Russian authorities have arrested the mayor of Kherson, one of the few senior Ukrainian officials to remain in a Russian-occupied territory despite continued threats.
alyna Lyashevska, an adviser to Ihor Kolykhaev, said the elected mayor of Kherson, who has lived under Russian occupation for four months, arrived yesterday at his temporary office, where he was detained and taken away by unknown gunmen.
“Kolykhaev was put on a bus with the letter Z and taken,” she wrote on Facebook.
She said the mayor recently received a request from the local puppet government for cooperation, but turned it down.
“They threatened to arrest him if he refused to meet them. He declined,” she said.
“We are all in danger. I’m worried about Ihor Kolykhaev’s life.”
Later, a senior official of the occupation administration in Kherson confirmed the reports, denouncing the mayor as “a banner for the Nazi community” that “has hindered the process of denazification”.
“Finally he has been neutralized,” Kirill Stremousov told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.
He declined to say where the mayor was or what charges he might face.
While top regional officials have largely fled the occupied territories, Kolykhaev has refused to leave his post or recognize Russian rule.
His arrest comes as a staunch Kremlin critic was sentenced to two weeks in prison in a case that could see him face up to ten years in prison.
Ilya Yashin, a vocal opposition figure who challenged Russian war censorship by speaking out publicly against the invasion of Ukraine, was sentenced by a Moscow court to 15 days in prison for resisting police orders.
Mr Yashin, 38, was arrested Monday evening while walking in a park with a friend.
He has previously been fined four times under the new war censorship law for social media posts criticizing the invasion of Ukraine.
Only two purposes under the law could allow prosecutors to convert them to criminal charges, which could then result in a 10-year prison term.
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]