A Russian soldier was killed after a car exploded early Wednesday in the port city of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea, Kremlin-installed officials said, adding that the serviceman may have been targeted in a sabotage plot.
Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said emergency services received a call about a vehicle exploding and then catching fire just before 10:00 a.m. local time.
“There was a driver inside the car, he was quickly evacuated and handed over to medics, but it was not possible to save him. He died from his injuries,” Razvozhayev wrote in a post on Telegram.
He added that the victim was a Russian serviceman. “Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the blast, but it’s clear that an act of sabotage cannot be ruled out,” Razvozhayev said.
Video and photos posted on social media showed the wreckage. The entire vehicle was badly damaged and the front grill and bumper were torn off.
An unverified report by the Telegram news channel Baza, which has purported links to Russian security services, claimed that the soldier, identified as 47-year-old Valery T., was a captain of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet.
The Moscow Times could not verify those claims.
Russian military personnel and Kremlin-backed officials have been regularly targeted in assassination plots since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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