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Russia has begun to deploy its representatives in the occupied cities of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian parliament has claimed that Russia has installed a new mayor in the southern port city of Melitopol – a day after the mayor was abducted by Russian forces. Galina Danilchenko was announced as the new mayor on local TV on Saturday.
Ukrainian officials said earlier that Ivan Fedorov had been abducted by gunmen acting on behalf of the Kremlin on Friday.
Melitopol, about 190 km west of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, has a population of 150,000 and fell to Russian control on February 26. Mariupol, meanwhile, is strategically important to Russia because it would join separatist forces in eastern Ukraine with Russian troops in Crimea – leaving Ukrainian troops there besieged.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was trying to create a “pseudo-republic” in Ukraine to divide the country, but stressed that Russian forces had neither the strength nor the spirit to invade Ukraine.
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