The Russian-installed deputy head of occupied Ukrainian city Kherson has been killed in a car crash, local officials have reported.
The death of pro-Moscow Kirill Stremousov, 45, who was appointed two months after the Russian invasion, has been confirmed by numerous sources. Wanted for treason by the Ukrainian police, he lost his life in an accident near the port city of Henichesk in the south of the country, just over 100 miles from Kherson.
Earlier today, he had accused the West of being behind the Ukrainian advance in Kherson. Many English and Polish-speaking mercenaries were among the advancing forces, he alleged, while also telling how there was an evacuation from Kherson, reports the Mirror.
”Many have left,” he said. “About 80,000 people were evacuated.
“We help everyone who wants to leave Kherson. I am now in Kherson myself.”
Ukrainian blogger and politician Anatoly Shariy said: “Several sources confirmed the death of Stremousov. If this is true, then I understand what kind of ‘traffic accident’ this was right now when the surrender of Kherson is obvious.”
He appeared to imply that Stremousov had many enemies for supporting the Russian occupation forces which are now pulling back.
“And the main thing – if he was killed, and exactly in the way I was told it happened, then it was no Ukrainian Army spies killing him,” he added.
Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, said Stremousov died when his vehicle tried to avoid a lorry driver who made “a dangerous manoeuvre”.
Stremousov had enemies among Russians after blasting Vladimir Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu for alleged incompetence in defending Kherson region. He said last month: “There is no need to cast a shadow over the entire Russian Defence Ministry at the moment because of some, I am not saying traitors.
“Indeed many say, if I were the defence minister who allowed this state of affairs to happen, as an officer I could have just shot myself.”
He then suggested that the word “officer” was “incomprehensible” to Shoigu. Stremousov lumped Shoigu and his generals together with “corrupt marauders and other scum” in the Russian defence ministry.
Political analyst Sergey Markov said: “Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson region, was killed. It’s all very strange.
“He kept saying that Kherson could not be handed over and it would not be handed over. He died on the day when they began to actively talk about the surrender of Kherson.
“He died not from a terrorist attack, but in an accident. Not in Kherson, but in Henichesk. With him in the car was a military commander Kotz, he did not die.”
Putin’s puppet governor of Kherson expressed distress and dismay over Stremousov’s death, as the Kremlin placeman in Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev called his demise “an irreparable loss”. On a video, Kherson “governor” Volodymyr Saldo, said: “It is very hard for me to say that “viceroy” Kirill Stremousov died today.”
The metadata on the video recorded by Saldo suggests it was recorded two hours before the first announcement of Stremousov’s death. However Ukrainian sources queried whether the announcement of his death could be a Kremlin trick.
Independent We Can Explain media reported: “Against the backdrop of a lack of details about the accident and the circumstances of his death, Ukrainian officials started saying the accident could be staged, and rumours about it in pro-Kremlin channels could be disinformation.”
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