Ukraine's National Police detained a 54-year-old man suspected of murdering Oleksandr Plakhotnik, the former deputy mayor of Kamianske in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, law enforcement authorities said on April 2.
A man's body with a gunshot wound to the head was found by the side of a road in the city of Kamianske on March 28.
Multiple Ukrainian media outlets reported, citing law enforcement sources, that the victim was Plakhotnik, a member of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party.
The suspect was found in Lviv Oblast. The 54-year-old man burned the car he was using and fled to another region to hide the traces of the crime, the police said.
According to prosecutors, the suspect decided to kill the former deputy mayor of Kamianske to avoid paying back a debt.
The suspect followed Plakhotnik for several months and collected detailed information. He also installed video cameras near the former official's house to track his movements.
On the morning of March 28, the suspect arrived at the ex-official's place of residence and shot him at least 10 times with a firearm, killing the victim on the spot, prosecutors said.
On April 1, the detainee was charged with premeditated murder for personal gain and illegal handling of weapons.
Plakhotnik, 49, ran for the Verkhovna Rada on the Batkivshchyna party ticket in 2014 and 2019 but was not elected to parliament. He was elected to the Kamianske City Council in 2015 and served until 2020.
Kollen Post
(Updated: )
