Car bomb kills pro-Russian official in occupied Ukraine

The Telegraph:  A car bomb in Russian-occupied Luhansk has killed a pro-Kremlin official, local authorities reported.

The deputy head of a state-run administrative agency was killed when “an unidentified device detonated in a car” on Monday afternoon, the local branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said.

The investigators posted a photo of a light-coloured SUV with its windows and doors blown out and wreckage strewn across the street in the town of Starobilsk, adding that an investigation into a “terrorist act” had been opened. “The circumstances of the incident and the people involved in the commission of the crime are being established,” it said.

Vladimir Chernev, a municipal head, named the victim as Valery Chaika, an official in Luhansk. “Our comrade is dead,” he wrote in a post on Telegram, calling on residents to be attentive and report any suspicious activity to the authorities.

Several Moscow-installed officials in eastern Ukraine have been killed in attacks orchestrated by pro-Kyiv forces since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.