Pro-Russian mayor kidnapped from his eastern Ukraine home and shot dead

The mayor of Kreminna, who welcomed Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the country, was taken from his home by men dressed in camouflage and shot in the heart.

Vladimir Struk, was a member of the Party of Regions and later the Opposition Platform - For Life, two pro-Russian political parties in Ukraine.

His wife released a statement on March 1st stating that he was taken.

Taking to social media, the adviser for Interior Minister of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, welcomed his death, writing: “One traitor of Ukraine became less!”

“In 2014 he was an active supporter of the LPR (Luhansk People's Republic). He then left for a part of the Luhansk region free from temporary occupation,” Gerashchenko explained.

“In the last week, he actively took a Russian position, campaigning OTG deputies to communicate with the Russian Federation and the LNR, gathering deputies on this matter."

“The whole state apparatus of Ukraine - SBU, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor's Office, courts 8 years couldn't do anything with the open separatist Strukom!”

Gerashchenko said that Struk had a lot of money that was most likely from the Russian Federation.

He said that when Russian troops approached Kreminna, Struk was “judged by the court of the people's tribunal.”

“Judging by all, shot by unknown patriots as a traitor to the laws of military time,” he said.

“When we soon defeat fascist Russia - we will clean and relocate all the law enforcement officers and corrupt judges who covered up such as Struk."

According to Ukrainian news site LB, in 2014, during the pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine which saw Russia annex Crimea, Struk called for the overthrow of the constitutional order in Ukraine and was the organiser of a pseudo-referendum in Luhansk.

They also said that he regularly persecuted pro-Ukrainian journalists and financed the so-called ‘self-defense detachment’ as well as a pro-russian terrorist group headed up by Aleksey Mozgovy.