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Video appears to show the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol being kidnapped by Russian forces on Friday.
The footage, shared by the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, shows a person with their head covered in a black bag being led out of an office building by soldiers.
Mayor Ivan Fedorov was taken from the city’s crisis center by a group of about 10 Russian troops – who put a plastic bag over his head – after he “refused to cooperate with the enemy,” Ukraine’s parliament said in a statement on Twitter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Russian soldiers to “ISIS terrorists” in response to the kidnapping.
“They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they try to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local authorities,” Zelensky said in a video address Friday night.
The prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel region in eastern Ukraine, claimed there was a criminal case against Fedorov, accusing him of “terrorist activities.”
But Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry shot down the terrorism accusations against the mayor and called the kidnapping a war crime. It urged Ukraine’s allies to step up pressure on Russia in response to the mayor’s abduction and continued attacks on civilians.
“We urge the international community to immediately react to the abduction of Ivan Fedorov and other civilians in Ukraine, to strengthen pressure on Russia to force it to end the barbaric war against the Ukrainian people,” the ministry said in a statement on Facebook.
Get the latest updates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with The Post’s live coverage.
“The facts of the kidnapping of the mayor of Melitopol, as well as hundreds of other facts of war crimes of Russian occupiers on Ukrainian land, are carefully documented by law enforcement agencies. The culprits of this and other crimes will be brought to the harshest accountability.”
Melitopol, a city of about 150,000 people in southern Ukraine, is currently under Russian control, officials said.
Ukraine’s parliament said Russian forces detained civilians during protests against Moscow’s occupation, including a regional councilwoman, who was later released.
Over 2.5 million Ukrainians have been displaced since Russia launched its invasion over two weeks ago on Feb. 24, and hundreds of civilians have been confirmed killed in the violence, according to the United Nations.
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