Car Bombing in Crimea: A Russian Naval Officer Loses His Life

In the city of Sevastopol, occupied by Russia in Crimea, a car bomb explosion claimed the life of a senior Russian naval officer on Wednesday. The blast, which authorities are investigating as an act of terrorism, took place on Taras Shevchenko street, named after Ukraine's most famous poet. The officer's death was confirmed by a source in Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), who identified him as Valery Trankovsky, the captain in charge of the headquarters of Russia's 41st brigade of Black Sea missile ships. The SBU source described the incident as a successful operation, noting that Trankovsky was accused of war crimes for ordering missile strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine. This is not the first time pro-war Russian figures have been assassinated since the start of the conflict, with several high-profile cases previously attributed to Ukrainian operations. Russia, for its part, denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure despite widespread reports of such incidents.