Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy charged Russia on Friday of abducting the mayor of the city of Melitopol, associating it to the activities of “ISIS terrorists.”
“They have got into a new stage of terror, in which they strive to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local authorities,” Zelenskyy announced in a video speech on Friday evening.
Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, shared the video on the social media site Telegram which he indicates as a group of armed men carrying the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, across a square.
Russian forces invaded the southern port city of Melitopol, with a population of 1,50,000, on February 26. The prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed revolutionary province in eastern Ukraine, announced on its website that there was criminal litigation against Fedorov.
The prosecutor’s office accused Federov of “terrorist activities” and of funding the nationalist militia Right Sector to “plan terrorist crimes against Donbass civilians.” The office announced that it was looking for Fedorov and called for anyone with evidence about his whereabouts to reach them.
However, attacks have also intensified in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Several explosions were heard in Kyiv on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, fierce fighting is going on in Irpin and Hostomel and on the outskirts of the city and Russian forces are advancing rapidly.
