LONDON (Reuters) – The Russian-installed commandant of a southern Ukrainian city died in a blast on Tuesday, a local official told Reuters, the latest in a series of assassinations in occupied areas of southern Ukraine.
Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russian-backed administration of the Zaporizhzhia region, blamed the Ukrainian government for Artyom Bardin’s death.
Russian media earlier said Bardin was hospitalised and in a critical condition after his car exploded outside the city administration building in Berdiansk in Zaporizhzhia region, an Azov Sea port of around 100,000 people that was captured by Russian troops in February.
The city’s deputy chief of traffic police died on Aug. 26 after being wounded in a bomb blast, local officials said.
On Aug. 30, Alexei Kovalev, a former lawmaker with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s party turned Russian-backed official in Kherson region, was shot dead.
(Reporting by Reuters, editing by David Ljunggren and Tomasz Janowski)
