The mayor of Kharkiv, Hennadiy Kernes, has sustained a serious thoraco-abdominal injury, a doctor from the emergency aid hospital, where the city mayor is undergoing surgery, has told reporters.

"The injury is very serious: it is a thoraco-abdominal injury, a number of organs have been damaged. Bleeding and collapse. The bleeding has been stopped, and intensive care doctors are now fighting the collapse," the doctors said after the surgery on Kernes.

The mayor's life is in danger, the surgeon said, refusing to make any forecasts. "We cannot answer this question. God will decide," Boyko said.

Kernes was unconscious when he was hospitalized, he is now under anesthesia, he said.

A thoraco-abdominal injury is caused by damage to diaphragm resulting in an aperture between the chest and abdomen.