A Russian soldier was killed after a car exploded early Wednesday in the port city of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea. Kremlin-appointed officials suggested the explosion may have been part of a sabotage plot.
Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev reported that emergency services were alerted to the vehicle explosion and subsequent fire just before 10:00 a.m. local time.
“A driver was inside the car and was quickly evacuated to medics, but he could not be saved. He died from his injuries,” Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram, as reported by The Moscow Times.
He confirmed that the deceased was a Russian serviceman and noted, “Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the blast, but it’s clear that sabotage cannot be ruled out.”
Images and video posted on social media show the vehicle’s wreckage, with severe damage and the front grill and bumper torn off.
The Telegram news channel Baza, which reportedly has links to Russian security services, claimed that the soldier, identified as 47-year-old Valery T., was a captain in the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet.
This information, however, has not been independently verified by The Moscow Times.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian military personnel and Kremlin-backed officials have been frequent targets of assassination attempts.
