IAccording to Ukrainian sources, the mayor Ivan Fedorov has been kidnapped in the city of Melitopol in southern Ukraine, which is occupied by Russian troops. A video fragment showed hooded people taking a man away from a central building. This was published on Friday by the Deputy Chief of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko on the Telegram news channel. Tymoshenko wrote that the mayor had been kidnapped. The information could not be independently verified.
Authorities of the eastern Ukrainian separatists had recently accused the 33-year-old of financing a Ukrainian nationalist organization. The money was used to promote “terrorist crimes against peaceful residents of Donbass”.
At the lecture, after pro-Ukrainian demonstrations, “volunteers” from the separatist areas in eastern Ukraine were presented as the new police forces in the city.
The Ukrainian parliament said on Twitter that Fedorov was kidnapped by a group of “ten occupiers” on a visit to the Melitopol crisis center on Friday when he wanted to deal with supply issues. “He refused to cooperate with the enemy,” the Twitter message said.
In his daily video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describes the kidnapping of the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov as an attempt by Russia to shut down official bodies in Ukraine. “This is obviously a sign of the weakness of the invaders. They have not found any collaborators who would cede the cities and power to the occupiers. Therefore, they have entered a new phase of terror in which they are trying to eliminate representatives of local Ukrainian authorities.”
Melitopol had a population of just over 150,000 before the February 24 Russian invasion. The city is around 120 kilometers south of Zaporizhia, whose nuclear power plant was also occupied by Russian troops. According to the parliament in Kyiv, the deputy chairwoman of the Zaporizhia regional council, Leyla Ibragimova, was kidnapped and released a few days ago.
All developments in the live ticker:
1:00 am – Anti-Racism Officer concerned about discrimination against Russians
The federal government’s anti-racism commissioner, Reem Alabali-Radovan, has expressed concern about racist attacks on Russians in Germany. “Some people no longer dare to speak Russian on the street. That worries me a lot,” said the SPD politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Saturday). “There were also attacks on Russian food markets, children are insulted at school. We must not tolerate that.” This is the war of Russian President Vladimir Putin, not the war of the Russians, stressed Alabali-Radovan. Society should not be divided. “We have to stand together in solidarity.”
00:04 – Zelenskyy thanks Poland for support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the Poles for their support since Russia invaded Ukraine. “You welcome our people into your families with Polish tenderness, with brotherly kindness,” Zelenskyj said in a letter to his Polish colleague Andrzej Duda on Friday. “Polish brothers and sisters, I feel that we have formed a very strong bond.”
According to the UN, more than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, more than half of them to Poland.
The government in Warsaw caused a stir this week with a push for deliveries of fighter jets to the Ukrainian armed forces. She suggested giving up her MiG-29 jets to the US so Washington could turn the planes over to Ukraine.
However, the US government rejected this proposal as unsustainable. This would raise major security concerns for the entire NATO.
11:50 p.m. – Russia – payment of foreign money transfers only in rubles
Money transfers from abroad are only paid in rubles in Russia. This was announced by the Russian central bank in response to the western sanctions. The new temporary requirement will apply from Saturday. The central bank did not give an end date for the measure.
11:41 p.m. – Youtube blocks Russian state media worldwide
The YouTube video platform has blocked the channels of state-owned Russian media such as RT and Sputnik worldwide. Company policies “prohibit content that denies, downplays or trivializes well-documented violent events,” YouTube said on Friday. “In line with this, we are also blocking YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media worldwide, effective immediately.”
In addition, YouTube will now delete content about the Russian invasion of Ukraine “that violates this policy”. These included denials of the invasion or claims it was a peacekeeping mission.
The subsidiary of the Google group initially only blocked Russian state media in Europe last week. The EU had previously imposed a ban on the broadcasters RT and Sputnik.
11:00 p.m. – Russian access to Interpol network restricted
Interpol also gives Russia less leeway. The French Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Russia’s options for feeding information directly into the extensive network of the international police organization would be restricted. From now on, the data input must first be checked by the General Secretariat of Interpol in Lyon.
The forced security measures followed “several suspected cases of attempted fraudulent use” of Interpol’s system in the past few days. The State Department did not go into detail.
The decision has a number of effects: from now on, so-called red alerts for fugitive criminals must be given the green light by the Interpol headquarters. The same applies even to information about lost or stolen documents.