Ukraine admitted blowing up a Russian-backed politician in a car bomb on Wednesday, describing it as punishment for a “war criminal” and “executioner”.
Mikhail Filiponenko, a deputy in the pro-Moscow regional parliament of Lugansk and a former police chief, was killed in the early morning blast — having survived a previous blast in February 2022, days before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Pictures from the scene show a crumpled dark colored SUV with blood smeared on the back seat and covering the sides of the vehicle.
Within hours, Ukraine’s military spy agency confirmed it was responsible for eliminating Filiponenko in a joint operation with local “resistance” forces.
Filiponenko was targeted as a “war criminal” and “executioner” who ran a “torture camp” in Luhansk where prisoners of war as well as civilians suffered “inhumane” treatment, the intelligence agency claimed.
“Filiponenko himself personally tortured people,” the spy agency claimed.
Mikhail Filiponenko, a member of parliament in the Russian-installed assembly in the occupied Luhansk region, was killed in a car bombing carried out by Ukraine’s military intelligence agency. Telegram
The killing was called a warning that “Ukrainian traitors and collaborators with Russian terrorists in the temporarily occupied territories … will receive a just retribution!
“The hunt continues!,” Kyiv intelligence officials said.
Filiponenko has been involved in Luhansk’s pro-Russian separatist movement since 2014. He has served as one of the top commanders in the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, which Kyiv has designated a terrorist organization.
Ukrainian operatives aided by opposition forces blew up the SUV carrying Filiponenko on Wednesday morning. Sputnik via AP
Filiponenko had survived a previous car bombing on February 21, 2022, three days before Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
In September, Filiponenko was elected to the regional parliament as a member of Russia’s ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party in a vote that drew widespread international condemnation.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched an investigation into Filiponenko’s murder, which is classified as an “act of terrorism.”
Leonid Pasechnik, the Moscow-appointed head of the Luhansk People’s Republic, hailed Filiponenko as a “real man” whose death was a “heavy loss.”
Russian investigators have launched an investigation into the “terrorist act” that resulted in Filiponenko’s death. Sputnik via AP
“We lost a smart, kind, positive person, a true patriot of the Luhansk homeland and its brave defender,” Pasechnik wrote in a Telegram post.
Russia has previously accused Ukrainian special services of masterminding the car bombing that killed pro-Kremlin journalist Daria Dugina near Moscow last year and the killing of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a St. Petersburg cafe. Petersburg in April.
Ukraine usually denies or does not comment on the allegations.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
