Bin bomb injures Russian official in occupied Ukrainian city
An explosive device hidden in a bin injured a Russian official in the occupied city of Melitopol, the latest in a campaign of behind-enemy-lines assassination attempts.
Vladimir Rogov, Moscow-appointed head for the Zaporizhzhia region said an unidentified attacker planted a bomb in a rubbish bin by a block of flats in Melitopol. The bomb reportedly went off when the official who was not named left the house.
The man identified as a deputy minister of Zaporizhzhia for construction and utilities has been taken to hospital with severe injuries, Mr Rogov said.
It came as the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has said its defences are being tightened amid a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its home base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov told Friday’s edition of the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (”Red Star”): “In connection with the threat of attacks by robotic surface and underwater systems, we have increased the technical defences of the fleet’s main base and of the ships’ anchorages.”
Sevastopol has repeatedly been attacked with drones since the start of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine has tended to avoid taking direct responsibility for strikes on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia unilaterally annexed after seizing it in 2014.
In the interview, Sokolov said the Black Sea Fleet, whose flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by Ukraine in April 2022, would receive four new ships in 2023.
Russian forces are reportedly evacuating civilians from towns in occupied territory ahead of an expected Ukrainian counter offensive.
Many have been taken to Berdyansk, an occupied Ukrainian port town.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed acting governor of the region which Moscow has claimed as its own, said what he called the temporary relocation of people – and especially families with children – to safer areas was due to increased Ukrainian shelling of 18 settlements near the frontline.
Berdyansk has been under Russian control since Feb 27 2022, three days after Moscow launched what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine – a campaign that Kyiv and the West have likened to a brutal colonial war of conquest.
Evacuees told Reuters they had chosen to be evacuated themselves for security reasons.
One said she thought people still remaining in her town were “sitting on suitcases” ready to leave if the situation there became more dangerous and said she was aware that fighting between the two sides around Ukraine’s planned counter-offensive could thwart her hopes of resuming a normal life.
Meanwhile a Russian military helicopter crashed in Moscow-annexed Crimea during a training exercise on Friday killing both pilots, the defence ministry announced.
The preliminary finding was it was due to mechanical failure, the statement said.
“Today, during a scheduled training flight in the Djankoi district in Crimea, an Mi-28 helicopter crashed,” it said, adding that the helicopter had not been carrying ammunition and there had been no damage on the ground.
“The two pilots are dead,” it said.
The Mi-28 is a multi-task military helicopter capable of staging devastating attacks.
