A senior police official was injured in a bomb attack in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region on Tuesday, according to the country’s law enforcement authorities.
The Investigative Committee claimed in a statement that the deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s regional office was brought to a hospital after being injured by an improvised explosive device. According to the agency, the explosive was planted outside the gate of his residence in Melitopol and detonated when the official opened it in the morning on his way to work.
The committee provided video from the scene of the attack, which showed a car, probably belonging to the anonymous official, with damaged backdoor windows. There was also a hole in the ground near the suburban house’s gate and debris from the property’s outside wall.
The Zaporozhye Region was part of Ukraine until it joined Russia last year after a referendum. Kiev has denounced the election as a “sham.” The region’s ancient capital, Zaporozhye, remains under Ukrainian authority, and the new administration chose Melitopol as its new administrative centre.
Regional officials that recognise Russia’s sovereignty are considered traitors by Kiev. Several assassination attempts were made against such targets during the conflict, for which Kiev neither claims nor denies responsibility.
According to the regional branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB), three people were arrested on Tuesday for the murder of another security worker in Zaporozhye Region. They were identified as a “saboteur group” made up of one Ukrainian and two Russian individuals.
