Israel's Foreign Ministry is investigating reports that three Israeli citizens have been taken prisoner by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Melitopol.
Melitopol has been occupied by Russian forces, and early on Monday morning, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine reported that three journalists along with the publisher of MV-Holding had been apprehended by Russians.
"Today, armed men came to the home of the journalists of MV-Holding – publisher Mykhailo Kumok, production editor Yevhenia Borian, journalists Yulia Olkhovska and Liubov Chaika – and took them in an unknown direction," the Union wrote on its Telegram channel.
Hanna Medvid, General Director of MV-Holding, confirmed that around six o'clock on Monday morning, armed men arrested Kumok, Olkhovska, Chaika, and Borian.
"A week ago I was called in for a conversation and offered to support them. We met in the editorial office, which they entered without permission and made searches. They want us to be loyal and support them. I did not give consent and we went away," Medvid said.
At around eleven o'clock on Monday, Medvid reported that all three journalists had been released; Kumok, however, is in an "unknown location," along with his daughter, Tatiana, who is an Israeli citizen.
Tatiana, who has dual Bulgarian-Israeli citizenship, apparently filmed her mother surrounded by Russian security forces in the city and uploaded the video onto her Facebook page, where she wrote later that her father had been arrested. A short while later, her friend issued an update stating that Tatiana herself had also been apprehended.
The video that Tatiana shot can be seen here: