Pro-Russian politician Mikhail Filiponenko was assassinated in a car bombing, an attack carried out by Ukrainian forces.
– This will happen to all traitors, promises a spokesman for the Ukrainian secret service.
“A special operation to eliminate Filiponenko was carried out in cooperation with resistance forces. As a result of this morning’s explosion, Filiponenko died on the spot”, the intelligence service writes on Telegram.
Filiponenko was a leading politician in the Russian-dominated Luhansk People’s Republic, and the car bomb that killed him detonated near his home on Wednesday morning. His son, Ivan, told Russian media that it was indeed his father’s own car that exploded, and that he suffered injuries so severe that he died at the scene.
Assassinations and car bombs
According to other politicians in Luhansk, this was not Ukraine’s first attempt to eliminate Filiponenko – a similar attack was carried out in February last year, when the politician’s car was blown up with a car bomb – but he survived that time.
The Ukrainian intelligence service has been repeatedly linked to attacks, assassinations and bombings against Russian or pro-Russian non-military targets since the war began – including the murder of journalist and activist Darya Dugina last year.
The real target at the time is believed to have been her father – philosopher and ideologue Aleksandr Dugin.
