Galina Danilchenko, the newly-appointed mayor of Melitopol, the Russian-controlled city in Ukraine has announced that she’ll allow Russian television channels to begin broadcasting, CNN reported. 

In a televised address, Sunday, Danilchenko reasoned there is “a great deficit of trustworthy information being circulated”, which backed her broadcasting decision. 

Both the Ukrainian-controlled Zaporozhye regional administration and pro-Russian Telegram channels posted the mayor’s new message. She’d initially expressed an interest in Melitopol returning to a state of normalcy as soon as possible. 

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Warning about those who might wish to destabilize the current situation, the new mayor also said, “I ask you to keep your wits about you and not to give in to these provocations. I appeal to the deputies, elected by the people, on all levels. Since you were elected by the people, it is your duty to care about the well-being of your citizens”. 

She also expressed the desire to set up a People’s Choice Committee to solve the critical problems in the region.  

Danilchenko is, notably, not the mayor people of Meelitopol chose. She was appointed after the previous mayor, Ivan Fedorov, was detained by armed men. The prosecutor’s office of the separatist Luhansk region, whose independence Russia recognized, accused him of terrorism offences. 

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry slammed the actions saying, “Armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine 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 violations of human rights on the side of the Russian army”, and added, “One of such gross violations was the abduction of March 11 Mayor of the city of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov”. 

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Further, the Foreign Ministry labelled this a war crime, saying, “The abduction of the mayor of Melitopol is classified as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocol banning the capture of civilian hostages during the war”.