The Russian-appointed mayor in a Ukrainian city is in coma after being poisoned by a chef, it has been reported.
The so-called Mayor, Vladimir Saldo, Russia installed at the head of the occupation regime in Kherson, had to be evacuated to Moscow after the incident, Russian opposition media has reported.
It was reported that, on August 3, Mr Saldo became ill after eating food prepared by the chef.
Reportedly his mind began to cloud and his fingertips went numb, with Mash news media writing on Telegram that Saldo was diagnosed with poisoning by an "unknown substance".
He was urgently rushed to a hospital in Crimea, 170 miles south of Kherson city, where doctors induced a coma and flew him to Moscow.
The deputy head of the Kherson administration, Kirill Stremousov, is refusing to accept that it was poisoning, saying: "Five months non-stop under bullets and Grads. The man was simply overtired. The diagnosis is fatigue.”
He said the reports were "part of Ukraine's information war against Russia " and said that Saldo was ill and is "resting".
While another Russian media channel, Baza, wrote on Telegram: "The head of the provisional administration of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, was placed in the intensive care unit of the toxicological department of the Research Institute. Sklifosofsky - the condition of the official remains difficult.
Around a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine, the southern port city of Kherson was captured.
Now, Ukrainian partisans appear to have launched a campaign of assassinations of pro-Russian officials in the area as they steam ahead with their plan to recapture the region.
Last week, Vitaly Gur, the Russia-claimed deputy head of the town of Nova Kakhovka, near Kherson, was shot as he stepped out of his home.
In June, car bombs assassinated a senior pro-Russian official in the civilian government and another car bomb in July hit two policemen inside, reportedly killing one.
The British Ministry of Defence's latest update says Russia's commanders are struggling with "competing operational priorities" of offensive operations in the Donbas and defending against Ukraine's looming counter-offensive in Kherson.
It said fighting efforts had shifted to the south, where the war was entering a “new phase” along a 225-mile frontline.
Ukrainian forces have battered bridges over the River Dnipro, which is a vital route for Russian supply lines to the city of Kherson.
Mr Saldo is now on a ventilator in the Sklifosovsky Emergency Research Institute.
In Italy Anatoly Chubais, a Kremlin insider who fled Moscow after the invasion has just been discharged from hospital after being admitted for suspected poisoning.
Saldo's deputy was also shot dead in his home on 6 August by the resistance.
