11 Community Leaders Abducted By Russian Forces, Claims Ukraine

Kyiv: Ukraine claimed on Sunday that 11 local community leaders have been abducted by Russian forces.

“Up to today, 11 heads of local communities in the regions of Kyiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Donetsk are in captivity,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video message posted on her Telegram account.

“We are informing the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN, all possible organizations, just like for the other civilians who have disappeared,” she added, urging everyone to do “everything in their power to get them back.”

On Day 39 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Deputy PM informed that Olga Sukhenko, head of the village of Motyjin, west of Kyiv, and her husband had been “killed in captivity” by Russian soldiers.

The governor of Luhansk, which is in the disputed Donbas region, claimed that mayors of five cities — Rubizhne, Stanytsia Luhanska, Milove and Markivka – have switched allegiance and are now working for Russia, The Kyiv Independent reported.