An election commission official in Russian-controlled Berdyansk has been killed in an explosion of a booby-trapped car, Ukrainian media reported.
Svitlana Samoilenko, who served as the Russian-appointed deputy mayor of the city in the Zaporizhzhia region, was killed on 6 March when an improvised explosive device planted under her car exploded.
Samoilenko was responsible for monitoring the electoral process in the occupied territories. In the upcoming presidential election, which will be held on 15-17 March. An official announcement from The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry (HUR) said:
“During the preparations for the pseudo-elections, Putin’s Svitlana Samoilenko sought to curry favour with Muscovites: she intimidated and terrorised Berdyansk residents, forcing them to participate in illegal fake voting.”
Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Zaporizhzhia, condemned the incident as an attempt to intimidate pro-Russian officials and undermine their legitimate activities.
Samoilenko is not the only official killed by a car bomb in Russian-controlled regions recently. Four days after her attack, Ihor Tsiferov, a former employee of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was also killed by a bomb under his car.
