A businessman and ally of the mayor of northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has been shot dead.

Police say Yuriy Dyment was killed while visiting his mother's grave at a city cemetery on February 26.

Authorities called it "premeditated murder" and said an investigation had been launched.

The 52-year-old Dyment was a business partner of Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes.

Kernes himself barely survived a shooting attack in April 2014, a time of growing instability in eastern Ukraine and a month after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

Kernes initially gave his backing to the pro-Russia separatists in the east before later switching his loyalty to the Ukrainian government.

Based on reporting by UNIAN and Kh.depo.ua