11 mayors abducted by Russian troops, claims Ukraine

The Russian troops have kidnapped eleven Ukrainian community leaders, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk stated on Sunday.

She shared a video message posted on her Telegram account saying, "As of today, 11 chiefs of local communities in the areas of Kyiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Donetsk are in detention." 

The Deputy PM added that they are informing the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN, and all other organisations, just as they did with the other civilians who have gone missing.

Vereshchuk requested each one to do everything possible in their power to get them out. 

The Deputy PM informed that Olga Sukhenko, the chief of the Motyjin village, west of Kyiv, and her husband had been killed in captivity by the Russian troopers. 

Prosecutors announced their kidnapping on March 26. The European Union has condemned the kidnapping of many mayors in Russian-occupied territory, including the mayor of Melitopol in the south, who was released in return for other Russians who had been kidnapped.

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch stated that it had recorded several cases of Russian soldiers committing potential war crimes against civilians in the captured areas of Chernigiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv.

The crime includes repeated rape and two cases of summary execution, one of six men, the other of one.

As per the rights group, soldiers were also involved in looting, including food, clothing, and firewood. 

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• Russia
• Russian troops
• Ukraine
• Ukraine-Russia crisis
• Ukraine-Russia war
• Ukrainian community
• mayor