Russian military forces have appointed a new mayor for the beleaguered city of Melitopol – a day after its elected mayor was kidnapped by a group of 10 Russian soldiers.
Galina Danilchenko, a former member of the city council, was proclaims the deputy mayor on local television Saturday, CNN reported.
Mayor Ivan Fedorov was taken from the Melitopol crisis center on Friday with a plastic bag over his head after he “refused to cooperate with the enemy”, Ukraine’s parliament said.
More than 2,000 residents of the Russian-occupied town in the rebel Kremlin-backed region of Luhansk held a rally in support of Fedorov on Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded his immediate release.
But in a televised statement, Danilchenko said she was aiming to return the city “to normal” and warned against those who would “provoke a reaction of bad behavior”.
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“I ask you to keep your cool and not give in to these provocations,” she said.
