A car bomb explosion in occupied Berdiansk killed a Russian official allegedly responsible for setting up torture chambers in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, HUR, said on May 5.
Russian officials, their proxies, and collaborators have been routinely targeted in both occupied parts of Ukraine and inside Russia. Kyiv does not typically comment on the attacks or claim responsibility.
The official, Yevgeniy Ananievsky, who held a position in the Moscow-installed administration in the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, was killed in his car early in the morning on May 5. HUR said he set up torture chambers in the Berdiansk local penal colony.
Russian law-enforcement agencies confirmed the assassination, although they didn't disclose the name.
Russian forces occupied the port city of Berdiansk in the initial weeks of the full-scale invasion.
Without mentioning its involvement in the assassination, HUR said that every alleged war crime perpetrator would receive fitting punishment.
Ukraine has registered pre-trial information on over 128,000 victims of alleged Russian war crimes, the Prosecutor General's Office in mid-March. These include deliberate attacks on civilians, attacks on cultural sites or medical institutions, torture, and deportations.
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