Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes sustained a gunshot wound to his back on Monday, and doctors are fighting for his life.

"He sustained a gunshot injury to his back at about 12 o'clock. He is currently in intensive care. Doctors are fighting for his life. Surgery is under way," his press secretary Tetiana Hruzynska told Interfax-Ukraine.

She could not give any details of the incident.

Meanwhile, the general director of the Ukrainian national television and radio company Zurab Alasaniya wrote on his Facebook page that Kernes was shot while bathing in water springs in Kharkiv. "Even now he has not changed his habit of bathing in the springs. They were waiting for him there," Alasaniya wrote.