A Ukrainian mayor who urged his city to rise up and fight the occupation before he was kidnapped by Russian forces has been freed, his government announced last night.
“We don’t leave ours behind,” President Zelensky told Ivan Fedorov, 33, who was dragged from his office in the southern city of Melitopol with a bag over his head on Friday night.
Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said that Fedorov had been freed in a “special operation” without offering further details. Zelensky told Fedorov by phone: “Very happy that we got you back. Very happy. Very glad to hear your voice.”
Last night Dasha Zarivna, a spokeswoman for the presidential chief of staff, told Ukrainian media that the mayor had been swapped for nine captured Russian conscripts aged 18-19.
Kyiv had previously said that it was concerned Fedorov was being tortured in captivity. In his place, the Russians appointed a new mayor, Halyna Danylchenko, a councilwoman from a pro-Russian party. She called on residents of Melitopol, a mostly Russian-speaking city of 150,000 that was occupied in the war’s first days, to “adapt to the new reality”.
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Fedorov’s arrest was widely viewed as the first step in Russia’s attempt to quell widespread resistance in occupied areas. Those detained have included politicians, journalists and activists.
Melitopol was vociferous in its opposition to Russian occupation. On March 2 shots were fired as thousand of residents filled the streets in protest, singing the Ukrainian national anthem. One resident called the Russians “orcs who brought their own looters”. Three days later Fedorov said in televised remarks that residents were taking part in pro-Ukrainian demonstrations every day as food and medical supplies began to dwindle.
On March 6 Zelensky awarded Fedorov the Order for Courage in recognition of a “significant personal contribution to the protection of state sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Yesterday Oleksandr Yakovlev, mayor of the port town of Skadovsk, was kidnapped along with his deputy, Yury Palyukh, prompting demonstrations in the town of 17,000 near Crimea on the Black Sea coast. Russian forces fired tear gas to disperse crowds. Last night Yakovlev issued a video message saying he had been released.
Another mayor, Yevhen Matveyev, is reported to have been kidnapped from Dniprorudne, south of Zaporizhzhia. The abduction tactics are similar to those employed by Russia after the annexation of Crimea eight years ago.
