Support The Moscow Times!

Russia-Installed Official in Ukraine Killed in Car Bombing

Ivan Sushko. t.me/vrogov

A Russian-appointed official in southeastern Ukraine’s occupied region of Zaporizhzhia was killed in a car bomb attack, a member of the Moscow-backed regional administration said Wednesday.

The assassination of Ivan Sushko, who headed the town of Mykhailivka, is the latest of several attacks against pro-Russian officials in the occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in recent weeks.

“An explosive device was placed under the car seat,” Vladimir Rogov, a member of Zaporizhzhia’s Russian-appointed administration, wrote on messaging app Telegram.

“Ivan Sushko was wounded in the explosion and hospitalized in a critical condition,” Rogov said. “He soon died.”

Sushko’s death follows an attempted car bombing Tuesday on Russian-appointed Kherson region official Igor Telegin, who survived.

Earlier this month, the Moscow-installed head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, was hospitalized in Moscow after what Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed was an attempted poisoning. 

His deputy Vitaly Gura was shot and killed a day later.

Responding to Sushko’s assassination, Rogov called Ukraine a “terrorist organization” and called for its “destruction.”

The Kremlin has been pressing ahead with a campaign of Russification in the areas of southern and eastern Ukraine that it occupies. 

Read more