Russian forces kidnap Ukrainian mayor, video surfaces on the internet

President Zelensky and Ukrainian officials said, On Friday, the mayor of southern Ukraine's Melitopol Ivan Fedorov was kidnapped by Russian soldiers possessing the city.

Ukraine's Parliament tweeted that, A bunch of 10 occupiers kidnapped the leader of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov.

He also added that "He refused to participate with the enemy."

When the mayor was at the city's crisis center managing supply issues, at that time he was seized.

In a video message late Friday, Zelensky affirmed the snatching, calling Fedorov "a mayor who bravely protects Ukraine and the members of his community".

He also mentioned that this can be clearly a sign of weakness of the trespassers... They have moved to a new stage of terror in which they are attempting to physically eliminate representatives of legitimate local Ukrainian authorities.

"The capture of the mayor of Melitopol is hence a crime, not as it were against a specific person, against a specific community, and not as it were against Ukraine. It is a crime against democracy itself... The acts of the Russian intruders will be regarded as those of Islamic State terrorists."

Kirillo Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration,   posted a video on Telegram showing soldiers coming out of a building holding a man dressed in black, his head clearly secured with a black bag.

According to the Ukrainian parliament, another regional official, the deputy head of the regional council of Zaporizhzhia, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Melitopol was also kidnapped and released a few days back.

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