The mayor of a city in eastern Ukraine, who first supported pro-Russian separatist fighters before switching to new pro-European authorities in Kiev, has died from coronavirus complications, people close to him said Thursday.

Long-serving Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes, 61, wheel-chair bound since he was shot and wounded in mysterious circumstances in 2014, was transported to Charite hospital in Berlin in September after contracting Covid-19 and died there.

-Mayor Gennady Kernes died tonight after a long illness- the Kharkiv city council said in a statement Thursday.

Kernes was elected mayor of the industrial hub of Kharkiv near Ukraine's border with Russia in 2010 and re-elected for subsequent terms, the last time in October.

Kernes, who had a criminal record for theft and fraud, initially voiced support for Moscow-backed separatists when fighting broke out with Kiev's army following Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

He launched a harsh crackdown on the pro-Western demonstrations between November and February 2014, describing the protest movement as an "infectious disease".

After demonstrators in Kiev ousted the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, he switched support to the new pro-European authorities and promised to battle separatism in Kharkiv. He had more recently voiced support for a "united Ukraine."

Kernes blamed pro-European Ukrainian officials for a shooting attack in April 2014 that left him unable to walk.

His friend businessman Pavlo Fuks described Kernes as having a "kind heart," saying the mayor died from complications due to the virus.

Ukraine is one of Europe's poorest countries and suffers from ageing public health system.

Officials in the ex-Soviet state of some 40 million people have reported more than 931,000 coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic.

President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as former boxing champion and Kiev mayor Vitali Klitschko are among high-profile officials to have recovered after contracting the virus.