Putin’s forces kidnap second mayor as hero ‘who stood in front of Russian tank’ dragged off and other victim ‘tortured’

A SECOND Ukrainian mayor has been kidnapped by Russian forces one day after another was dragged away with a hood over his head.

Yevgeny Matveyev was filmed at the start of the Russian invasion reportedly standing in front of a tank after leading unarmed local people out to resist Vladimir Putin's forces.

Matveyev is the mayor of the city of Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

News of his kidnap was announced by Zaporizhzhia Region State Administration head Oleksandr Starukh on Sunday morning.

"War crimes are becoming systemic. The mayor of Dniprorudne has been abducted," Starukh wrote.

The second kidnapping comes after Ivan Fedorov was filmed being dragged away by Russian forces with a bag over his head in the city of Melitopol, in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said the Russians were using "terrorist tactics to install puppet regimes at a local level".

She alleged Fedorov "is still hostage and apparently tortured".

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also tweeted his condemnation.

"Today, Russian war criminals abducted another democratically elected Ukrainian mayor," he wrote.

After Fedorov was kidnapped, hundreds of Ukrainians took to the streets to demand his release.

Ukraine's parliament says he "refused to cooperate with the enemy" and was abducted at the southern city's crisis centre, where he was dealing with supply issues.

But soon a large crowd gathered outside the building he was seen being taken from by Russian soldiers.

Some of those who braved Vladimir Putin's occupiers were carrying placards demanding the mayor be released.

Footage shows Fedorov being marched out of the building by Russian soldiers.

"A group of 10 occupiers kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov," officials wrote on Twitter.

"During Fedorov's abduction, they put a plastic bag on his head."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the abduction late on Friday as he branded it a "sign of weakness of the invaders" and compared Russian soldiers to "ISIS terrorists".

He also hailed Fedorov "a mayor who bravely defends Ukraine and the members of his community".

"They did not find collaborators who would hand over the city and the power to the invaders," Zelensky said in a video message.

"Therefore, they have switched to a new stage of terror when they are trying to physically eliminate representatives of the legitimate local Ukrainian authorities."

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"The whole country saw that Melitopol did not surrender to the invaders, and this will not be changed by putting pressure on mayors or kidnapping mayors.

"The capture of the mayor of Melitopol is therefore a crime, not only against a particular person, against a particular community, and not only against Ukraine. It is a crime against democracy itself.

"The acts of the Russian invaders will be regarded like those of Islamic State terrorists."

Fedorov was captured by about 10 Russian soldiers, and led out of the government building when he allegedly refused to turn over the city to his captors.

Russian troops have been controlling the city of Melitopol for more than a week.

On Facebook, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "We call on the international community to respond immediately to the abduction of Ivan Fedorov and other civilians, and to increase pressure on Russia to end its barbaric war against the Ukrainian people."

"The perpetrators of this and other crimes will be brought to the strictest responsibility"