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The pro-Russian mayor of a city in eastern Ukraine who welcomed President Vladimir Putin’s invasion was ‘shot dead’ after being kidnapped from his home, it has been announced.
Vlodymyr Struk, of Kreminna in Luhansk, was killed on Tuesday and suffered a ‘gunshot wound to the heart’ after he was ‘abducted from his home’, according to his wife.
Announcing the news on Facebook, the adviser for Interior Minister of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko claimed Mr Struk was a ‘Luhansk People’s Republic supporter’ (LPR) and actively pursued a ‘pro-Russian position’ in the last week by ‘communicating with the Russian Federation’.
The Luhansk People’s Republic is a self-proclaimed breakaway state located within eastern Ukraine that was established in 2014 by pro-Russian separatists.
The adviser for Interior Minister of Ukraine alleged that Mr Struk ‘was judged by the court of the people’s tribunal’ and called him a ‘traitor’.
He also claimed Ukraine has not been able to ‘do anything with Struk for the past eight years’ since Moscow-backed separatists have controlled the southeastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk – collectively known as Donbas.
Mr Gerashchenko wrote on social media: ‘One traitor of Ukraine became less! Vladimir Struk, the former deputy of the Luhansk Regional Council, the head of the Kreminetsk OTG, was found killed.