Ukraine Falls Further into Chaos…

The day began with the police station and administration building in Kostiantynivka being overrun; next the airport at Kramatorsk was attacked with rocket propelled grenades and then the mayor of Kharkiv was shot in the back. 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, raised fears that prominent public figures were being targeted for assassination. On Monday night he was “fighting for his life” after surgery, said his spokesman. The blame was levelled at both the Kremlin and extreme right-wing groups.

Mr Kernes was gunned down while he was out cycling, jogging, or swimming, according to differing accounts. Valeriy Boyko, the director of the Institute of Surgery in Kiev, said the mayor had “suffered a very serious wound with a number of organs damaged”.

The 64-year-old billionaire businessman had been a fervent supporter of Viktor Yanukovych, the overthrown President, and a fierce critic of Kiev’s Maidan protest, banning similar protests in Kharkiv. Since then he had spoken out against those who want to take the region under Moscow’s rule.

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