LUHANSK, May 13. /ITAR-TASS/. People's governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region Valery Bolotov has been attacked. Bolotov has a gunshot wound, representative of the press center of Luhansk People's Republic Vasily Nikitin told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday. 

Valery Bolotov has survived an assassination attempt, Vasily Nikitin added. "He has a gunshot wound," Nikitin said, "Bolotov is in hospital now; his life is not in danger."

The governor was attacked around 11:00, local time (4 pm GMT). It was a light injury, the press center representative added.

 

Referendum on self-determination

Earlier, Luhansk People’s Republic, whose residents supported the act on state sovereignty at the May 11 referendum, has declared its independence from Ukraine. 

“We have chosen our path of independence from arbitrariness and bloody dictate of the Kiev clique, fascism and nationalism, the path of freedom, the path of rule of law,” Bolotov said. “From the moment of declaring its independence, a new life free from dictate of Kiev authorities will start for the Luhansk People’s Republic,” he added.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Luhansk City Council has demanded that the authorities in Kiev should ensure the process of federalization in the country. A total of 96.2% voted for self-rule in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, where the results of the Sunday referendum were announced on Monday.

 

Kharkiv mayor assassination attempt

Mayor of Kharkiv Gennady Kernes, 54, was badly wounded in the back in an assassination attempt on April 28. The attempt occurred when he was jogging along a highway in Kharkiv. Overnight to April 29, he was taken to a private hospital in Israel’s Haifa. Later, he was taken to the Haifa-based Rambam medical centre, where he was operated.  Ukrainian presidency candidate Mikhail Dobkin said the person who made an attempt on the life of Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes, shot to kill him. The attacker was shooting in the heart, said Dobkin, who is a close friend of Kernes, the mayor of a large Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainian city.