The wife of an American pastor said her husband was kidnapped by Russian forces last week in Melitopol, a city of 150,000 in Ukraine's south.
Speaking to NBC News by phone from Melitopol, Helen Bodyu said she and her family watched as her husband Dmitry Bodyu, 50, was taken by about eight to 10 troops on the morning of Saturday, March 19.
The Bodyu family has not heard from Dmitry since he was taken, Helen and their daughter Esther Bodyu-Ogawa said, and word of his kidnapping took days to become public because the city was captured by Russia and the troops confiscated the family's cell phones and devices.
"They just came in in the morning," Helen Bodyu said. "They took our phones, gadgets, computers, documents — and took him somewhere. I don’t know where."
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The Russian troops were not aggressive, Helen said, and she could not hear what they were saying as she waited in the living room and they spoke to her husband in the kitchen.
Helen added that the Russian troops seemed to know he was a pastor and confiscated his U.S. passport.
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