Two Ukrainian mayors have reportedly been abducted by Russian forces.
In the cities under Russian military control, officials are being disappeared and Ukrainian protests are being squashed. Here’s a look at what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls the “new stage of terror” in the Russian invasion.
Melitopol’s mayor is abducted
On Friday evening, Russian soldiers led Ivan Fedorov away from his government office with a hood over his head. He’s been accused by the prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel region in eastern Ukraine, of “terrorist activities,” per the AP.
Fedorov, 33, has openly encouraged resistance since the city of about 150,000 residents was invaded and ultimately fell to the Russian military. His defiance has earned him the support of the city and the scorn of occupying forces.
“We are not cooperating with the Russians in any way,” Fedorov said in an interview with the BBC two days before his abduction. “They have not tried to help us, they cannot help us and we do not want their help.”
Fedorov’s kidnapping sparked protests in the city. According to the Washington Post, about 2,000 people gathered outside city hall, chanting “Bring back the mayor.”
He has not been seen or heard from since his abduction. One Ukrainian lawmaker wrote on Twitter he is “still hostage and apparently tortured.”
Over the weekend, Moscow appointed a new mayor, the pro-Russian lawmaker Galina Danilchenko. She has urged residents not to engage in “extremist actions” and announced that her main task was to help the city adapt to “a new reality.” She has swiftly been branded a “traitor” on social media.
A second mayor is reportedly disappeared:
Russia was accused of abducting Yevhen Matveyev, the mayor of Dniprorudne, a city of about 18,000 people. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that Matveyev was seized Sunday, and condemned the act as a “war crime.”
“Getting zero support, invaders turn to terror,” he wrote. “I call on all states and international organizations to stop Russian terror against Ukraine and democracy.”
A puppet regime or “pseudo-republics”?
How Russian forces operate in the Ukrainian cities they’ve occupied could hint at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s endgame. The U.S. has said the goal of the invasion remains unclear, while British intelligence has warned that Moscow’s planning to replace a defiant Zelensky with pro-Russian lawmakers, creating a puppet regime. They appear to be testing that strategy on a much smaller scale in Melitopol.
Zelensky also accused Russia of attempting to create new “pseudo-republics” in order to break the country apart. He called on Ukraine’s regions, including the captured area of Kherson, not to follow Donetsk and Luhansk — separatist factions that have been backed by Moscow for nearly a decade.
