Ukrainian mayor who was ‘psychologically tortured’ by Russians says his life was ‘worth zero’

A Ukrainian mayor who was ‘psychologically tortured’ by Russian forces for six days after he was kidnapped said his life and the lives of civilians was ‘worth zero’ to Vladimir Putin‘s men.

Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol which is now under Russian control, said that Russian soldiers had ‘assumed they would be welcomed in Ukraine‘ when they invaded but instead they were met with strong resistance, which made them ‘very angry’.

Fedorov was abducted on March 11 after Russian forces seized Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine and kept for six days before he was released in a prisoner exchange on March 16, Kyiv said.

‘It was a dangerous six days because I understood that for Russians my life and the lives of civilians were worth zero,’ Fedorov said in Rome where he visited Pope Francis.

Describing his detention by Russian forces in Melitopol’s police department, Fedorov said: ‘They came to me at night with five or seven soldiers and spoke for about four or five hours, hard dialogue.’

‘They wanted to make an example of me about what would happen if we did not agree to what the Russians wanted,’ the mayor told Reuters and the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, saying he had faced ‘psychological’ but not physical torture.

‘Russian soldiers assumed that they would be welcomed but they were not… and that is why the Russians were very, very angry,’ he said.

‘There is no food in my city. There is no pharmacy. Half of my city is wrecked. More than 200 people have been kidnapped. It is not safe to walk the streets,’ he said.

Chilling CCTV footage showed the moment Fedorov had a plastic bag placed over his head as he was escorted out of a building and across Melitopol’s Victory Square by 10 armed men. 

Dozens of heroic Ukrainian residents went out to protest against the mayor’s kidnapping in Melitopol last month, with video showing the civilians brawling with Russian troops.

Video posted online shows a Russian soldier forcefully shoving one protester back into the crowd of demonstrators chanting anti-Moscow slogans.

The soldier first pushes the protester back with his hand before using his weapon to scare off other demonstrators who step forward to attack the Russian.

Fedorov, who said he remained in regular contact with the people of Melitopol, said he had invited the pope to visit Ukraine because ‘maybe he can stop this war’.

Fedorov, who met the pontiff and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Saturday before attending an Easter eve service, said he had asked the Vatican to intercede with Russian President Vladimir Putin to guarantee humanitarian corridors for Mariupol, which has faced devastating bombardment.

Thousands of civilians now face starving to death in captured Mariupol after Putin ordered his troops to seal shut the Azovstal steelworks.

The complex was the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the port city but Putin has ordered his forces to completely block it off, ‘so even a fly cannot escape’.

Soldiers and civilians trapped inside have no food or water and Ukraine’s foreign ministry is desperately appealing for an evacuation route to get them to safety.

They said in a statement: ‘Hundreds of civilians, children, injured Ukrainian defenders are trapped in plant’s shelters. They have almost no food, water, essential medicine.  

‘An urgent humanitarian corridor is needed from the Azovstal plant with guarantees people will be safe.’ 

The city’s capture has both strategic and symbolic importance, boosting Putin’s hopes to demonstrate major success by Russia’s Victory Day on May 9, with operations set to ramp up to coincide with the celebrations, the British MoD said today. 

Putin gave the Avozstal order to Sergei Shoigu, his defence minister, who had previously told his boss more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were still holed up in the vast plant, which has a sprawling labyrinth of tunnels underneath it.

‘I consider the proposed storming of the industrial zone unnecessary,’ Putin told Shoigu in a televised meeting at the Kremlin. ‘I order you to cancel it.’

After Shoigu told him Moscow controlled the city – apart from the Azovstal steel plant – Putin hailed the ‘successful liberation’ of Mariupol. 

He said his decision not to storm the steelworks was motivated by the desire to safeguard the lives of Russian soldiers.

‘There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,’ he said. ‘Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through.’ Shoigu confirmed the plant was ‘securely blocked.’

Putin also called on the remaining Ukrainian fighters in Azovstal who had not yet surrendered to lay down their arms, saying Russia would treat them with respect and would provide medical assistance to those injured.

Leaving the plant in Ukrainian hands, however, robs the Russians of the ability to declare complete victory in Mariupol. 

The scale of suffering there has made it a worldwide focal point, and its definitive fall would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, and free up Russian troops to move elsewhere in the Donbas.