Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes has accused Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov of masterminding an attempt in April to assassinate him.
“Today I realize clearly that the attempt on my life was the job of
people who have a clear position, that Kharkiv should have a different
mayor than Hennadiy Kernes,” Kernes said in a television program. “The
names of these people are Arsen Avakov, and I think Governor Baluta
[Kharkiv region governor Ihor Baluta] was somehow involved as well.”
“Today I can assert it as a fact that the investigation is an
imitation and not an investigation. So much time has passed since May,
and it’s July already, but it’s still going on. I can’t even understand
what has been done,” Kernes told 24th Channel. He said he might go to
the European Court of Human Rights if Ukrainian prosecutors fail to
bring those guilty to justice.
Kernes was injured in a gun assault during a jogging exercise in
Kharkiv on April 28. Within hours, his wife and an Israeli medical team
took him to a hospital in Israel, where he had a series of operation,
including spine and lung surgery. He returned to Kharkiv on June 17.
