The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has posted a hard-hitting statement on its Facebook account that calls the detention of the Melitopol mayor a "war crime."
Earlier, Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov was seen on video being led away from a government building in the city by armed men, as reported by CNN.
But after some time, the Russian-backed Luhansk regional prosecutor came forward to defend the mayor's detention and claimed that Fedorov had committed terrorism offences and was under investigation.
On Facebook, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called Fedorov's detention an "abduction," and posted that this aggression is accompanied by "gross violations of norms and principles of international law, including international humanitarian law, war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as other human rights violations by the Russian military."The Foreign Ministry said that the abduction of the mayor is classified as a war crime under the Geneva Convention and its Additional Protocols that prohibit civilian hostages like Fedorov from being taken.
Foreign ministry further urged the international community to react immediately to this incident and also to increase pressure on Russia to end its barbaric war against the Ukrainian people," the statement said.
"The fact of the abduction of the Mayor of Melitopol, along with hundreds of other facts of war crimes by Russian occupiers on the Ukrainian soil, are being carefully documented by law enforcement agencies. The perpetrators of this and other crimes will be brought to the strictest responsibility," the post concluded.
( With inputs from ANI )
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