On Thursday, February 8, a tragic incident occurred in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, as reported by law enforcement sources. According to preliminary information, unknown persons opened fire on a car carrying the deputy mayor, using an unidentified weapon. As a result of this attack, the man died on the spot.
The deceased, Vitaly Zhuravlev, also known as a member of the Batkivshchyna party, had served as deputy mayor of Nikopol since September 2021. Deserving of respect in the city environment, Zhuravlev was previously noted for his activities as head of the Nikopol Department for Combating Organized Crime.
The Prosecutor General's Office has launched a pre-trial investigation into the fact of intentional murder under Article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The proceedings are being conducted under the leadership of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, and the perpetrators face a penalty of imprisonment for a term of seven to 15 years.
This case is not the only one in the country where there is a tangible threat to public order. In Kyiv, for example, another criminal incident recently occurred: a man intoxicated opened fire with a traumatic weapon from the window of his apartment. He was suspected of committing a crime, and the investigation continues to consider this case.
Connection with Russia
According to local Telegram channels, the deceased worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs before his political career. Vitaliy Zhuravlev's declarations indicate that his father and mother-in-law are Russian citizens. And in the income documents for 2019, which are currently not publicly available, the man, according to preliminary information, declared a lot of real estate in the Russian Federation as the property of his father and mother-in-law.
It is also reported that according to the 2020 declaration, the deceased's father kept 925,000 rubles in cash.
Local residents online suggest that the cause of the murder was a conflict between the deputy mayor and a local group that has been going on since 2017.
