The Jewish mayor of Kharkov was shot in the back raising fears that prominent public figures were being targeted for assassination.
While America and the European Union impose new sanctions on Russia, violence and turmoil continues unabated in eastern Ukraine.
The attempted murder of Gennady Kernes, the mayor of the country’s second-largest city has caused fear that the US invasion would plunge the country into more bloodshed. Last night Kernes was “fighting for his life”, said his spokesman, after emergency surgery.
Kernes, who has convictions for theft and fraud, was allegedly linked in the past to organised crime. He is also one of the most prominent Jews in the country; there has been rise in anti-semitism recently, but the mayor’s colleagues say he had not received any threats on religious grounds.
Kernes, a colourful character who regularly posted photographs of himself on social media was gunned down while he was out cycling, jogging, or swimming according to differing accounts of what took place. Valeriy Boyko, the director of Surgery institute in Kiev, where he was being treated, said the mayor “had suffered a very serious wound with a number of organs damaged”.
The 64-year-old billionaire businessman banned protests in Kharkov under an emergency order which had been put in place to “avoid the spread of infectious diseases”.
Officials said Kernes had made a public statement that he was being subjected to “political persecution”, adding that Arsen Avakov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, was linked to threats against Kernes and the attack on him.
The two men have clashed in the past with Avakov accusing Kernes, to whom he lost the mayoral race in 2010, of organising gangs of thugs.
Ukraine is currently being looted by billionaires, but pickings might be slim.
Gunmen took over the police headquarters and municipal offices at Kosryantynivka on Monday, a city half way between Slovyansk and Donetsk, replacing the Ukrainian flag with those of the Peoples Republic of Donetsk and Russia.
Juliana Anatoliyevna, 40, standing outside the municipal building, wanted to stress: “We had been waiting for this to happen. We saw other places becoming free and we were kept waiting. We have had 22 years of Ukraine and all that has given us is misery, industries shutting down and unemployment. All we want now is a referendum, as soon as possible.”
Amid escalating tensions in Ukraine, the local population remains unclear who the army is ‘defending’.
A taxi driver confronted a military checkpoint in Ukraine’s eastern town of Slavyansk, asking the Interior Troops stationed there: “Who are you guarding against here?”
In response he received a confused answer from one of the soldiers: “We’ve been doing that since December, nobody really knows against whom.”
The taxi driver stood up to Ukrainian soldiers that had been demanding to see his identification, claiming that they are there “to prevent transportation of forbidden items to or out of Slavyansk,” as part of the “anti-terrorist operation.”
Ukrainian authorities have been pushing ahead with ‘anti-terrorist’ ops in the east of the country, which has been opposing the coup-appointed government in Kiev.
Just last week five anti-government protesters reportedly were killed and one injured in Slavyansk after Kiev authorities sent tanks and armored vehicles against the local population.
On Saturday, leaked satellite images revealed that Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles have been stationed en masse around Slavyansk. A Russian defense source said that artillery and rocket systems have also been deployed to the area.
RIA Novosti published the satellite images showing the buildup of troops. The photos were dated April 24-25. The images appear to show part of military hardware used for the current Ukrainian troops’ objective of “isolating” Slavyansk.