On March 23, at 7am, Svetlana Zalizetskaya, editor-in-chief of the RIA-Melitopol news outlet, learned that armed men in a white jeep had arrived at her house. She was not in the city, but neighbors told her they saw men with machine guns taking her parents out.
Russian soldiers had occupied Melitopol since early last month, kidnapped the city’s mayor, Ivan Fedorov, and tried to force him to work on the Russian side. He refused.
At the same time, the Russians began putting pressure on journalists: They needed to convince the population that the Russian army had come to “liberate the city from
Ukrainian journalists, public officials, civil rights activists and even civilians who are vocal against the invasion of their country are being arbitrarily detained by Russian forces. The tactic is…