Ukrainian City Councilor Shot Dead After Interview On Corruption

CHERKASY, Ukraine -- Officials in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy say a municipal councilor has been shot dead just hours after the broadcast of a television interview he gave about corruption within the city’s utility services.

Local police said Mykhaylo Binusov, head of the Cherkasy branch of the Ukrainian Union of Patriots (UKROP) party, died at the scene of the shooting late on September 28.

The were no immediate arrests in connection with the killing, which police said was carried out by "unknown assailants."

Police said Binusov’s death was being investigated as a case of "premeditated murder."

Binusov was appointed on September 22 as the acting director of a city council department that oversees the management and operations of municipal utility services.

Cherkasy Mayor Anatoliy Bondarenko said Binusov's main task at that point was to bring an end to corruption within the utility services.

Bondarenko also said Binusov was expected to be elected the secretary of the city council within the next few days.

The city council on September 29 was scheduled to conduct an extraordinary session to discuss what local lawmakers described as an "apparent assassination."

With reporting by UNIAN