A car bomb in eastern Ukraine's partially occupied Luhansk region killed a Russian-backed official on Monday, local authorities said.
The local branch of Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said the deputy head of a state-run administrative agency was killed when "an unidentified device detonated in a car" on Monday afternoon.
The Investigative Committee released a photo of a light-colored SUV with its windows and doors blown out and wreckage strewn across the street in Starobilsk, a town in the Luhansk region.
"The circumstances of the incident and the people involved in the perpetration of the crime are being established," it said, adding that an investigation into a "terrorist act" had been opened.
Municipal head Vladimir Chernev said the official killed in the attack was Valery Chaika.
"Our comrade is dead," he wrote in a post on Telegram, calling on residents to be on the alert and to report any suspicious activity to the authorities.
Luhansk is among the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to have annexed in late 2022.
Several Moscow-installed officials in eastern Ukraine have been killed in attacks orchestrated by Kyiv or pro-Ukrainian groups since Russia launched its full-scale invasion over two years ago.
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