A Russian naval officer has been killed in a car bombing in occupied Crimea, according to reports.
A bomb was planted under a car which blew up and killed the Russian serviceman in the city of Sevastopol on Wednesday, in what a Kyiv security source said was a Ukrainian hit on the official they accused of war crimes.
Footage on X showed the smoking wreck of a burned-out car, with its doors blown off and twisted.
Telegram channel Baza, which is said to have links to Russian intelligence, identified the person killed as Valery Trankovsky, a captain of the 41st brigade of Russia's Black Sea missile ships.
”An IED went off in Valery's jeep near a store on Tarasa Shevchenko Street,” said Baza, in a post originally written in Russian.
“The soldier was pulled out of the car and handed over to ambulance workers, but they were unable to save him.”
Crimean Telegram channels report that a vehicle was blown up in Russian-occupied Sevastopol. Allegedly, a captain of the 1st rank of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was in the car. He was killed.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) November 13, 2024
According to media reports, a car with an improvised explosive device flew into the… pic.twitter.com/LSYcbhY1f2
A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) also told new agency Reuters that Trankovsky was killed in the explosion.
The operation was carried out by the SBU, the source said, describing the hit as legitimate and in line with the customs of war. The source accused Trankovsky of war crimes for ordering missile strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine.
Russia has used warships from its Black Sea Fleet, as well as strategic bombers, to conduct missile strikes on targets across Ukraine, leading to hundreds of civilian casualties.
Russia says it does not target civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles probes into serious crimes, said on Telegram it had “opened a criminal case on the fact of committing a terrorist act and illegal trafficking of explosives”.
It said a a serviceman, whom it did not name, was killed. It said preliminary investigation had established the explosion was caused by “a homemade explosive device attached to the bottom of a car”.
The explosion happened around 9.55am local time on Wednesday, Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Independent reported.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Crimea, said on Telegram an investigation has been opened into the explosion.
“The causes of the explosion are to be established by the investigative bodies, but it is obvious that sabotage cannot be ruled out,” he wrote, in Russian.
“Dear Sevastopol residents! Be vigilant! Report suspicious individuals and objects, as well as anything that in one way or another affects security”.
