KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- The mayor of an eastern Ukrainian city has been shot and wounded amid separatist unrest, his office says.
The office of Hennady Kernes, the mayor of Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv, said Monday he has been wounded with a gunshot to his back. It said he is now undergoing surgery and "doctors are fighting for his life."
Kharkiv is part of the region in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian gunmen have either seized government buildings or staged protests to demand greater autonomy or outright annexation by Russia.
Kernes first held a pro-Russian stance, but later changed to position himself as largely loyal to the Kiev government.
This is a breaking news update. AP's earlier story is below.
KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Masked and armed militants have seized a government building in yet another city in eastern Ukraine, expanding their onslaught in the region.
The building housing the city hall and the city government in Kostyantynivka, just 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the Russian border, was seized on Monday by masked men who carried automatic weapons. An Associated Press photographer saw about 15 armed men, some of them wearing St. George's ribbons, a symbol of the pro-Russian movement, guarding the building.
Kostyantynivka is just 35 kilometers south of Slovyansk which has been in insurgents' hands for more than three weeks now. The militias in Slovyansk are keeping seven OSCE military observers hostage there.
Since November, Ukraine has been engulfed in its worst political crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
