Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Vadym Denysenko has confirmed that the Russian invaders kidnapped the mayor of Skadovsk, while the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, was taken to Luhansk.

"At the moment, we can already say that they stole three mayors – Melitopol, Dniprorudne and today Skadovsk... As for the mayor of Skadovsk [this happened] just recently. We have no information where he was taken. Concerning the mayor of Melitopol, they really took him to Luhansk," Denysenko said during the national marathon of Ukrainian TV channels on Wednesday.

According to him, the purpose of the occupiers is to intimidate the kidnapped people and up the ante during the negotiation process.