Locals in Melitopol, a southern Ukrainian town captured by Russia, protest against the reported kidnapping of their mayor. Video via Zelensky’s office
Zelensky on the kidnapped mayor, Ivan Fyodorov:
“I am grateful to every Melitopol resident for this resistance. From the very morning in the forever Ukrainian city of Melitopol, people gathered to protest against Russian troops, against attempts to bring the city to its knees.”
Zelensky: “we are constantly talking with international partners about this situation with our mayor. The demand is simple – to release him from captivity immediately. We appeal to all world leaders who speak to Moscow – France, Germany, Israel, and others.”
Zelensky says Ivan Fyodorov, the mayor of Melitopol, is alive, but being tortured in Russian captivity.
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After Russian forces kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol in southern Ukraine, local lawmaker Galina Dalinichenko says "a committee of the people's chosen ones" will be in charge.
She urges locals to "adjust to the new reality" and says protests are "extremist," a Russian buzzword.
Video via local media here. Ukraine says its forces are trying to rescue the captured mayor, Ivan Fyodorov, who they claim is being tortured in captivity.
This is a response to Facebook's decision to allow some calls for violence against Russia.
"In this specific context, 'Russian soldiers' is being used as a proxy for the Russian military. The Hate Speech policy continues to prohibit attacks on Russians."
More UK oligarch sanctions – this time against Alisher Usmanov, once lauded around the world as a skilled investor, and Igor Shuvalov, a longtime official with an opulent real estate portfolio
Sanctions like this were the sort of thing Alexei Navalny spent years crying out for.
“Greedy lawyers have been living off [Russian money] for decades. MPs can’t do anything because Britain is run in such a way that it loves dirty money.”
"I will never abandon my conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are one people [...] but the way the battle is going shows we are fighting neo-Nazis."
He claims Ukraine is using civilians and foreigners as "human shields."
Essentially Putin is responding to the international criticism of the huge civilian toll of the war in Ukraine – even from allies – by saying it’s all Ukrainians Nazis who did it. “Our soldiers and officers are trying to prevent civilian casualties and suffer losses themselves.”
Significant that Putin is publicly addressing the Russian casualties in Ukraine. Families are getting payouts of as much as 7m rubles (about $65,000)
The war censorship crackdown begins. Russian prosecutors want to ban independent channel @tvrain and liberal radio station @EchoMskRu (owned by Gazprom!) for "calls to extremism" and "publishing false data about Russian soldiers" during the war in Ukraine
Putin is chairing his emergency economic meeting to respond to US, UK, and EU sanctions. He calls the west “the empire of lies”
The table is extremely long but the economic team are all crunched together as far away from Putin as possible
Look, it's one thing when Macron is sitting opposite you, but there are seven people at the other end of this table. How does he know which one is speaking? If they snicker and pass notes, can he see them?