Russian forces ‘have abducted a second Ukrainian mayor’

The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of abducting a second mayor.

Yevhen Matveyev, mayor of the city of Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzia, has reportedly been kidnapped by Russian soldiers.

"Today, Russian war criminals abducted another democratically elected Ukrainian mayor, head of Dniprorudne Yevhen Matveyev. Getting zero local support, invaders turn to terror," Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.

“I call on all states & international organizations to stop Russian terror against Ukraine and democracy,” he added.

It comes after Russia installed a new mayor in Melitopol after allegedly kidnapping the previous incumbent.

In her first public appearance, the new mayor Galina Danilchenko urged residents not to take part in “extremist actions” and she said her main challenge was the construction of “basic mechanisms under the new reality”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is trying to create new “pseudo-republics” in Ukraine to break his country apart.

Zelensky called on Ukraine’s regions, including Kherson which was captured by Russian forces, not to repeat the experience of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Pro-Russian separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in those eastern regions in 2014.

“The occupiers on the territory of the Kherson region are trying to repeat the sad experience of the formation of pseudo-republics,” Zelensky said. “They are blackmailing local leaders, putting pressure on deputies, looking for someone to bribe.”

Dniprorudne is about 85 km, or 52 miles, north of Melitopol.

Danilchenko was a former member of Melitopol’s city council, according to Sky News.

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned the two kidnappings in a tweet on Sunday.

"The EU strongly condemns the kidnapping of the mayors of Melitopol and Dniprorudne by Russian armed forces," Fontelles said. "It is yet another attack on democratic institutions in #Ukraine and an attempt to establish illegitimate alternative government structures in a sovereign country."

In an earlier statement, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Mayor Fedorov’s abduction was "a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocol that prohibit the taking of civilian hostages during the war."