He was kidnapped and killed in March 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, when he was serving as mayor of the city of Kreminna, Luhansk region, at the time under control of the Ukrainian government.

[1] His killing has been reported as a response to his pro-Russia separatist activities[2] and was denounced as an extrajudicial execution and a war crime by a representative of the internationally unrecognized Luhansk People's Republic.

[7] In early 2020 the Security Service of Ukraine refused to hold Struk accountable for his participation in the creation of a "terrorist republic" in the Luhansk region.

[9] The killing of Struk was announced by Anton Herashchenko, advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"[9] However, when the Russian troops were approaching Kreminna 15 kilometers away, “Struk was tried by a people's tribunal" and shot by "unknown patriots" as a "traitor under the laws of wartime.