Russia-Ukraine War LIVE Updates: Mayor of Ukraine City Abducted by Russian Troops; US, Allies to End Normal Trade with Moscow

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It said the mayor was seized when he was at the city’s crisis centre dealing with supply issues.

In a video message late Friday, Zelensky confirmed the abduction, calling Fedorov “a mayor who bravely defends Ukraine and the members of his community”.

“This is obviously a sign of weakness of the invaders… They have moved to a new stage of terror in which they are trying to physically eliminate representatives of legitimate local Ukrainian authorities,” he said.

“The capture of the mayor of Melitopol is therefore a crime, not only against a particular person, against a particular community, and not only against Ukraine. It is a crime against democracy itself… The acts of the Russian invaders will be regarded like those of Islamic State terrorists,” he said.

The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Kirillo Timoshenko, previously posted a video on Telegram showing soldiers coming out of a building holding a man dressed in black, his head apparently covered with a black bag.

According to the Ukrainian parliament, another regional official, the deputy head of the regional council of Zaporizhzhia — 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Melitopol — was abducted and then released a few days ago.

Before the Russian invasion, Melitopol had just over 150,000 inhabitants.

Meanwhile, the United States and its allies moved Friday to end normal trade relations with Russia, as President Joe Biden vowed the West would make Vladimir Putin “pay the price” for his invasion of Ukraine.

Biden announced the new step, which would enable Western nations to inflict steep tariff hikes on Russian goods, in coordination with NATO allies, the Group of Seven and the European Union.

Washington and Brussels also said they would cut off exports of luxury goods to Russia in what EU chief Ursula von der Leyen described as a “direct blow to the Russian elite.”

Biden warned in his speech at the White House that “Putin must pay the price” as the “aggressor” in the war with its ex-Soviet neighbor.

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