Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Highlights
- Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the mayor of Melitopol was kidnapped by Russians
- He asked Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz to help secure the release of the mayor.
- Kirill Timoshenko released a video that showed a group of armed men carrying the mayor
Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said that the mayor of Melitopol, who he alleged was kidnapped, was not only alive but being held by the Russian forces. Zelenskyy also said that the detention of Mayor Ivan Fedorov was an attempt 'to bring the city to its knees'.
The Ukranian President asked his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and the Greman Chancellor Olaf Scholz to help secure the release of the mayor.
"A group of 10 occupiers kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov," Ukraine's parliament said on Twitter. He refused to cooperate with the enemy, it added. It said the mayor was seized when he was at the city's crisis centre dealing with supply issues.
Earlier, Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, posted a video on the social media site Telegram which he said showed a group of armed men carrying the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, across a square.
“They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they try to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local authorities,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday evening. Russian forces captured the southern port city of Melitopol, with a population of 150,000, on Feb. 26.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of damaging a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv with shelling from heavy artillery.
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