The day began with the police station and administration building Konstantinovska being overrun; next the airport at Kramatorsk was attacked with rocket propelled grenades and then the mayor of Kharkiv was shot in the back. It ended in a vicious ambush on a demonstration in Donetsk. While America and the European Union impose new sanctions on Russia, violence and turmoil continues unabated in eastern Ukraine.
The attempted murder of Gennady Kernes, the mayor of the country's second-largest city, raised fears that prominent public figures were being targeted for assassination. Last night he was "fighting for his life", said his spokesman, after emergency surgery, with blame for the shooting leveled at both the Kremlin and extreme right wing groups.
Mr Kernes, a colourful character who regularly posted photographs of himself on social media taking part in sporting activities, was gunned down while he was out cycling, jogging, or swimming according to differing accounts of what took place. Valeriy Boyko, the director of Surgery institute in Kiev, where he was being treated, said the mayor "had suffered a very serious wound with a number of organs damaged".