Ukraine claims murder of Russian official in occupied zone

Ukraine claimed this Wednesday (8) the murder by car bomb of Mikhail Filiponenko, deputy and former military commander of the eastern region of Luhansk, under Russian occupation.

“The special operation to eliminate the executioner Filiponenko took place together with representatives of the Ukrainian resistance movement in the region,” said the military intelligence service (GUR) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

Filiponenko was involved “in organizing torture chambers for Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians” in the occupied part of the Luhansk region and “personally” participated in the torture, GUR accused in Telegram.

Ukrainian intelligence threatened “all war criminals and collaborators.”

A few hours earlier, the press and local authorities reported Filiponenko’s death in the explosion of his car in Luhansk.

The Russian Inquiry Committee released images of a vehicle with broken windows, a crushed left front door and trails of red liquid. He also announced the opening of an investigation into a “terrorist act”.

The leader of the Luhansk occupation administration, Leonid Paschnik, praised a “real man” who, according to him, still had “many projects to develop” the occupied region.

Filiponenko had already been the target of an attack in February 2022, from which he escaped unharmed, said Yuri Yurov, deputy from Luhansk.

Mikhail Filiponenko was one of the founders of the Luhansk separatist Army in 2014, at the start of the war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists.

The four Ukrainian territories that Russia claimed annexation of last year – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – are frequent scenes of attacks against leaders or officials of the Russian occupation administration.

Last week, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Ukraine of being behind the attempted murder in Crimea in late October of a former Ukrainian deputy who defected to Russia, Oleg Tsariov.

The attacks continue in the partially occupied regions, where Ukraine is trying to regain control with its counteroffensive.

This Wednesday, Ukrainian emergency services announced the deaths of three people in a Russian attack in the city of Bagatir, in the Donetsk region.

On Tuesday, Russian occupation authorities said six people were killed in a Ukrainian attack on the capital of this Russian-controlled region.

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