MOSCOW - A Ukrainian official has been kidnapped in Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya where abductions have become a regular occurrence, news agencies said Friday quoting Chechen officials. Nikola Brichko, an official with Ukraine's ministry for emergency situations, was abducted Thursday in the Chechen capital Grozny by five armed men who burst into the home where he was staying, Interfax said quoting Chechen investigators.

He had gone to Chechnya to draw up contracts for Ukrainian workers hired at construction sites to rebuild areas devastated by 21 months of fighting between Chechen separatists and Russian forces from 1994 to 1996. Brichko met with the Chechen vice-president Vakha Arsanov and Deputy Prime Minister Tourpal Atgueriev in Grozny. (AFP)