A US missionary has been allegedly kidnapped by Russian forces, according to his family. 

Helen Bodyu, the wife of pastor Dmitry Bodyu, told NBC News her husband was taken by a group of eight to ten Russian soldiers on Saturday morning. 

The Bodyu family lives in the southern city of Melitopol, which fell to the Russians four days after the invasion started.

Mrs Bodyu said she watched how the group entered their house and seemed to know he was a pastor. 

"They walked in and they just started kind of questioning him right away, like, 'Are you guys American citizens?' - that's one of the first questions they had," she said.

According to Mrs Helen, the group looked through pastor Dmitry's social media and confiscated his passport. 

The 50-year-old was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the US with his parents at the age of 17 but went back to Ukraine years later. 

In Melitopol, he has been leading World of Life Church for years and travels across Ukraine training pastors and ministers. 

Mrs Bodyu also said the group took all her their phones, computers and documents but returned them back on Monday, when the group returned to their house to grab a Bible and a sleeping bag. 
The family has not heard from him since he was taken. 

A spokesman for Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Irene Vereshchuk told NBC News her office was not aware of the alleged abduction.