“A bunch of 10 occupiers kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov,” Ukraine’s parliament mentioned on Twitter.
“He refused to cooperate with the enemy,” it added.
It mentioned the mayor was seized when he was on the metropolis’s disaster centre coping with provide points.
In a video message late Friday, Zelensky confirmed the kidnapping, calling Fedorov “a mayor who bravely defends Ukraine and the members of his group”.
“That is clearly an indication of weak spot of the invaders… They’ve moved to a brand new stage of terror wherein they’re making an attempt to bodily get rid of representatives of reliable native Ukrainian authorities,” he mentioned.
“The seize of the mayor of Melitopol is subsequently against the law, not solely in opposition to a specific individual, in opposition to a specific group, and never solely in opposition to Ukraine. It’s a crime in opposition to democracy itself… The acts of the Russian invaders will likely be regarded like these of Islamic State terrorists,” he mentioned.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Kirillo Timoshenko, beforehand posted a video on Telegram displaying troopers popping out of a constructing holding a person wearing black, his head apparently coated with a black bag.
Based on the Ukrainian parliament, one other regional official, the deputy head of the regional council of Zaporizhzhia — 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Melitopol — was kidnapped after which launched a couple of days in the past.
Earlier than the Russian invasion, Melitopol had simply over 150,000 inhabitants.