Russian naval officer killed in car bomb attack in occupied zone Crimeaaccording to reports.

A bomb planted under a car exploded and killed the Russian serviceman in the city of Sevastopol on Wednesday, in what a security source in Kiev said was a Ukrainian hit on the official they accused of the killings of war.

Footage from X showed the smoking wreckage of a burnt-out car with its doors blown off and twisted.

Telegram channel Baza, which is said to have links to Russian intelligence services, identified the person killed as Valery Trankovsky, a captain of the 41st brigade of Russian missile ships in the Black Sea.

“An IED exploded in Valery’s jeep near a shop on Tarasa Shevchenko Street,” Baza said in a post originally written in Russian.

“The soldier was extricated from the car and handed over to ambulance workers but they were unable to save him.”

A source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) also told the new Reuters agency that Trankovsky was killed in the explosion.

The operation was carried out by the SBU, the source said, describing the strike as legitimate and in accordance with the customs of war. The source accused Trankovsky of war crimes for ordering missile strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine.

Russia used warships from its Black Sea fleet, as well as strategic bombers, to launch missile strikes on targets in Ukraine, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties.

Russia says it is not targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which investigates serious crimes, said on Telegram that it had “opened a criminal case for committing a terrorist act and illegal trafficking of explosives.”

A military man, whom he did not name, was said to have been killed. It said the preliminary investigation determined the blast was caused by “a homemade explosive device attached to the bottom of a car.”

The explosion took place on Wednesday around 9:55 local time, Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Independent reported.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Crimea, said on Telegram that an investigation into the blast had been opened.

“The causes of the explosion are to be determined by the investigative bodies, but it is obvious that sabotage cannot be ruled out,” he wrote in Russian.

“Dear residents of Sevastopol! Be vigilant! Report suspicious persons and objects, as well as anything that in one way or another affects security.”