The Ukrainian mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, now under Russian control, described hours of "harsh" interrogation he endured during his detention for a week by Russian forces last month and said he had appealed to the Pope to help end a war that has destroyed half of his city.
"It was six dangerous days because I understood that for the Russians my life and the lives of civilians have zero value," Ivan Fedorov, mayor of this southern Ukrainian city, said in an interview in Rome a month after his liberation.
Kiev said Fedorov was abducted on March 11 after Russian forces seized Melitopol, which lies west of the besieged city of Mariupol in a southern region Russia seeks to control. Kiev announced the release of Fedorov in a prisoner exchange on March 16.
Moscow, which calls its military incursion into Ukraine a "special military operation," has made no comment on the mayor's detention or the prisoner exchange announced by Ukraine.
Fedorov, who met Pope Francis and Vatican Prime Minister Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Saturday before attending a religious mass on the eve of Catholic Easter, said he asked the Vatican to mediate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to secure humanitarian corridors for Mariupol, which is facing devastating bombing.
Describing his detention by Russian forces at the Melitopol police station, Fedorov said, "They came to me in the middle of the night with five or seven soldiers and talked for about four or five hours, with tough dialogue."
"They wanted to give an example through me of what would happen if we did not agree with what the Russians wanted," the mayor told Reuters and the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, saying he was subjected to "psychological" but not physical torture.
"The Russian soldiers assumed they would be welcomed, but that didn't happen and that's why the Russians were very, very angry," he said, speaking on Sunday night.
"There is no food in my town. There is no pharmacy. Half of my town has been destroyed. More than 200 people have been kidnapped. It is not safe to walk the streets," he said."
The capture of Melitopol, Mariupol and the southern coast will give Russian forces a land link between pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Russia has said it has almost complete control of Mariupol.
Fedorov, who said he remains in regular communication with the people of Melitopol, said he invited the pope to visit Ukraine because "maybe he can stop this war."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also invited the pope, promising to guarantee his safety.
The prelate of the Roman Catholic Church quietly criticized Russia, calling for an end to a war of unjustified aggression and invasion. Addressing Fedorov and other Ukrainians at the Easter Eve mass, the Pope said: "Take heart, we are with you."
Source: skai.gr
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