The Security Service of Ukraine was responsible for a car bombing that killed a senior officer in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the city of Sevastopol in Russian-annexed Crimea, AFP reported on Wednesday, citing a source in the Ukrainian intelligence agency.
Valery Trankovsky, a captain 1st rank in charge of the 41st brigade of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet missile ships, died of blood loss after the explosion tore off his legs, according to AFP’s source.
“As a result of an improvised explosive device fixed to the bottom of the car exploding, a Russian armed forces serviceman was killed,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement acknowledging the incident, though it did not name Trankovsky as the victim.
However, the committee said it had opened a criminal investigation into the incident, calling it “a terrorist act”.
Describing Trankovsky as a “war criminal”, AFP’s source said that he had been responsible for the use of Russian cruise missiles against civilian targets in Ukraine. Trankovsky has also been named by Ukrainian website Myrotvorets as “an accomplice to the crimes of the Russian government against Ukraine and its citizens.”
Several Russian military personnel and pro-war figures have been assassinated since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including the pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, journalist Darya Dugina and former submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky.