The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, spoke in an interview about the brutal interrogations he underwent by Russian soldiers who captured him for six days last month before he was released. In an interview with Reuters and Mesagerie yesterday in Rome, the mayor of Melitopol, now under Russian control, said that during those “terrible six days” he realized that his life and the lives of civilians were “worthless” to his abductors.
Fedorov was abducted on March 11 after Russian troops captured Melitopol. In an interview, he said they came to him in the middle of the night with 5-7 soldiers and had a “difficult dialogue” for four or five hours. “They wanted me to be an example of what will happen if we do not agree with what the Russians want,” he said.
He said that Russian soldiers expected to be welcomed, “but they were not accepted, so the Russians were very, very angry,” BTA added.
Fedorov, who is in constant contact with his fellow citizens, says there is no food, no pharmacies in his city, half of the buildings have been destroyed and “more than 200 people have been abducted.” He explains that he invited Pope Francis to Ukraine, hoping that he would be able to stop the war. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky also invited the Pope, promising him a guarantee of security.
The mayor of Melitopol stressed that Russian soldiers put only psychological, but not physical pressure on him.