops have controlled the city of Melitopol for more than a week.
On Facebook, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said: “We call on the international community to immediately respond to the kidnapping of Ivan Fedorov and other civilians, and to increase pressure on Russia to put an end to your barbaric war against the Ukrainian people”.
“The authors of this and other crimes will be held to the strictest responsibility”.
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