Russian troops abduct mayor of captured Ukrainian city Melitopol

            Russian troops abduct mayor of captured Ukrainian city Melitopol

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the alleged kidnap of Melitopol's mayor by Russian troops, which sparked local protests, is an 'attempt to bring the city to its knees'.

President Zelensky called on Russian forces to heed the calls of residents in the occupied city of Melitopol who protested to demand that Ivan Fedorov be freed.

                             

Ukrainian officials and Zelensky claimed on Friday that 10 Russian soldiers had kidnapped Ivan Fedorov from the city's crisis centre while he had a bag over his head.

CCTV footage, posted on Telegram by the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, appears to show a group of men escorting Mr Fedorov out of a building and across a square.

Zelensky, who spoke earlier Saturday with the leaders of Germany and France, described the alleged detention of Fedorov as an attempt 'to bring the city to its knees'.

He also said Ukraine expects 'the leaders of the world to show how they can influence the liberation (of) a man who personifies Ukrainians who do not give up'.

Following the alleged kidnapping, Ukrainian officials said 2,000 people took to the streets of Melitopol to protest.

Video footage, shared by officials, appeared to show crowds of defiant residents carrying Ukrainian flags as they gathered near an occupied administration building.

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.

President Zelensky on Friday described Mr Fedorov's alleged abduction as a 'crime' against 'democracy' as he said the acts of Russian invaders would be treated as 'terrorism'.

'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.

Ukrainian officials claimed that Melitopol's mayor had been kidnapped after he 'refused to co-operate with the enemy'.

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.

'This is obviously a sign of weakness of the invaders... They have moved to a new stage of terror in which they are trying to physically eliminate representatives of legitimate local Ukrainian authorities,' he added.

Zelensky hailed Mr Fedorov as a mayor who 'bravely defends Ukraine' and his community as he said the resistance of Ukrainians would not be changed by 'putting pressure on mayors or kidnapping mayors'.

The prosecutor's office of the Luhansk People's Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel region in eastern Ukraine, said on its website there was a criminal case against Mr Fedorov.

The office accused him of 'terrorist activities' and of financing the nationalist militia Right Sector to 'commit terrorist crimes against Donbass civilians'.

Ukraine's ministry of foreign affairs described the alleged abduction as a war crime, adding: 'We call on the international community to respond immediately to the abduction of Ivan Fedorov and other civilians, and to increase pressure on Russia to end its barbaric war against the Ukrainian people.'

Russian forces captured Melitopol, which has a population of 150,000, on February 26.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Zelensky accused Russia of refusing to allow evacuees to escape the city of Mariupol, which has been cut off from food, water and electricity, and defiantly insisted vital supplies would be delivered there tomorrow despite it being surrounded by Russian troops.

The Kremlin-owned Tass news agency painted a damning picture for those stuck in the city after quoting Russian Colonel Mikhail Mizintsev as saying all bridge into the city were destroyed and roads had been laid with mines.

'Russian troops have not let our aid into the city and continue to torture our people... tomorrow [Saturday] we will try again, try again to send food, water and medicine' Zelensky said.