Top Russian Navy commander ‘killed in car bomb attack in Crimea’

A Russian naval officer has been killed in a car bomb attack in occupied Crimea, according to reports.

A bomb was placed under a car which exploded and killed the Russian soldier in the city of Sevastopol on Wednesday. According to a security source in Kiev, it was a Ukrainian hit on the official they accused of war crimes.

Images on X showed the smoking wreckage of a burnt-out car, its doors blown off and twisted.

Telegram channel Baza, which is said to have ties to Russian intelligence, identified the killed person 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 shop on Tarasa Shevchenko Street,” Baza said in a message originally written in Russian.

“The soldier was pulled from the car and handed over to ambulance personnel, but they were unable to save him.”

A source at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) also told the 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 wartime customs. The source accused Trankovsky of war crimes for ordering rocket attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.

Russia has used warships from its Black Sea Fleet and strategic bombers to launch missile attacks on targets across Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians.

Russia says it is not targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which investigates serious crimes, said on Telegram that it had “opened a criminal case for committing a terrorist act and illegal trafficking of explosives.”

It said a soldier, whose name was not given, had been killed. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the explosion was caused by “a homemade explosive attached to the underside of a car.”

The explosion occurred around 9:55 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Independent reported.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Crimea, said on Telegram that an investigation had been opened into the explosion.

“The causes of the explosion must be determined by the investigating authorities, but it is clear that sabotage cannot be ruled out,” he wrote in Russian.

“Dear residents of Sevastopol! Be vigilant! Report suspicious persons and objects, but also anything that affects safety in one way or another.”