Russian Major Killed in Car Bomb Explosion

Russian Major Dmitry Pervukha has been killed in a car bomb explosion, Ukrainian military intelligence officials said on Saturday.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in Feburary 2022, Kyiv has carried out multiple car bomb assassinations of Russian military commanders, officials and collaborators in Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized in 2014.

The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said in a Telegram post that on Friday “a UAZ Patriot car exploded in the center of temporarily occupied Luhansk.” Luhansk is a city in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border.

The Ukrainian government said Pervukha, whom it called an “invader involved in war crimes,” was inside the car when it exploded and died as a result. It is unclear what war crimes Pervukha was accused of committing.

Pervukha served in the 273rd Intelligence Center of the Russian Armed Forces and was permanently stationed in the Russian city of Novosibirsk. He was known in Ukraine as the “chief of staff for troop service and military service security,” according to the Ukrainian government.

“The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reminds that there will be fair retribution for every crime against Ukraine,” the Telegram post read. “Glory to Ukraine!”

Newsweek reached out to the Russian government via an online form, as well as to Ukraine’s military intelligence and Foreign Affairs Ministry via email, for comment on Saturday.

Earlier this month, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine announced the car bomb killing of Andriy Yuriyovych Korotkiy, the so-called head of security of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP).

Korotkiy died on October 4 when a car he was in exploded in “temporarily occupied” Enerhodar, in southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. The Ukrainian government accused Korotkiy of being a Russian collaborator and war criminal.

“After the seizure of the ZNPP, he voluntarily cooperated with the Russian invaders, gave the Russians lists of plant employees with their personal data, pointing to citizens with a pro-Ukrainian position,” Ukrainian military intelligence said.

In March 2022, Russian troops seized the ZNPP after they shelled it. The plant, which is Europe’s largest, has since been under Russian control.

Ukrainian military intelligence said Korotkiy “participated in the repression of nuclear power plant personnel, war crimes against civilians in the temporarily occupied Enerhodar. He constantly organized events aimed at supporting the Russian occupation army. As a member of Putin’s United Russia party, he headed the so-called ‘Council of Deputies’ in Enerhodar.”