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The mayor of Melitopol, Ukraine, has been abducted, officials say

The mayor of Melitopol, Ukraine, was abducted Friday by Russians, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in what it calls "a war crime under the Geneva Conventions."

According to Ukraine's parliament, Mayor Ivan Fedorov was detained by approximately 10 people while in the city center.

"During Fedorov's abduction, they put a plastic bag on his head," the parliament said on its official Twitter account.

The ministry has called on the international community to help free Fedorov.

"Russian troops, who have been launching missile and bomb attacks on civilian facilities and infrastructure in Ukraine, including children's hospitals and schools, over the course of two week, are cynically accusing the mayor of 'terrorism,'" the ministry wrote on its verified Facebook page.

"The fact of the abduction of the mayor of Melitopol, along with hundreds of other facts of war crimes by Russian occupiers on the Ukrainian soil, are being carefully documented by law enforcement agencies. The perpetrators of this and other crimes will be brought to the strictest responsibility."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Fernando Alfonso III
Fernando Alfonso III is a supervising editor who manages a team of editors and reporters responsible for powering NPR.org.