Hundreds protest Russian detention of deputy mayor in Ukraine’s Enerhodar

Hundreds of civilians protested the detention of Enerhodar’s deputy mayor, Ivan Ignatevich Samoydyuk, on Sunday in central Ukraine.

Since then, there have been periodic protests in Enerhodar, which is near to the Zaporizhzia nuclear power facility, which was taken by the Russian military on March 4.

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Scuffles between Russian soldiers appeared to occur around a truck, followed by volleys of bullets into the air.

Samoydyk’s son, also named Ivan, told CNN that “about 30 minutes after the rally began, a military vehicle with five or six Russian soldiers arrived. They tried to detain two people but the residents fought back and didn`t let that happen.”

“Immediately after that, an armored personnel carrier accompanied by several dozen armed Russian soldiers arrived at the rally site to disperse the demonstration,” he said. 

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According to Samoydyk, “during a phone call with one of his subordinates, my father said that he was being stopped by the Russian military.”

“After that, the connection with my father disappeared. We do not know where he is located now, there were no demands from the kidnappers either.”

“The big problem is that my father is responsible for the livelihood of the city,” said the younger Samoydyk, including providing food for the Zaporizhzia plant‘s operational workers.

“The staff of the Zaporizhzhya NPP is extremely concerned about the events taking place in the city, and does not know whether it is safe for them to go to their shifts at all, whether they risk disappearing at any time in the same way it happened to my father,” Samoydyk told CNN. 

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The mayor of Melitopol, Ukraine, who was supposedly kidnapped by Kremlin forces, has been released.

According to Ukraine’s parliament, Ivan Fedorov was kidnapped by armed guys who placed a plastic bag over his head.

Surveillance video of him being marched through a square in the city centre was published on social media.

According to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, he was released on Wednesday in exchange for nine kidnapped Russian conscripts.