Police: Gunman kills 3 Ukrainian postal workers carrying money, steals $115,000; manhunt on

MOSCOW – An unidentified gunman shot and killed three postal workers Friday as they were transporting money in eastern Ukraine, escaping with the equivalent of $115,000, police said.

Police said a manhunt was on for the gunman who attacked the workers in the government-held city of Kharkiv, stealing nearly 2.5 million hryvnas.

The police statement did not say why the workers were transporting the money, but postal workers regularly deliver pension payments.

Both the government of Ukraine and its people have been under severe economic stress recently. Ukraine’s economy is shrinking, with the IMF projecting a 9 per cent contraction this year, and inflation topping 46 per cent.

Kharkiv is a little more than 150 miles (250 kilometres) from the front line where Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government troops have been fighting since April 2014 in a conflict that has left 6,500 dead.