A high-ranking officer of the Russian Navy working in the Black Sea Fleet was killed on Wednesday when a bomb placed on the bottom of a car exploded. The incident took place in the port city of Sevastopol on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. TASR informs about it based on reports from Reuters and DPA.
A source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told Reuters that Valery Trankovsky – Russian sea captain and chief of staff of the 41st brigade of Russian missile ships in the Black Sea – died in the explosion.
The Ukrainian SBU is said to be behind the attack, which, according to a Reuters source, considered him a “legitimate” target in accordance with the law of war because he had committed “war crimes.” According to the source, Trankovsky ordered missile attacks that hit civilian targets in Ukraine, including the attack on the city of Vinnytsia in July 2022.
Reuters warns that it has not been able to independently verify Trankovsky’s involvement in alleged war crimes. According to an account on the Telegram social network called Mash, which has contacts with Russian security forces, Trankovsky was under surveillance for seven days before the attack.
Russian authorities will investigate the explosion as an act of terrorism, writes the DPA agency with reference to the Russian state news agency TASS.
