Three journalists, along with a retired newspaper publisher and his family, were abducted Monday morning by Russian forces and held for several hours before being released, according to Ukraine’s national journalists’ union.
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The four – former publisher Mykhailo Kumok, editor Yevhenia Boryan and reporters Yulia Olkhovska and Lyubov Chaika – are all associated with the Melitopolskie Vedomosti, a newspaper based in the Russian-occupied town of Melitopol in Ukraine’s south.
Armed men arrived at the homes of the four around dawn and confiscated computers from some of the journalists, before driving them off to an unknown location where they were held before later being let go, the journalists' union said.
Anna Medvid, the director general of the company that owns the newspaper, said the abductions were an attempt to coerce local journalists into supporting the Russian invasion.
She said she too had recently been visited by pro-Russian officials.
"A week ago, I was called in for a talk and they asked me to support them. They met me in the editorial office, which they entered arbitrarily before searching it," Medvid told the journalists’ union.