Florence, the Ukrainian mayor Fedorov: “Kidnapped and held prisoner for six days”
The mayor of Melitopol, a Ukrainian city of 150,000 inhabitants, tells Dario Nardella about his kidnapping in March by Russian troops
FLORENCE. European cities are ready to help Ukraine rebuild. The mayor of Florence and president of Eurocities, Dario Nardella, is convinced of this. Today in Palazzo Vecchio he received Ivan Fedorov, prime citizen of Melitopol, a Ukrainian city of 150 thousand inhabitants, kidnapped in March by Russian troops. Fedorov, on a diplomatic mission to Europe, was accompanied by Ambassador Yaroslav Melnyk.
“Mayor Fedorov was kidnapped and held prisoner for six days. His city is now occupied – said Nardella at the end of the meeting -. He is holding a series of meetings in various European countries to promote initiatives in favor of Ukrainian cities. : he was in Paris, in Rome and today in Florence. I have assured Fedorov all the help of Florence and with Eurocities, the association of the most important European cities that I preside, we will organize initiatives in the weeks to support the reconstruction “. Nardella explained that “we have decided to undertake an important initiative with Eurocities and the Ukrainian cities to help them in the reconstruction. The occupied realities cannot be helped but there are many cities still free that can be helped. At the end of April I will talk about helps to Brussels with some members of the European Commission “.
In addition, he added, “I invited Fedorov and other Ukrainian mayors to ‘State of the Union, which will be held in May in Florence, and on the occasion there will also be the vice president of the European Commission Suica and will also have a meeting of the effective committee of Eurocities “. “We want to mobilize European cities to send not only aid – he assured – but also our experts to rebuild, to help them do urban cooperation. I have already received the willingness of the mayors of Athens, Paris, Oslo, to be part of this aid program, and we also hope to organize a delegation of European mayors to go to Kiev and meet the Ukrainian mayors. The support of Eurocities is total and to do everything possible “.
“Italian and European citizens must understand only one thing – underlined Fedorov -: it is not a Ukraine between Russia and Ukraine but Russia is at war with all civilians in the world. If we fail to stop Putin in Ukraine, he will not it will stop and arrive in all European countries, in all homes. We must all be united and support Ukraine in all ways to win this war. It is a dangerous situation for all European countries. We are the border with the country. Europe”. Fedorov explained that he was on a diplomatic mission to Europe to make known what the Russian propaganda in recent years has not made Europeans understand.