The mayor of Melitopol is the kind of person Russian soldiers might have believed would have welcomed them with open arms and flowers.

Ivan Fyodorov, as his name suggests, is an ethnic Russian in a southern Ukrainian city where Russian is commonly spoken and where ties to Russia run deep.

On Friday evening, Fyodorov had a bag thrown over his head and was dragged from a government office building by armed Russian soldiers, according to Ukrainian officials and videos posted online. Since Russian forces captured his city in the first days of the war, he had encouraged resistance, earning him the support of the public and the ire of the occupying army.

On Saturday, hundreds of his townspeople poured out into the streets in an expression of outrage and defiance, despite the presence of troops on their streets. “Return the mayor!” they shouted, witnesses said and videos showed. “Free the mayor!”

But nearly as soon as people gathered, the Russians moved to shut them down, arresting a woman who they said had organised the demonstration.

New York Times News Service