The 54-year-old Mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Gennady Kernes, who was seriously wounded after being shot, has been airlifted to an hospital in Israel for treatment.
Kernes, who is Jewish, was transported to Haifa on Tuesday morning after it was decided his condition was stable enough to allow him to be moved, officials said. He suffered extensive internal damage after being shot in the back by a sniper while exercising along a highway.
The city of Kharkiv, a major cultural and university center and the second lqrgest city of Ukraine, has so far managed to fend off the separatist unrest that has engulfed the neighboring Donetsk province.
Ukraine's Interior Ministry said the shooting may have been "a reaction by separatism-minded individuals to the recent events in Kharkiv."
A controversial figure in Ukraine's politics, Kernes supported former Presindet Viktor Yanukovych who was ousted last year.