Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia on Sunday of abducting a mayor of a second Ukrainian city.
Yevhen Matveyev, the mayor of the southern town of Dniprorudne, has reportedly been taken by Russian forces, Kuleba said..
“Today, Russian war criminals abducted another democratically elected Ukrainian mayor, head of Dniprorudne Yevhen Matveyev,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
“Getting zero local support, invaders turn to terror. I call on all states & international organizations to stop Russian terror against Ukraine and democracy,” he added.
Russia days ago arrested Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the southern city of Melitopol. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of kidnapping Fedorov.
The last time the mayor was seen was on Friday, when a number of armed men were taking him away from the city’s crisis center, according to the BBC. Fedorov had a bag over his head.
The city later installed Galina Danilchenko as its new mayor, according to the BBC. She called on individuals in the city not to participate in “extremist actions,” and said her main job was creating “basic mechanisms under the new reality,” according to the broadcasting company.
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the vice president of the European Commission, wrote in a tweet on Sunday that the union “strongly condemns the kidnapping of the mayors of Melitopol and Dniprorudne by Russian armed forces.”
“It is yet another attack on democratic institutions in #Ukraine and an attempt to establish illegitimate alternative government structures in a sovereign country,” he added.